On a sunny Sunday evening, I talked to Maryana. She is one of the few female Decentraland Twitch streamers. I know her from her beautiful avatar, who always looks sharp at all Decentraland events. She was one of the first users I've found on Twitter to follow who actively participates in web3 space.
It's 8 am where she's at and 3 pm where I am. As we log in to our google meets, we keep joking about the time difference and how difficult it is for me to attend events in Decentraland that usually happen while I am asleep.
Maryana admits - this is the first thing that needs to be improved – flexibility in event timing.
Maryana: There should be more timing options for people not in the USA. You're not the first person I am hearing this from! Only crazy people come to the events that are on 2 am in their local time. It's not fair!
Maryana says it should be more before 8 am (USA time) events, and she checks the total users on Decentraland as we speak - 902!
Tell us, who Maryana is, and what is your background?
Maryana: I am from the USA. I come from a finance background. I learned about blockchain four years ago, but back then, I was too young or didn't have money to invest in crypto or dive into the blockchain too much. Also, the concept was pretty new to me, so I didn't fully understand its potential.
I've been trying to learn about web3 and coding. Been networking a lot. I used to attend a few blockchain events before covid.
Besides that, I do a lot of hobby photography and videography.
But I am just a normal person working. (laughs)
We talk a lot about those two sides that are important for someone joining the Decentraland, the only active open virtual world at this moment. But I am curious how someone like Maryana entered the space?
Maryana: I didn't get into it (web3 space - editors note) until I entered Decentraland in December 2021. I had a Metamask wallet since April last year. I had some friends into buying and making photography NFTs. We were always on Clubhouse talking about photography coming to an NFT space. So I set up a Metamask. However, I never knew how to transfer money. I had a Coinbase account, but I always was nervous about making a transaction to my Metamask. So honestly, I didn't make my first NFT transaction until I posted my first wearable in Decentraland.
So Decentraland helped me learn how actually to transfer money. Now it's a curse, because if I have MANA - I need to go shopping. (laughs)
Tell us a little bit about project B-Verse. Was it the reason you became more active in Decentraland space?
Maryana: It's one of the reasons. It started as a little business networking group. In January, GoldGuy and Alpha started doing these business discussion meetings every Thursday in a random Decentraland location. They just got sick and tired of always partying, and they wanted to meet more IRL businesspeople who would enjoy talking about business, growing, and just networking. With time it grew, and many people became more interested in it. They discussed what it's like to be in the Metaverse and how they can make a Decentraland a better place.
I joined around the third meeting, and they were super happy to have more women in the space.
Actually, when I came to Decentraland, I didn't want to show my IRL professional persona. I just wanted to come in, be lowkey, and play games. So that was just my only goal in Decentraland - just to hit rocks and walk around.
Have you ever met your partners in person?
Maryana: No, the only people I have met in Decentraland were Bokkeh, Emtastic, and Klow from WisherVodka. Once, I was at a party at Klow's house. I want to get better at meeting more people or going to events.
As we talk about shopping in Decentraland and who are the best creators out there, I have to ask Maryana about the few dresses that she created some time ago and why she stopped doing that.
What about creating wearables?
Maryana: Since B-Verse and twitch streaming, I haven't been into wearable creating because of the limited market in Decentraland - it's just so slow, and even if I make a wearable, I will only sell two items due to a low consumer base. It's just not the right thing to do right now. With high design fees, it is hard to break even.
Do you think you would be back to wearables once it's improved, or will you focus on business and communication more?
Maryana: Well, I doubt it will solve the problem of not having enough customers to buy wearables. So I will focus on Metaverse education and the B-Verse network. Because right now, the biggest gap in web3 is not enough people here from web2. I am trying to always go to other web2 platforms trying to meet people who would be interested in joining. I have a goal to get those people over here.
People imagine Decentraland being a game, more like Roblox. Still, in my eyes, it's more like social media platform, represented by an avatar, because everyone here is the real people (hopefully, haha). Everyone has these side ambitions. For example, you're into fashion and not a gamer, so each avatar has a story behind it. I'd love to meet everyone, have calls like this, and talk in Twitter spaces where you can hear people's voices. So it's not just a game. Decentraland could be a place to business network, and it could help you in your IRL career.
What is the biggest challenge in the Metaverse?
Maryana: Talking about the Decentraland - accessibility. Right now, the only way to enter is through your laptop. However, you're not going far if you don't have a decent computer.
I share my experience with Maryana; as I tried logging into Decentraland, I thought my computer would burn.
What about other Metaverses?
Maryana: I tried Cryptovoxels and Spatial once or twice each, and it's not as heavy on your computer as Decentraland. Once I tried Cryptovoxels and Spatial, I thought I would rather stay here because it's just so much easier on my computer, and you can access it on your phone too. Unfortunately, I never see many people on Spatial, so I am still trying to figure out where that community is.
Going back a little, how did you actually HEAR about Decentraland?
Maryana: First, I heard of the concept of virtual land back in 2018/2019. It was the earth2 io project. Back then, I didn't know its purpose and what you could do with it. And then, as I started learning more about photography NFTs, my TikTok became NFT and crypto-based immediately.
I heard the concept of Decentraland on TikTok. The only reason why I stopped to listen to it was that I'd heard of the concept of the virtual land before. And I actually watched a WonderMine video about how you can make a free NFT, and it's funny because 7months later, I didn't make any NFT, haha. So I told my husband, "Omg, I can go to Decentraland, play a game for 30 days, and get a shirt NFT, and I can sell that NFT!" Back then, I didn't know what wearable NFT was. I thought I could easily flip it.
Nope, never even had a chance to enter that business because I got so busy!
How do you manage your time in Decentraland? It should take a lot of time! I know it takes a lot of my time!
Maryana: I think I got so ambitious in the first few months, so I was probably not sleeping enough then. I used to be up until 4 am each night, and after working my real job, I was spending 12 hours in Decentraland. It was very unhealthy, so I have been cutting that back for the last few months. I've been regaining my real schedule. I am not logging in as much as I used to because I try to enjoy my real life now. I only log in to Decentraland about twice a week at this point.
Every Monday, I do DCL Report for an hour and go to a party once in a while. I am more at this building phase right now.
I've been trying to make more content on the topic, but it's so hard because my job takes a lot of my time.
Do you see yourself working in the web3 space as your full-time job?
Maryana: It's definitely a goal. If it's possible financially, I'd love to do this full-time. Unfortunately, as I initially thought there would be, cash flow returns are not there yet unless you're working for a reputable, established web3 company.
It's nice to be here in the beginning. I hope one day I can say I remember when there were just two people in web3, haha.
I just want to be a part of something that might scale to be something crazy in a few years.
Maryana, who are your Decentraland favorite members?
Maryana:
KevinOnEarth999
GoldGuy
Canessa
Roustan
WisherVodka
Digifun
Later, we carry our conversation towards more personal things, such as people being hacked and their wallets drained. Maybe a little bit of high school drama and community still being so small. We briefly touch on the topic of gender in web3 space and why gender-based communities don't work out the way they do in the web2 space, but I feel like this is a separate topic to talk about in general.
It seems like Maryana lived through a lot in these couple of months, and I am grateful for her sharing it with me.
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