The metaverse market as a whole has been down for the last 3 months as we plod through this crypto “winter” – though it’s worth noting that Decentraland is slowly closing the gap to Sandbox after its surge last year. But one trend in particular here sticks out — the emergence of Decentral Games ($DG) coin, which is a project that focuses on casino-style gambling games that are playable directly on the metaverse.

In a way it’s not surprising — if you’ve been on Decentraland lately you might have noticed something: the majority of traffic on the platform right now is clustered near two types of locations — play-to-earn games (Wunderland, etc.) and casinos run by organizations like Decentral Games. DG is a coin that went all-in on Decentraland’s future — it named itself after the platform it built itself on, even. We’ve heard many well-known companies jumping into the metaverse but Decentraland seems to be metaverse of choice above all others. Why?

After looking into the details of the more popular metaverse projects (Decentraland, The Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, Somnium Space…even platforms like Roblox or Meta) the one thing that makes MANA stand out is the fact that it’s the most decentralized platform out of all of its competitors, and its governed by its own DAO in a transparent way.

https://governance.decentraland.org/

While there may be many who might oppose DG on principle (taking an anti-gambling stance), DG coin is, too, run by a DAO as well.

https://decentral.games/dg

We may not see the influx of money going into MANA until the next fiscal year, but the fact that the big companies (including JP Morgan who recently opened its “Onyx Lounge” in Decentraland recently) are going there is easily noticeable — why? Companies that are planning on operating businesses inside the metaverse seek a platform that maintains its neutrality and largely stays out of its way. The other projects are all run by companies or teams with centralized control in the background – for businesses that have done its due-diligence, a truly decentralized platform is the only option that makes any sort of sense.

Following the lead of DG, a lot of companies are hoping to create commerce layers on top of Decentraland to drive more traffic to its worlds, long-term. In a way, these trends is a validation of the decentralized model, since it encourages other projects to follow the success of the DAO model as a whole. Projects that are currently centralized may find itself being left behind long-term, as the partnerships and resources required to make Web3 models work migrate towards better (neutral) waters as a whole.