How To Buy a Parcel Of Land In Decentraland: (Step By Step)

Ever wanted to invest in real estate, but hesitated because of all the hassle of paperwork and limited opportunities? I have an easier option and a great alternative for you; buying parcels in Decentraland. This article shows, step by step, exactly how to buy a parcel in Decentraland.

There are two ways to buy a parcel in Decentraland. One is to purchase from Decentraland Marketplace directly, and the other is to take the help of a third-party platform like OpenSea.   

Here are a few commonly used terms across the Decentraland platform that you must be aware of before you buy a parcel in Decentraland:  

(Find The Step by Step Guide Below)

LAND   

The presence of Land makes Decentraland one of a kind from other virtual world projects. All of the spaces available within the Decentraland ecosystem (excluding roads and plazas owned by developers only) are called Land. Users are allowed to buy, sell, and even develop Land. You can think of it as virtual properties whose ownership and transactions are documented on the Ethereum blockchain.  

Parcels  

Every single Land is divided into parcels measured to be 16x16m (identified by x,y co-ordinates) in size and approximately 90,000 in quantity. Landowners can control the arrangement and the type of content to use on their parcels of Land. Parcels are non-fungible tokens (ERC-721) that are always unique and cannot be replicated.  

MANA  

Parcels can be bought in the Decentraland marketplace using MANA, the native cryptocurrency supported by this ecosystem. MANA is an ERC-20 token and has many functions, but mainly as the go-to currency to purchase stuff like Avatars, Lands, Wearable, and other in-game items. But remember that its supply continues to reduce with every activity on the platform. The current MANA supply is 1.6 billion.  

Suggested reading:

Can Decentraland (MANA) reach $100?

How To Buy Parcels of Land in Decentraland: Step By Step

Once you get familiarized with the idea of Decentraland, you would want to buy a 3D virtual land where you can build extensive interactive environments or Districts for community members and get rewarded for it. All you need to do to buy Parcels is follow the steps below:  

Step One:

• #1 Go to the Decentraland marketplace and choosing “Parcels” under the “Land” category. You have to be signed in with a registered account to proceed without any hassles. 

Step Two:

• After you have chosen which parcel to buy, simply click on it to read about it in detail as shown in the following snap. This view is called an “Atlas view”, and includes the overall price of a parcel in MANA, the owner’s name, availability, its coordinates, and an option to “Jump In” for a bird’s eye view. 

Step Three:

• Now that you have made a selection, all that is left to do is to connect with Decentraland Marketplace by logging into your Ethereum client account (wallet, like Metamask). This account is needed to interact with the web browser of a user. Since your wallet address represents your account, no additional login is required. 

Note: All purchases via Decentraland Marketplace incur a gas fee, so make sure your account has some Ether to go on with buying a parcel.   

The Other Way To Buy Parcels In Decentraland:

The second approach of buying a parcel of land in Decentraland involves any reliable third-party platform such as OpenSea. For those who do not know what I am referring to, OpenSea is an intermediary marketplace for several types of NFTs collectibles, including parcels of Land from Decentraland.  

Step One:

• Go to OpenSea. As you can gather from the picture, using this marketplace you can purchase parcels in Decentraland using MANA or even Ether.

Step Two:

• In order to buy Parcel in Decentraland from OpenSea, you must have a registered account with this marketplace. After creating an account, you need to connect your wallet with the same account. Simply visit the website and follow the easy procedure. It literally takes only a few minutes to make an account. 

Step Three:

• Once your account is ready and integrated with a crypto wallet with sufficient Ether and/or MANA to pay for your purchase, you can take a look at the OpenSea collection of Decentraland assets available. There are filter options available to make your search easier and more convenient. Buyers can find discounts, auctions, sales, and other deals through a third-party marketplace. 
   

Step Four:

• After deciding on a parcel, simply click on the “Buy Now” option and you would be redirected to your wallet integrated with your account on OpenSea. From there, buyers can finalize the transaction and upon completion, the item would be sent right to their wallet. 
     

Bonus Step One:

• If you wish to check the transaction details to figure out a few things about your past purchase from OpenSea, simply visit Etherscan.io. This real-time blockchain tracking website has all the recorded information associated with the Ethereum blockchain. Every single transaction can be found via this tracker. 

Bonus Step Two:

• In case you have a MetaMask wallet connected with your OpenSea account, you can see the details of your last purchase by finding the option to “View on Etherscan.” NFT sales information is available under the “Internal Txns” tab when you open your Etherscan account page.  

Which Of Them Is The Best Way To buy parcel In Decentraland?

As for which is the best way to buy Parcel in Decentraland, both of the aforementioned methods are preferred and trusted by millions of users. Decentraland marketplace is a direct way to secure the purchase of a parcel. It also allows potential buyers to see every detail about the selected parcel, such as the adjacent area and proximity to popular areas. OpenSea does not offer descriptive details, but the parcel’s location is clear to see on a Decentraland map. In terms of security, both of these are exceptional. 

If I were to choose one method, I would buy parcels directly on the Decentraland marketplace.