A Message to the Decentraland Community, DAO Council, and Future Executive Director

Governance
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I write this not as a representative of the DAO Council but as an active member of the Decentraland community—a former Ambassador, LAND, NAME and MANA holder, tester, and advocate who has brought in external projects to the platform.

Through my research and experience, I have observed both successes and failures in the metaverse space. Many platforms have faded, become inactive, or shut down entirely. A common cause of failure is financial mismanagement. These platforms often started strong but lacked sustainable revenue models. Their founders, despite having great visions, lacked business acumen, financial oversight, and risk management strategies. Without experienced financial managers or analysts monitoring expenditures and market conditions, they struggled to adapt, leading to their decline.

Issues Within the DAO

1. Misuse of Grants

Over the past 3–4 years, Decentraland DAO has allocated millions to community projects and initiatives, yet only a handful have survived. Many grantees failed to plan for long-term sustainability, assuming they would continue receiving funding. When further grants were denied, they expressed disappointment and left the ecosystem, sometimes without a trace.

2. High Salaries in GSS

A significant drain on the DAO treasury has been the salaries approved for GSS contributors.

  • The number of people employed outweighed the number of products delivered.
  • Some former GSS staff were reportedly overpaid for basic tasks misaligned with their compensation.
  • Many had little stake in Decentraland and rarely participated in events. Once the grants stopped, most disappeared, reinforcing a mindset of “I’ll participate if I’m paid.” This culture must change.

3. Low VP Participation

While the last DAO Council election saw significant VP engagement, everyday proposals—such as Points of Interest (POI) approvals—struggle to attract whale voters. This imbalance means active community members cannot pass proposals despite their involvement. Solutions should include:

  • Lowering VP thresholds for smaller proposals.
  • Introducing a rewards system where active participants earn VP over time.

4. Lack of Sustainability Plans

While the community generates great ideas, many lack long-term sustainability and revenue-generation strategies. Decentraland needs financial planning to ensure its survival for the next two to three decades.

5. Unrealistic Salary Expectations

Some argue that Decentraland should pay salaries based on industry standards. However, unlike major gaming companies that generate billions in revenue, Decentraland is not yet profitable.

  • Industry salaries fluctuate with market conditions, including pay cuts and layoffs—something previous DAO administrations failed to consider.
  • If future leadership insists on industry-level salaries, they should also adopt industry standards for accountability, transparency, and cost-cutting when necessary.
  • The DAO should not be treated as a buffet where only select industry practices are adopted while ignoring financial realities.

Suggestions and Priorities

The DAO Council and community should address these issues with strategic planning. For the future Executive Director (ED), I recommend the following priorities:

1. Establish a Transparent Opcore Structure

  • Present a clear plan outlining Opcore’s roles, KPIs, and budget.
  • Justify each position and monetary request.
  • Collaborate with experienced financial managers to ensure a sustainable budget.
  • IMO, as a start, all Opcore members, including the ED, should have the same base salary and prove their value through results before any salary adjustments.

2. Introduce a VP Reward System

  • Implement a system where active participation earns VP.
  • Activities like attending events, town halls, testing Tuesdays, and engaging on social media should be rewarded.
  • Over time, this would empower active community members to influence governance decisions without relying on whales.

3. Secure Long-Term Platform Sustainability

  • Assess Decentraland’s operational costs, including server and catalyst expenses.
  • Establish a 20-year financial plan, factoring in inflation, to ensure continued operation.
  • Set aside the amount exclusively to cover the 20-year operational costs.
  • A long-term financial commitment would instill confidence in investors and users.

4. Develop New Revenue Streams

  • Explore income models beyond marketplace taxes.
  • Potential ideas include a DAO-operated file hosting service offering lower-cost alternatives to centralized platforms.
  • Other monetization strategies should be researched and tested.

These four initiatives should be the focus for the first 3–6 months (while the new client continues to be uplifted in parallel). Initially, only the ED and a financial director/manager should be hired, ensuring solid frameworks are in place before expanding the team. With stable leadership and sound financial management and confidence in running the operation, we can make Decentraland great again.

