The developers behind Double Protocol have developed an on-chain NFT rental solution that is customized to work with Decentraland LAND parcels. Double’s marketplace provides a rental infrastructure that benefits both Decentraland’s LAND owners and prospective renters by streamlining and decentralizing the renting process. Using Double’s solution, renters need only pay the rental charge on the NFT they’re renting—no collateral is necessary—and owners can retain complete control of their LAND.
Just like in the physical real estate business, Decentraland LAND owners can rent out their virtual lands to tenants who may use them to host events or develop them into malls, offices, entertainment hubs, and more. Virtual land rentals in the metaverse are a major piece of NFT use cases that help to bridge the virtual world with the physical world. Simplifying that process will open up more opportunities for the future and will ultimately enrich the virtual ecosystem.
How Double Protocol’s Rental Solution Works
By leveraging on EIP-4907, Double NFT Rental Protocol runs on two primary smart contracts: a ‘Market’ contract and a ‘doNFT Factory’ contract. The ‘doNFT Factory’ smart contract adds new NFT contracts to the platform while the ‘Market’ smart contract handles all NFT renting. The Double NFT Rental Protocol allows any ERC721-based NFT to be rented. The contract behind the project has already been audited and reported here.
When a renter pays the rental cost for an NFT, they will be given a doNFT. The doNFT contract, which is created by the doNFT factory, mints the doNFT. DoNFTs are ERC-721 compatible and feature a duration list with a start and end time. A duration specifies that the owner of a doNFT has permission to utilize a certain NFT for an agreed-upon amount of time. Renters can have a variety of usage rights throughout the rental period, including subleasing and developing the virtual land.
To get hands-on experience on how the whole process works, head over to the Double Protocol Rental Platform and find out how to Rent our Lend your first NFT.
Double Protocol—Setting the Pace
As skilled builders and contributors of Decentraland’s virtual world, Double Protocol won a $10,000 Decentraland DAO community grant to continue developing projects that would benefit the platform and its community. Double Protocol is on a mission to deliver a revolutionary NFT rental platform that seamlessly connects NFT owners to prospective NFT renters who wish to utilize an NFT for a limited time. By deploying EIP-4907, Double Protocol is unique in its rental approach in that it ensures that NFT ownership rights are separated from usage rights. This concept does not only address the challenges associated with some rental services but also distinguishes Double Protocol from other rental protocols.
Our work developing a rental solution that has been customized for Decentraland, one of the leaders in pioneering the adoption of NFT metaverse land, is a great step in our journey to providing the sector with an industry-grade NFT rental platform (said Double Protocol’s co-founder Shrug Newton). We are excited about this development as we envision it as a motion set in stone for several other projects to come.
Double’s journey into the NFT rental space is spearheaded by some of the finest people in the industry with a considerable amount of experience in the design of tokenomics and in building and delivering several blockchain protocols. Their team members are very diverse, based across several regions including the UK, US, Canada, Paraguay, France, China, Singapore, Australia, and Nigeria.
Double’s vision of a revolutionary NFT rental ecosystem is backed by well-known partners and industry heavyweights, including Matrixport, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Shima Capital, Youbi Capital, LucidBlue Ventures, Red Building Capital, Capital 6 Eagle, Plancker DAO, Steve Guo from Loopring, Tony Gu from NGC Ventures, and Mr. Block.
How Rental Services are Crucial to a Broader Adoption of NFTs
NFT rentals have created a powerful niche and revenue stream for owners of NFTs while at the same time lowering the barrier of entry to anyone looking to utilize digital collectibles through renting. Land in virtual domains like Decentraland and in-game items or collectibles are the two major areas in which NFT rentals will showcase their potential.
Investors have been picking up land NFTs to flip in recent years since virtual land has been selling for millions of dollars. On the other hand, some want to rent virtual real estate for the purpose of developing an experience or game, hosting their community, holding an event, or building a club or marketplace to earn some revenue. The novel use cases for reserving or subletting NFTs lands might even lead to something similar to an ‘AirBnB of the metaverse’, which will unarguably bring virtual real estate on par with the physical market. The potential uses for virtual land are truly endless.
In terms of in-game items, many people are becoming interested in blockchain games but may not have the financial means to purchase the NFTs they need to get started. Double Protocol lowers the entry barriers for this group of people by allowing them to rent in-game items for a fraction of their total cost and creating the opportunity to scale their activities without making a huge investment. This is key to the adoption of blockchain gaming platforms and an increase in user growth.
On a broader application, Double Protocol’s rental service unlocks deep liquidity that has been tied up within the NFT sector. There are many idle NFT holders in the ecosystem who do not actively participate in the building of the digital world. These owners are either hoping for a high profit when they sell their NFTs or they just don’t have the time to utilize them. In either event, these NFT owners are sitting on revenue-generating assets if they were to be put up for rent. With Double Protocol’s solution, that can now be easier than ever.
Always developing and growing, the metaverse is full of yet unrecognized potential and opportunities. Do you have an idea that could benefit the Decentraland community? Learn more about the DAO’s grants here.
Do you know of a cool Decentraland community project that you think should be next in the Community Highlights series? Contact the Decentraland Foundation team @decentraland on Twitter.
Disclaimer: The service described in this article was not developed or audited by the Decentraland Foundation. Always be careful when engaging in any kind of transactions. Decentraland is not responsible for any loss of funds/assets.