The Sandbox vs Decentraland: Which Metaverse Is Better?

If you’re active online you should know that the latest trend among Technological inventions is the Metaverse. A shared Virtual world where people can socialize, play games, Attend concerts and do a lot of other things we do in the physical world on the internet.

This Post Contains

• What Is The Sandbox?
• What Is Decentraland?
• Similarities Between The Sandbox & Decentraland.
• Differences Between The Sandbox & Decentraland.
• The Sandbox vs Decentraland Partners and Investors.
• SAND VS MANA

Big companies like Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, HTC (High Technology Computer), Epic Games and Nvidia are pumping billions of dollars into this next level of Technological Innovation.

However in its current $50 billion economy, The Sandbox and Decentraland lead the way amongst Metaverse platforms (Well at least for early adopters & Investors). 

What Is The Sandbox?

The Sandbox is a Virtual world designed for artists, content creators and players, offering them the opportunity to create and build their personal environment, in which they can play games, build, create & Invest in Virtual properties and monetize their Virtual experiences. 

What Is Decentraland?

Decentraland is a Virtual world designed for content creators, it’s a decentralized metaverse in which Users can create their own reality through the use of Virtual land, NFTs, Avatars, buildings and other digital assets.

Both Metaverse have a lot of things in common and It’s really hard to choose between these two leading Metaverse platforms as they are both good platforms in terms of Quality.

Nevertheless, despite it being a close call, let’s find out which of the two comes out on top.

• Similarities Between The Sandbox & Decentraland 

There are a lot of similarities between The Sandbox & Decentraland, the most distinct is the main concepts driving the two metaverse platforms.

Decentraland & The Sandbox are both 3d Virtual Worlds where people, through Technological inventions such as Blockchain technology, Web3, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality can socialize, work, play games, create and invest in Virtual Properties such as Land & Buildings and watch movies through their Avatars (Physical representations of People) and NFTs.

Another similarity is that Both metaverse ecosystems run on Ethereum blockchain, through which they track ownership of Virtual land and digital items on their platforms as well as confirmation of transactions.

 Pieces of Land on both The Sandbox & Decentraland are represented as unique non-fungible ERC721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. The Sandbox & Decentraland have also been managed in the past by Animoca brands.

In addition their native Cryptocurrencies (SAND & MANA) both run on Ethereum blockchain and you can purchase, trade & stake these Tokens on the Ethereum Network.

Also Read: 10 Best Ways To Make Money From Your Land In The Metaverse

Both platforms are Decentralized in nature, there’s no Centralized authority who owns the platform and their users take part in the decision making process concerning the metaverse Platforms.

In The Sandbox & Decentraland, Land and other digital properties are bought in the form of NFTs on OpenSea NFT marketplace, with both platforms allowing Users to create digital assets & Avatars.

• Differences Between The Sandbox & Decentraland

The Sandbox has a total of 166,464 plots of Virtual Land available. 

The Sandbox has two types of Land ownership, An Estate (owned by one person) & A district (A combination of an Estate owned by more than one person).

On the other hand Decentraland has a total of 90,601 parcels of Virtual land, grouped into individual parcels, estates (multiple parcels of Land), districts (parcels with similar themes) and plazas (untradable Community owned parcels). 

In The Sandbox, there are four types of tokens: SAND (the native currency of The Sandbox), LAND (virtual plot of land), ASSETS ( digital properties created by users) and GAMES (games created by users).

On the contrary, In Decentraland, there are three types of tokens: MANA (the native currency of Decentraland), WEAR (wearables, clothing items and body features) and LAND (the virtual plot of land).

The Sandbox is headed by a Centralized authority and has more solid plans for the future of their Metaverse platform. While Decentraland is headed by a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), and as such doesn’t have a clear roadmap.

• The Sandbox vs Decentraland Partners and Investors.

The Sandbox has partnered with sportswear manufacturers Adidas, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, American rapper Snoop Dogg, Skybound Entertainment & AMC TV series Walking Dead, South China morning post, Roller coaster tycoon world, Cryptokitties, and Atari. Among other numerous partners of The Sandbox.

Decentraland has partnered with some companies, some of which are; the South Korean Government, Electronics & smartphones brand Samsung, Polygon blockchain, Atari, Cyberpunk, CoinFund, FBG Capital and Digital Currency Group.

• SAND VS MANA

SAND & MANA are both good long term investments, however if we consider their Roadmap and plans for the future of the projects, SAND will be a better pick. With more Users, partnership deals coming in and plans to attract more Investors by making The Sandbox available on mobile phones before the end of 2022.

MANA on the other hand is more user centered as Decentraland uses a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) structure for making governance decisions without a Centralized authority making those decisions. 

However those who’ve been elected to work on the project have made plans to make Decentraland interoperate-able with other metaverse platforms before the end of 2022. This may drive the demand and Usage for MANA token up therefore MANA isn’t to be written off.

In conclusion, for the meantime The Sandbox metaverse beats Decentraland to the top spot. The Sandbox has more Investors, Partners and Users in general with over 1 million active users monthly compared to Decentraland’s 300,000.

 In addition, The Sandbox has better plans for the future and I’ve put in place plans to make The Sandbox game available on mobile phones amongst other innovations in the pipeline of Sandbox’s developers.

However it is worthy to note that Decentraland has a trump card it can use to win the race and lure Investors to their ecosystem. Decentraland plans to make their platform interoperate-able. And with most metaverse Investors & Critics already asking for this, Decentraland might actually turn the tide.