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There a a few flaws and few red flags I see from this long term plan as a 6th year active dcl member.

Reward based VP: This is a terrible idea as the VP can be gained through bots, multiple accounts and other means. The problem at core is not the amount of VP in circulation but rather the participation.

You can not try fixing low DAO participation by issuing more VP. Certainly one way would be to lower the threshold for POI, Name Bans, Draft & Governance stages. I truly and honestly feel VP must be attained via acquiring mana, names, land & select L1 skins.

There has been countless proposals in the past to push for similar initiative for VP and every single one of them has failed. If you want to reward DAO participation, unique skins, emotes & badges are a much better solution.

DAO & Foundation already have a fixed expenditure cap until 2030 & the only financial aim should be to manage this properly. This doesn’t mean trying to launch IRL businesses to profit from. I sense a slight shift of focus from your sentences.

Have you ever ran a real life business or has any DAO council members had a IRL business that was successful? I assume the answer is no. Running a real life business takes time and within the first 5 years 80% fail. These are the stats.

Working for a business or company and running one are two totally different things.

Certainly if some of the costs can be reduced, definitely go ahead. However most of these should be through outsourced.

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“This is a terrible idea as VP can be gained through bots, multiple accounts, and other means. The core issue is not the amount of VP in circulation but rather participation.”

Firstly, you’re reiterating my original point—that the problem lies in participation, not the total VP in circulation. Secondly, concerns about VP exploitation via bots or multiple accounts can be mitigated through a vetting process before VP is delegated. A structured framework with proper verification, overseen by Opcore members, could address these concerns effectively.

You also mentioned that there have been countless proposals for similar initiatives. Can you point to one that was passed, executed, and failed? If you are referring to the one where Esteban delegated millions of VP to random people, then that is not a proposal similar to what I am proposing. While I agree that VP should be earned through direct stake in the ecosystem, this does not solve the issue of investor participation in governance. Many community members contribute through time and effort rather than large financial investments, and their involvement and effort should not be overlooked.

“The DAO & Foundation already have a fixed expenditure cap until 2030, and the only financial goal should be to manage this properly. This doesn’t mean launching IRL businesses for profit. I sense a shift in focus from your statements.”

Do you believe the current expenditure is being properly managed? I stand by my point—without a sustainable revenue model, I don’t see how Decentraland will remain viable beyond 2035. Financial prudence alone isn’t enough; we need long-term strategies that generate income to ensure self-sustainability without relying on external VCs or buy over, which happened with one of the metaverse platforms on the Cardano ecosystem. Let’s assume that all the funds from both Foundation and DAO are done. How do you propose Decentraland to sustain and cover the cost of technical operations and maintenance? Even if Decentraland fulfilled a truly autonomous and automated executions without any manpower, who will pay for the bills to host the platform?

“Have you ever run a real-life business, or has any DAO Council member successfully run one? I assume the answer is no. Running a business takes time, and within the first five years, 80% fail. These are the stats.”

I can’t speak for other DAO Council members, but I do run a successful real-world business—so your assumption is incorrect. Could you clarify the source of your statistics and specify the industry and country they apply to? According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 20% of new businesses fail in their first year, around 50% survive five years or longer, and about 30% make it past ten years. Your claim that 80% fail within five years seems exaggerated.

“Working for a business and running one are two completely different things.”

That’s obvious. Not sure why this even needs to be stated.

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Once again you’re not providing a real tangible solution to voter participation problem by adding additional VP to the ecosystem.

A vetting process controlled by Op-Core risks favoritism and centralizes power. Which will be no different than Esteban’s prior attempt.

Also fake credentials, alliances & bots can game the system despite all verification processes in place.

Even rigorous vetting may not stop one entity from using multiple accounts to gain additional VP. Unless you are planning to implement KYC which in turn defeats the core purpose of why Decentraland was created in the first place.

