Quick take:
- The renting system uses a combination of signatures stored in a server handled by the Decentraland Foundation and Ethereum transactions.
- Landlords can set a rental price per day in MANA and the number of days users can rent their land.
- After the rental period is over, landlords can reclaim their LAND or list it for rent again.
On Wednesday, 3D metaverse platform Decentraland introduced a new renting system allowing LAND owners and tenants to rent virtual plots of land on the platform in what it claims to be a trustless and secure way.
The renting system uses a combination of signatures stored in a server handled by the Decentraland Foundation (off-chain) and Ethereum transactions (on-chain). For instance, a DJ could rent a cool plot of land and build a nightclub to play every Saturday while a university could rent an Estate and build a campus for its students.
The new feature relies heavily on off-chain signatures allowing Land Owners to list LANDs for rent without paying the transaction cost. Landlords can list your LAND (Parcels or Estates) for rent and approve the Rent Smart Contract on-chain for tenants to use the LAND on their behalf. Following that, every listing would need a signature from the Land Owner as well.
Land Owners can set a rental price per day in MANA, Decentraland’s native virtual currency, and the number of days users can rent their land. The price per day multiplied by the number of days is what the tenant will pay upfront and in total for that period.
After the price, rent period and listing expiration date are set, the plot of LAND will appear as available for rent in the platform’s marketplace. Landlords can also edit the conditions of the listing before anybody rents it as well as remove the listing from the marketplace and blockchain.
Once the rent period is over, landlords can reclaim their LAND or list it for rent again. However, landlords do not automatically have their land returned to them. The LAND Owner has to reclaim the LAND by sending that transaction, paying for the gas fee and confirming the transaction.
Decentraland says that it relies on the Ethereum blockchain as a source of truth, but not every action involved requires an entry into the blockchain as that would be too expensive for both parties.
The new rental system could be part of Decentraland’s efforts to further monetise its platform. There was some confusion around its number of daily active users when CoinDesk reported that Decentraland had 38 daily active users between Oct 6-7, citing data from DappRadar. Following that, Decentraland made an announcement on Oct 11 clarifying its number of daily active users (DAU).
The platform claims that its current number of DAU is around 8,000, according to internal Decentraland Foundation data. It goes on to state that the month of September saw 56,697 MAU and 6,315 Wearables and 1,732 Emotes sold in the Marketplace.
It is also set to host the second edition of Metaverse Fashion Week from Mar 28 – 31, 2023.
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