The Genesis.City map project, a DAO grantee, is an online map of Decentraland that leverages the platform’s open protocols to create a dynamic, top-down view of the virtual world
When, during the advent of Web3 technologies, coders Esteban Ordano, Ari Meilich, Yemel Jardi, and Manu Araoz conceived Decentraland in a whitepaper, they thought up a community-driven, decentralized, and open virtual world. When they founded the first settlement within Decentraland, they called it Genesis City—a suitable name for a foundational virtual community.
These three aspects of Decentraland—open, decentralized, and community-driven—are drivers behind the Genesis.City map project, a dynamic bird’s-eye view of the Decentraland world that Manu Araoz created in 2017. In order to support the continued existence of the useful top-down map, the project became the beneficiary of a DAO grant in 2022 and just recently had that grant renewed.
The map stems from Decentraland’s open architecture. Since data points in Decentraland are unrestricted for creators to work with, Araoz concluded that the open information could be leveraged to devise useful assets that would strengthen the communitarian aspect of Decentraland.
In many facets, the Genesis.City map is a remarkably transparent project that fills in information vacuums for many stakeholders. In a world in which real estate plays a vital role, a graphic representation of how properties and the LANDs around them look is inherently valuable for decision-makers. The top-down map, available and open to the public via its website, even contributed to discussions about infrastructure and planning in Decentraland.