The problem at large is not actually the financial issues but rather incorrect onboarding procedures & ineffective marketing strategies. As long as you understand this, it will be much more easier and smoother to draw up a new goal framework for the council. They both relate to each other whether we like it or not.

I am not asking the council to fix the marketing, onboarding & new user acquisition problems, all I’m asking of this council is to be conscious (mindful) of how these two relate to each other and the success or failure of one, directly effects the other.

If we were to focus all our resources on better sustainability/management & profitable IRL revenues, how would any of this change anything even by 2035 if we still didn’t have any users?

I don’t remember reading anything about you running a successful irl business in your council pitch. Is this perhaps a new venture? What else have forgot to tell us? or you can’t because of your irl job you can’t be doxxed.

Just because I voted for you and the others doesn’t mean I’m not going to question your actions/decisions & this goes for all others.

More like 60%

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At this point, there’s no need to elaborate further, as you’ve already concluded that no solution exists and remain convinced it won’t work. If you choose to offer only criticisms without proposing solutions, then continuing this discussion serves no purpose. I’d rather focus my efforts on those who are genuinely interested in improving the DAO’s mechanics.

Thanks for your vote, even though I didn’t ask for it and I remember you voting No before you changed it. By all means, feel free to question (and so far I have been responding) but it would be more constructive if you are also offering suggestions. And so far, I haven’t seen any, other than opinions, criticisms and made up “facts”.

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Prove that you’re convinced & it will work by putting up a proposal, really not hard to do. I guarantee you it will not pass.

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Hi Meta, overall great post and points. I think that enforcement mechanisms and clear, realistic consequences for inaction or failure to fulfill obligations are crucial to prevent power abuse.

I wanted to highlight issue regarding accessibility - I’m unable to play DCL on my 2022 MacBook with 8GB RAM because it requires 16GB. I believe it raises concerns when considering mass adoption, especially compared to platforms like Sandbox and Roblox.

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Thanks for tho post @MetaRyuk .

Seems to me that two of the most important matters that the DAO strategic planning should address are:

  1. Bringing in many new people to the platform.
  2. Sustainability past the end of the vesting contract.

If we had 100x the visitors the marketplace taxation could go a lot further.

So maybe using some dao funds, in close collaboration with the Foundation, to do marketing.

Also, do we have a clear sense of the factors that get new people to remain active inworld?

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@CarlFravel I agree with you on these two important points.

Point 1: Bringing new people to the platform

The hard truth is that neither the DAO nor the Foundation is obligated to bring new users to Decentraland. According to the Whitepaper, Decentraland is a community-owned platform, meaning it is the responsibility of scene owners to market and attract visitors to their LAND.

However, based on my observations, many scene owners excel at building but lack the bandwidth, skills, or resources to market their creations effectively. This is why I appreciate the Foundation’s efforts to allocate part of its budget to organizing events that attract visitors, even though they are not required to do so.

Unfortunately, many investors have little intention of building on their LAND, as their primary goal is speculation—either to flip properties for profit or hold assets in anticipation of value appreciation. Some have held large amounts of LAND since 2020 without ever deploying a scene. Similarly, NAME hoarders have drastically inflated prices without utilizing them. Ironically, these same investors often blame Decentraland for not attracting more users while contributing nothing themselves beyond holding empty LAND, hoping that the platform’s growth will benefit them financially.

That said, the Foundation’s 2025 manifesto includes a dedicated marketing budget for Decentraland. Given the Foundation’s maturity compared to the DAO, it makes sense to observe the impact of its marketing strategies while the DAO continues refining its framework and priorities.

Currently, most of the Foundation’s events cater to Western and European audiences, with little focus on broader global engagement. This is an area worth exploring, especially shifting attention to Asia, where gaming culture is much stronger. A prime example is Axie Infinity, which gained massive traction in the Philippines, significantly boosting its user base. A similar regional approach could be beneficial, rather than simply rebranding existing strategies without broadening the focus.

