Decentraland to Launch on Feb. 20, Will Include “Treasure Hunt”

Decentraland, a virtual world with decentralized elements, will launch on February 20, 2020. On launch day, a four-day long treasure hunt will begin. Players will be able to find collectible NFTs and tokens by exploring the game world during this event.

This article will explain what we know so far about the Decentraland launch – so that you can start getting prepared right now.

What is Decentraland?

Decentraland is a virtual world. In this sense, it is similar to other games in this genre such as Second Life and Twinity. But unlike these games, Decentraland claims to not require a central server for its operation.

At launch, Decentraland will run on servers provided by the developer. However, some of the game’s information will be stored on the Ethereum blockchain. In theory, this should allow future Decentraland nodes to operate even if the developer shuts down.

For details on what Decentraland is and how it stores information outside of the developer’s server, read our full review of Decentraland.

Decentraland history and future

Decentraland began development in 2015. In 2017, a white paper was published that explained how Decentraland would work in its final form.

At this time, the Decentraland team’s only working product was an app that allowed users to create art assets for the future game. But despite this primitive state of development, many investors were interested in the project thanks to the large amount of detail provided by the team and the connection it had with upcoming games like Battle Racers and Chainbreakers.

Since then, Somnium Space has arisen to challenge Decentraland’s claim to be the first decentralized virtual world. But Decentraland has still remained the most highly anticipated title in this genre.

With the announcement of the February 20 public launch, the public will now get to see whether Decentraland will live up its promise of creating a large, expansive world for users to meet friends and be entertained in, all without requiring a centralized authority to maintain the world.

However, potential users should also keep in mind that many vendors have not yet finished their products within the Decentraland world. So even after the public launch, content may be sparse for several months into the future.

Decentraland Treasure Hunt

When Decentraland launches, a four-day Treasure Hunt event will begin. Players will be able to explore Genesis City, the first metropolitan area to be founded in this new virtual world. The Treasure Hunt will end on Sunday, February 23.

Players who explore thoroughly may run across blockchain NFTs from Decentraland partners. These partners include Binance, CoinGecko, Cryptokitties, Chainbreakers, Battle Racers, and others.

In total, over $100,000 worth of crypto prizes will be up for grabs in the Treasure Hunt.

How to participate in the Decentraland launch.

If you want to take part in the Decentraland launch, here are the steps to create an avatar and enter the world.

To begin, navigate to the avatars page and click get started.

You’ll receive a message that tells you to connect using a Metamask extension or hardware wallet. Make sure Metamask is unlocked, then push the connect button.

Metamask will pop up and ask for you to sign a transaction. Click sign. You’ll be taken to the avatar customization screen.

You can choose to have a male or female avatar. And the avatar’s skin tone, body, face, hair, top, bottom, shoes, and accessories can be customized.

When you’re happy with your avatar, click done.

You’ll be asked if you want to pay 100 MANA (approx. US$6) to give your avatar a custom name. Click continue as guest twice to avoid having to pay this fee or claim name if you have MANA and want to spend it on this. 

Write a short bio for your character, and click continue.

The next screen will say welcome back, guest. To enter the virtual world, click the explore button in the upper-right corner.

On the next screen, push the connect wallet button. When Metamask pops up, click connect → sign.

If you try to do this before Launch Day, you’ll receive an error message stating that “the Explorer is in private beta.”

On Launch Day, this message should disappear, and you should be able to enter the world of Decentraland.

Are you excited about the Decentraland launch? Will you be searching for collectibles in the world…or is it not worth the time? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.