INTRODUCTION
In this subsection of the Leo Finance Decentraland (MANA) Coin Guide let's compare what are arguably the best two Metaverse projects presently existing in the cryptosphere - Decentraland (MANA) and The Sandbox (SAND). We will undertake this examination by taking the relevant factors concerning both projects and examining them on a point by point basis.
BOTH DECENTRALAND (MANA) AND THE SANDBOX (SAND) HAVE EXHIBITED EXTRORDINARY PRICE PERCENTAGE GAINS
Since October 28, 2021 the price of MANA (the native token of Decentraland) has rallied 400%:
Within the same time period, the price of SAND (the native token of The Sandbox) has rallied 300%:
TOKENOMICS
Per CoinMarketCap, at the time of the writing of this article (November 21, 2021 at 06:20 EDT) there is a circulating supply of 1,820,000,000 MANA. With the current price of $3.72 the market capitalization of Decentraland (MANA) is $6,787,942,269. There is a total supply of 2,193,991,427 coins authorized yielding a fully diluted market capitalization of $8,229,049,672. Presently, Decentraland (MANA) is ranked No. 31 by CoinMarketCap.
Per CoinMarketCap, at the time of the writing of this article (November 21, 2021 at 06:25 EDT) there is a circulating supply of 892,246,119.22 SAND. With the current price of $4.08 the market capitalization of The Sandbox (SAND) is $3,636,873,906. There is a total supply of 3,000,000,000 coins authorized yielding a fully diluted market capitalization of $12,249,170,663. Presently, The Sandbox (SAND) is ranked No. 49 by CoinMarketCap.
PLATFORM GOALS AS SET FORTH IN OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION
"Decentraland is a decentralized virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Within the Decentraland platform, users can create, experience, and monetize their content and applications ... This gives users full control over the environments and applications that they create, which can range from anything like static 3D scenes to more interactive applications or games.". [Decentraland. Introduction. (Accessed November 21, 2021).
"The Sandbox is a community-driven platform where creators can monetize voxel ASSETS and gaming experiences on the blockchain" [The Sandbox. [About](https://www.sandbox.game/en/about/). (Accessed November 21, 2021). More specifically, in a Medium article submitted by The Sandbox: "With the support of creators around the world, our goal is to make The Sandbox the new standard in world-building games, with multitudes of user-created 3D voxel assets and games available on the blockchain". [The Sandbox. Blockchain 101: Blockchain in The Sandbox. (Accessed November 21, 2021).
AVAILABLE WALLETS TO USE FOR COIN STORAGE AND ACCESS
Decentraland is an ERC20 standard token and accordingly may use any ERC20 compatible wallet in the market. The Sandbox is likewise an ERC20 standard token which accordingly may use any ERC20 compatible wallet in the market.
There is in this regard one significant difference between the two projects. Decentraland has recently created and enabled a bridge using wallet connect which now allows Polygon users access to the platform.
PROJECT SCALABILITY
As both projects are built upon Ethereum, they face the same limitations in this respect. These limitations are:
- Exorbitant transaction fees apply. The necessary platform fees for both projects are paid in Ethereum which is very high and very volatile. We are all very aware of the pain associated with the payment of Ethereum transaction fees.
- Ethereum itself is in the throws of change from PoW consensus to PoS consensus. Presently neither project has sufficiently scalability to be able to support mass adoption. However when ETH 2.0 takes effect with its 20,000 transactions per second, this scalability issue for both projects should abate.
PLATFORM GOVERNANCE
Decentraland has two tokens. "With the launch of the Iron Age, we are introducing two digital assets: LAND, the non-fungible parcels in which the virtual world is divided; and MANA, an ERC-20 token that is burned to claim LAND, as well as to make in-world purchases of goods and services" [Decentraland Whitepaper. 3.1 LAND and the MANA Token. (Accessed November 21,2021)].
Decentraland operates using a DAO structure, where the community votes for such things like: proposing and voting on policy updates; whitelisting of NFT contracts; future land auctions; and, whatever other items the community deems relevant.