Point 2: Sustainability

For me personally, this remains a critical priority. Many platforms have collapsed due to poor financial management, and I fear Decentraland could face a similar fate without a solid plan for sustainability.

A major challenge right now is maintaining user engagement since Decentraland’s activity is heavily reliant on community-owned scenes and events. This is like trying to keep a stadium filled every day simply by hosting daily football matches—a difficult feat.

Another missing element is monetizable events. Currently, there are few activities that encourage users to spend money within the platform in ways that benefit them in-world. One potential solution is creating games with basic utilities but “upgradable” through minting specific wearables or smart items. Or perhaps requires the minting of a wearable to attend an event. Essentially treating the wearable as a “ticket” that can be purchased.

However, some developers have pointed out that Decentraland’s platform is still too buggy or not optimized for high-performance games, making it difficult to implement such systems effectively. As a result, Decentraland is currently marketed primarily as a social platform, which raises the question: how do we monetize it effectively?

The community had brought up ideas including Foundation-created smart vehicles (on land or on air) that can get users to travel faster all around the map. The maturity of VR would benefit Decentraland greatly if this was initiated.

Nevertheless, we need to continue to brainstorm ideas that would help to sustain Decentraland in the long run.

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Indeed.
Thanks again.

I look forward to the emergence of a strategy to achieve these results.

A thought…
Even a social world would be sustainable if it had sufficient scale.
So what will bring new users, and what would make them want to remain?

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The idea that hoarding names in an unlimited pool inflates prices doesn’t make much sense to me, given the endless alternatives available.

“Similarly, NAME hoarders have drastically inflated prices without utilizing them.”

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Hello MetaRyuk,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us and for making it clear right from the start that this was written as a DCL user and not as a Council member. Your deep understanding of the challenges facing the DAO is evident, and I appreciate the structured approach you’ve taken to highlight key areas of concern.

Regarding Point 5: Unrealistic Salary Expectations, I completely align with your perspective. At this stage, it is neither feasible nor justifiable for the DAO to offer industry-standard salaries for the ED team or the ED role itself. I also share your concerns about the long-term financial sustainability of assembling and maintaining this team.

Your recommendation to prioritize hiring a finance director before expanding the team is, in my view, the most pragmatic approach. In a traditional organization of this scale, an HR manager would typically oversee recruitment and compensation structures, but given our current circumstances, this seems unlikely in the near future.

For that reason, I believe it is critical to bring in multi-skilled professionals who can contribute across multiple domains and who believe in the vision of Decentraland and are willing to work towards achieving it, even without industry-standard financial compensation. I understand that this is a lot to ask, but I wouldn’t suggest it if it didn’t reflect my deepest convictions. A finance director with the capability to support the structuring of the ED team - including aspects of HR oversight - would not only enhance efficiency but also ensure financial prudence in the decision-making process.

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Which devs ? Tensai, Myself? I never had problems with the performance if done properly, even with old browser versions, I have seen experiences from some devs that were really smooth.
If it’s chosen not to do it, doesn’t mean it cannot be done right now. There is a huge of space to develop with current perfomance limitations, always have been.

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for example, try this single-player tower defense game, you can play with hundreds of characters and the game is smooth (from the browser).

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btw, Tensai was disqualified as winner in the last gamejam because somebody complained that he started before competition (like 2 days), when the rules said it was ok to re-use previous code to make a game. So in my opinion unfair.

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User growth and sustainability go hand in hand. Without a stable and reliable environment, expecting new users to stay long-term is unrealistic.

In an ideal world, this decentralized model could function as intended. I genuinely wish we had already reached that point to find out. However, we are far from it. It is also a problem that needs to be acknowledged that it is currently very difficult to create content as a content creator about the metaverse, as interest is very low. Another fundamental issue remains the instability of the client. This instability makes Decentraland a high-risk environment for event organizers. Issues like login failures, invisible guests, and last-minute Foundation updates disrupting streams or builds create major challenges. While daily users have adapted and often react with patience and understanding, we cannot expect the same tolerance from new users or businesses. If Decentraland is to grow, we must acknowledge this reality.

