Note: Since I have applied to be a Council member, I am very interested in sharing my vision with the community in a more detailed way, especially for those who are considering electing me. I want to voice my thoughts on various issues regarding the platform, explaining to the community my concerns and how I to get involved if I am elected.
What I am presenting here are ideas that exclusively reflect my personal vision, and any initiative must undergo legal review and comply with current regulations. It is also important to understand that the capabilities as a Council member are not absolute, so the outcome of certain initiatives will also depend on the consensus and collaboration of the other members.
Despite the rise of crypto, LANDs are at a minimum, I believe that the price of LAND is a clear indicator of the interest that users have in using the platform, much more significant than MANA, which is more strongly tied to market fluctuations.
Decentraland has been in a dangerous spiral for some time now, in my opinion, with people preferring to get rid of their LANDs at any price rather than keep them, probably due to insufficient incentives and lack of success of the platform. These LANDs (many of which are unbuilt) are acquired by other actors who, seeing that Decentraland is not able to take off, resell them at a lower price than they bought them for, manifesting a drop in prices that provides an uninteresting vision for future investors, creators or entrepreneurs.
The basis of the value that DCL has are the scenes that will unfold in its world, so it is necessary to raise awareness of the value that percels has in the ecosystem and encourage construction on it, at the same time we must implement measures that increase the interest of holders to keep their LANDs and build on them, giving more value to the ecosystem.
We Should Not Issue New LAND (or Equivalent)
There has been talk of creating islands or adding new cities to the map, but generating new plots without sufficient demand would create an oversupply that would drive away current and future holders. Issuing new plots would not only harm holders who invested money in the ecosystem, but would also harm the credibility of the platform in the long term, implying that it can devalue its assets at any time, again issuing alternatives similar to them.
We Should Have Staking (or Bonuses)
DCL should have a staking (or bonuses) system for LAND owners, dedicating a part of the DAO treasury to rewarding LAND holders who implement scenes or constructions on their plots with MANA. This initiative would not only give more value to LAND but also be able to significantly reduce the appearance of abandonment that Decentraland currently presents.
I want to clarify that this strategy has certain shortcomings if it is not complemented with strategies such as Unlocked LANDs (Brief thoughts for the future of Decentraland) or others.
In order to proceed with this, it would be appropriate for DAO to have income (beyond the vesting contract) that exceeds its expenses, this is necessary to avoid consuming resources that could be dedicated to development. In this future situation, together with an adequately diversified treasury, with the income generated, MANA could be bought back to be used to pay bonuses.
Whether or not to extend a staking system or bonus system to MANA holding would be a deep topic that would need to be discussed in more detail, but I do not consider its viability in the near future.
Clarification: Staking is a form of incentive that has certain regulatory challenges, in the case that due to this it was difficult to implement we could evaluate the implementation of bonuses, which have a more flexible legal framework. Of course, any implementation in this direction must be supported by a thorough legal review.
We Should Buy Back Land
Recovering parts of the map would be an opportunity to take control of specific locations at a cheap price, accumulating assets that could have a positive impact on the DAO’s treasury in the future.
In addition, the DAO could give away some plots to current and new creators who are accessing the platform, in order to retain this new talent while it begins a process of creating new buildings and scenes.
Other purchased LANDs could be reserved to create a new revenue stream, in this case they could be rented out to small and medium-sized companies in order to extend their presence in the Metaverse.
Implementing this strategy would not only help increase the DAO’s revenue, but it could help quickly fill empty plots on the map, allowing for the repurchase of other plots as tenants are found. At the same time, it would take very little resources to develop, firstly because the DAO has already funded repos containing multiple open source buildings that we could use, and the cost of the various customizations could be recovered through the rental price, which would reflect the cost of the modifications plus a profit margin that would be added to the DAO’s treasury.
Clarification: I don’t want to focus on attracting large companies at this stage, as these will not bring revenue or user retention. On the other hand, believe me when I say that smaller companies would be fully willing to hire this service, as long as we don’t make them spend time on implementations or technical issues. On the other hand, these companies will not arrive on their own without us doing anything; we need to implement a sales or commercial department in the executive branch.
To conclude…
I feel that the presentation we applicants to the Council have made may be brief, taking into account all the issues that the DAO must cover, I hope that my publications help you discover my thoughts regarding more specific issues of the platform.
Land is one of the most important pillars of our ecosystem, we need to focus our attention on strategies to maximize its value and use. This will not only make user retention easier, it will also allow us to experiment with revenue models that allow the DAO to have a greater flow of income, allowing not only sustainability but also growth.
I would like in the future to write an article dedicated to all the possibilities that the DAO has to generate new income channels, which are many. If anyone wants me to write about a specific topic to know my thoughts it will be a pleasure to do so.
Meanwhile, I leave you my previous post where I present some brief guidelines on how the DAO could optimize development contracting in this new phase: Proper Contracting for DAO 2.0
Thank you.