Decentraland and Sandbox are two platforms that offer users the ability to buy and sell land, which is why some users want to know if they should buy land in Decentraland or Sandbox and the benefits that would come from doing so.
These platforms are centered around the metaverse and have been able to give users a feel of what the metaverse is and what it looks like.
In addition, they offer impressive features and rewards for users who are willing to go all the way in exploring and navigating their platforms.
In this article, we shall take a look at both platforms with regard to their features to know which is preferable for buying land.
Decentraland: What users should know
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.
Now, what users must understand about Decentraland is the fact that the platform is surrounded by a virtual space called LAND, a non-fungible digital asset maintained in an Ethereum smart contract.
This particular LAND on Decentraland is divided into parcels that are identified by cartesian coordinates (x,y).
These parcels are permanently owned by members of the community and are purchased using MANA, Decentraland’s cryptocurrency token.
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.
Some parcels are further organized into themed communities or districts. By organizing parcels into Districts, the community can create shared spaces with common interests and uses.
In total, Decentraland has 90,601 lands including 43689 private land parcels, 33886 district land, 9438 streets, and 3588 plazas.
The Land Manager
When it comes to LAND on Decentraland, the Land manager allows users to manage their LAND and Estate assets.
In addition, the Land manager allows users to:
- Name their parcels and Estates and give them a public description.
- Merge LAND parcels into an Estate.
- Dissolve an Estate into separate LAND parcels.
- Transfer their parcels and Estates to another user.
- Grant permissions to other users to edit the parcels they own.
Land Mortgages
Before Decentraland stopped users from requesting LAND mortgages through the Decentraland marketplace, users had to approve the Ripio Credit Network’s smart contracts to conduct transactions on their behalf using their MANA and RCN tokens before they could request a LAND mortgage.
All they needed to do was to open their account settings and check all the necessary boxes then navigate to the parcel that they wished to request a mortgage for.
After that, they would then submit a brief application form including the following details and a deposit of at least 10% of the price of the parcel they wish to buy.
Sandbox: What users should know
The Sandbox is a community-driven platform where creators can monetize voxel assets and gaming experiences on the blockchain.
The Sandbox metaverse is made up of LANDS, which are parts of the world, owned by players to create and monetize experiences.
There will only ever be 166,464 LANDS available, which can be used to host games, build multiplayer experiences, create housing, or offer social experiences to the community.
These LANDS are blockchain-backed virtual tokens (using the ERC-721 standard for NFTs) representing physical parcels of the Sandbox metaverse.
They allow players to own a portion of the metaverse and thus be able to host content (assets and games).
LANDS are used to publish players’ games and can be rented to game creators.
Every LAND comes with a set of pre-built terrains, but it can be terraformed and modified by the user who owns it (or other players they invite to work on it).
In the future, players will be able to combine LANDS to form Estates and Estates will have the potential to be owned by multiple players to form Districts.
The SAND token
SAND is an ERC-20 utility token built on the Ethereum blockchain that serves as the basis for transactions within the Sandbox.
It has the following uses:
Access the Sandbox platform
Players spend SAND to play games, buy equipment, or customize their Avatar character.
Creators spend SAND to acquire Assets, LANDS, and through staking. LAND Sales drive demand for SAND to purchase LANDS.
Artists spend SAND to upload Assets to the Marketplace and buy Gems for defining Rarity and Scarcity.
Governance
SAND is a governance token that allows holders to participate in Governance decisions of the platform, using a DAO structure.
They can exercise voting rights on key elements such as Foundation grant attributions to content and game creators and feature prioritization on the platform Roadmap.
SAND owners can vote themselves or delegate voting rights to other players of their choice.
Staking
SAND allows for staking, which allows for passive revenues on LANDs as players get more SAND by staking it.
This is also the only way to get valuable Gems and Catalysts, needed for Asset creation
Should you buy Land in Decentraland or Sandbox?
When looking at the features of Decentraland and Sandbox, it is obvious that they both offer similar features.
However, when it comes to LAND, Sandbox offers more of it than Decentraland as it has 166,464 LAND in contrast to 90,601 LAND owned by Decentraland.
In addition, despite the disparity in the number of LAND, both platforms have made significant improvements by having partnerships with the polygon layer 2 technology which is more efficient and uses less energy than Ethereum.
Also, Decentraland once had an option for users to take out LAND mortgages especially if they cannot afford to purchase LAND within the platform which is something Sandbox does not offer.
In addition, it is governed by DAO and has an easy-to-use builder tool that allows users to buy and create LAND seamlessly as they do not need to be a developer to create one, unlike Sandbox.
To Sandbox’s defense, however, it has more partners and has worked with over 175 businesses. The Sand token is also predicted to gain more in value by crypto experts than the Decentraland token in the future.
Final Note
In conclusion, it may seem as though Sandbox offers better options for users to purchase virtual land as it makes use of the OpenSea as well as the Sandbox marketplace compared to Decentraland which allows users to purchase only from the MANA marketplace.
Nonetheless, buying LAND on either of these platforms is an excellent investment, one that would fetch you good returns as they both offer similar features to users save for some minor differences.