That leaves us with two options:

  1. Deliver a stable and reliable client.
  2. Provide alternative incentives that justify the risks.

Advertising Decentraland as a social metaverse - as is already being done - is a logical approach. However, from a marketing perspective, this is difficult to position effectively with such a low active user base. In my view, it diverts attention from the core issue. In fact, promoting DCL this way, despite the low daily user count, can come across as almost absurd and counterproductive. It creates the impression that we are ignoring the real issues - particularly the unreliable client - and instead shifting the narrative to distract from fundamental technical shortcomings.

Until we can provide a stable client and ecosystem, we must find new, compelling reasons for users to not only enter but stay engaged in Decentraland. This is where sustainability and growth truly intersect.

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thanks @MetaRyuk to dedicate the time to present those thoughts to the community.

I agree on the problem that somebody mention of attracting users, the main problem for me is not VP, not Grants misuse, not salaries nor expenses, even if funds were spent with really low productivity/effectiveness.

The real big and main problem here is to achieve the platform to be entertaining, funny and attractive to the public. The current “social/stream/party/events” approach is not enough to retain users

Any effort on every other aspect will be worthless otherwise and the platform will just be a museum piece with bureocracy expenses after another 5 years.

The current situation, not only is not attractive for devs and players, but also achieved to get rid of a ton of them who were engaged with the platform in the past, or at least interested in it.

Think about: SecondLife=Failure ; Roblox=Success … why?

Anyway, probably the “DAO” don’t agree with my vision, so it’s what it is… maybe it’s me who is on the wrong platform, I sometimes feel I’m alone thinking about the enormous potential it had as a gaming platform (with the appropriate programmers working on it), which is what makes virtual worlds succeed.

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On a personal level, I can only agree with you. As co-founder of Dogebusters, we never let the technical difficulties in DCL hold us back. Honestly, we even find the thrill that comes with operating in DCL exciting. I know there are others in DCL who feel the same way, and my heart beats faster for those people. But I think we have to accept that not everyone shares this mindset, and just because we can do it doesn’t mean others can too. The ones still building in DCL are a very specific group of people who aren’t discouraged by challenges.

When there are platforms like Roblox, where literally any kid can have an idea, bring it to life on their own, and reach way more people - why would a new content creator or business choose DCL instead?

I believe this is exactly where strategic marketing must come into play. We needs to highlight the unique benefits of DCL to those people and show them what keeps us building here. But in order to do so, we first need to fully understand why we are still here ourselves. If we can grasp that and communicate it we are already taking a significant step toward DCL’s long-term success.

For example, I believe, that for many, including those who have since left, the DAO represented a fundamental reason to create in DCL - the ability to conceptualize a business idea and receive financial support for its realization was a key motivator. In recent months, a lot of negativity has been written about the old DAO, and rightfully so. But for me, the old DAO was always a reason to stay in DCL, even though I never seriously considered applying for a grant myself.

For DCL to succeed and attract new people, we need to create real success stories - and market them. By success stories, I mean users achieving things in DCL, thanks to the DAO, the Foundation, or the community, that they wouldn’t have been able to accomplish anywhere else. Prioritizing the creation of such success stories should be key.

One way to facilitate this is by ensuring that existing builders within DCL receive dedicated support from the future Executive Director and their team when bringing ideas to life. Taking this concept a step further, it would be advantageous for this leadership team - including the Executive Director - to be composed of individuals who have a deep-rooted understanding of DCL and its ecosystem and are Users themselves, rather than external hires.

By fostering an environment where innovation is actively supported, success is celebrated, and strategic advantages are clearly articulated, DCL can not only retain its core community but also position itself as a compelling destination for new creators and businesses, in my opinion.

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Hi MetaRyuk,

Thank you for being here for so long—I appreciate your efforts in taking action. Here are my two cents on two topics.

