How does Decentraland verify transactions?

Owners use “MANA” to transact in Decentraland. As Decentraland is an ERC20 token, it uses PoS as a consensus protocol. According to their whitepaper, the consensus protocol takes place at 3 different layers depending on the user's action.

The 3 protocol layers are as followed.

1. Consensus layer: Track land ownership and its contents
2. Land content layer: Download assets using a decentralized distribution system
3. Real-time layer: Enable user’s world viewers to connect to each other

Currently, there is no underlying cost to run a smart contract on Decentraland. Users pay directly what they use or purchase in the virtual world.