With respect to The Sandbox, the governance mechanism is similiar, however it is less structured than that of Decentraland (and it is not as easy to find in the official documentation as that of Decentraland). The Sandbox likewise follows a DAO structure where holders of the SAND token vote on such things like: prioritization of the features contained on the project's roadmap; delegation of voting rights to other players; placement of foundation grants to the platform's content and game creators; and, whatever other items the community deems relevant.
SUPPORT TEAMS
Decentraland operates with a security advisory board which oversees the DAO and responds to all bug and vulnerability reports concerning the platform. This SAB also includes five Solidity experts (originally selected by the development team). Decentraland boasts of it's team being comprised of leaders in such fields as computer science, blockchain engineering, and venture capital to name a few.
The Sandbox team is spread through four different countries. The Sandbox support experts are from the fields of start-ups, finance, and blockchain businesses to name a few.
BUYING LAND IN EACH RESPECTIVE PROJECT
In both ecosystems, it is the community that owns the land to be purchased. As such, the community has complete authority over each project. Landowners, however, have control over the material that is published on their owned land. Land is identified by a set of cartesian coordinates making identification very easy. And as a result of this, land in both projects is a non-fungible, rare and transferable digital asset stored in an Ethereum smart contract.
In Decentraland, you buy land by connecting your wallet and going to 'the marketplace' where you can access and browse all parcels and estates in the system. To access parcels which are available to be purchased, a user must activate the 'on sale' option and all parcels that can be purchased will turn sky blue in color.
At this point it is up to the user to choose the best land for their purposes. But in any event, general real estate principles should be followed and you need to find land near strategic places where people gather to be successful.
In The Sandbox, you have two separate options to purchase land. You can purchase land in platform by simply connecting your wallet, choosing your land and paying. However, the best way to acquire affordable land is to browse the Marketplace on OpenSea, write down the coordinates of available lands, then check the Map to see if the available land is near commercial lands.
Parenthetically, The Sandbox also has a separate 3d party P2P NFT trader. Here, users can swap their Sandbox NFTs in an easy, efficient and secure fashion.
PROJECT PARTNERSHIPS
Major partnerships for the Decentraland project include: CoinGecko; Polygon (MATIC); CyberPunks; and, Atari.
Major partnerships for The Sandbox project include: OpenSea; Snoop Dogg; The Walking Dead; Binance; CoinMarketCap; WAX; Maker; Flow; Opera; and Socios.com.
ACCESS TO THE PLATFORM
For full access in Decentraland you must connect your cryptocurrency wallet to the site. There is, however, a 'Guest Mode' where anyone can gain limited access and experiences within the site is minimal.
The Sandbox does not offer a 'guest mode', but does offer more alternatives to gain platform access. In The Sand box, you need to register first, which may be accomplished by email, a social media account, Gmail, or by connecting Metamask.
USE OF ERC 1155 STANDARD TOKENS
ERC 1155 Standard tokens are not used in Decentraland.
The ERC 1155 token is used in The Sandbox, and for those unfamiliar with this standard, which is a token representing a mix of a cryptocurrency and an NFT all within the same token asset. "The ERC-1155 standard that [The Sandbox] co-created with other game companies in the blockchain space, was designed to support the management of millions of tokens. On top of that our ASSET contract is also ERC721 compliant and allows multiple unique items to be created by a single smart contract with the benefit of keeping the ERC-721 interface to allow interoperability with other Marketplaces and games" [The Sandbox. Whitepaper. (Accessed November 21, 2021).
CONCLUSION
Giving due consideration to all of the factors herein presented, it appears that The Sandbox is in a slightly better position to take leadership in this space. The Sandbox project appears to offer a more technologically advanced comprehensive program better matched to the burgeoning Metaverse than it's competitor Decentraland.
DISCLAIMER
The content herein is presented for educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. Any loss incurred as a result of investing in either Decentraland (MANA) or The Sandbox (SAND) is yours and yours alone and may not be imputed to this author. Any foregone gain by not investing in either Decentraland (MANA) or The Sandbox (SAND) is yours and yours alone and may not be imputed to this author.