The starting point for this idea is good, but it somewhat dilutes the remaining value of MANA and LAND. A possible workaround could be a VP unlocking system. Asset holders should participate in activities (investing, playing, creating, building, promoting) to further unlock their VP. This approach would make more sense for both players and investors.

When designing such an incentive system, I encourage you to think holistically about all the parties contributing to the Decentraland ecosystem—investors, players, creators, voters, and promoters. Please consider all of them rather than focusing solely on voters. Only when these five groups are incentivized simultaneously can Decentraland achieve true ecosystem prosperity. If this concept feels too abstract, take a look at what Nifty Island has done by using a point system to quantify the contributions of different participants.

Lastly, while this is a great initiative, implementing a technical solution to support it could be a significant challenge.

Again, this is a well-intentioned plan. However, a 20-year roadmap only shows how funds will be allocated, which is helpful, but it doesn’t address the real issue of sustainability. The core problem is that Decentraland seems unable to adapt to the rapidly changing Web3 landscape.

Just as most NFT projects have faded while Pudgy Penguins thrived by entering traditional toy market, launching their own chain and meme token on Solana, and most GameFi projects declined while Axie Infinity revitalized itself by creating the Ronin network, successful projects actively evolve while staying true to their original vision and keeping their communities engaged.

If given the choice, investors will have more confidence in a highly adaptive and evolving Decentraland rather than one that is merely conserving resources to survive.

But keep going, love to see how this leads.

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Hi pablo, Mana Royale is one of my favorite games on DCL, really good work on there but I’m sure you will agree with me when I say it looks like 2 decades-old.

Where is your so called FPS-shooter project? Forgive me if I missed it. Please don’t deny SDK problems. The fact that you have some projects doesn’t mean SDK is flawless. Love your work with Golfcraft and in-game browser, please read my post as a feedback on SDK.

We still don’t have a proper racing game. Only one that was a bit close was Metaverse Motorshow, which was still far from enjoyable, and Decentrally which is abandoned and forgotten.

No sports games, no simulators. Even parkour games are still very basic, no double jump, grappling or dash etc.

Try to make any game I mentioned here. You will bump to giant walls of obstacles.

I’m glad the new client introduced camera control to some degree. Imagine, until last year, there wasn’t even a camera shake or option to lock player-camera.

This platform lacks many fundamentals to be a gaming pioneer in Web3.

As last, my in-world time has drastically reduced since foundation abandoning Linux with DCL 2.0. Very disappointed there.

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Hi @MetaDogeisme,

Thanks for your constructive input.

The VP reward system does not dilute the value of MANA or LAND. Instead, it delegates VP to active participants in the ecosystem. The purpose of this incentive is to gradually increase VP for participants, enabling them to engage in governance proposals without relying on whales, who rarely participate.

A good example of this issue is the recent POI proposal to remove a POI that had no scene and was listed for sale. Despite clear logic behind the proposal, it failed to meet the required VP threshold due to low participation from large VP holders.

Regarding Incentives for Contributors

I agree that contributors to the Decentraland ecosystem should be incentivized. This is an area where the future ED may introduce new ideas and strategies to ensure fair and meaningful rewards. My incentive suggestion was meant to tackle the current lack of VP participation issue.

On the 20-Year Roadmap & Fund Allocation

The 20-year fund allocation plan I mentioned refers specifically to server costs, not manpower expenses. I consider a worst-case scenario where the DAO treasury depletes significantly, potentially leading Opcore members to leave due to financial uncertainty.

By setting aside funds solely for server operations, Decentraland would remain accessible and functional, even with limited manpower. This would ensure the platform’s survival and continuity, regardless of short-term financial challenges.

My understanding is that the cost of server operations is lower than what the DAO has spent on salaries for former squad members and community proposals. Setting aside funds for this should not pose a financial challenge.

I would rather see Decentraland continue operating, allowing people to visit—even without active DAO operations—than have both DAO members leave and the servers shut down entirely.

The examples you mentioned such as Pudgy Penguins are something worth exploring as well.