While Bitcoin has always enjoyed a premium spot in the list of top cryptocurrencies, other digital coins are fast racing to grab the top spot. With over 14,000 cryptocurrencies vying to get investors’ attention, it can be challenging to pick the best digital coins from the rest of all the various digital tokens available today, SandBox (SAND) and Decentraland coin (MANA) are worth your attention.
These cryptocurrencies have managed to grab peoples’ attention for all the right reasons. If you’re willing to include either of the two or both in your portfolio, make sure you’re aware of the fundamentals of both coins. To make it easier for you, we’ve listed down the five most important things that every investor should know about these coins. So let’s head right to the points shared below.
SAND & MANA: What are These Coins?
Launched in 2019, MANA is the native cryptocurrency of Decentraland, powered by the Ethereum network. It was built for creators, businesses, and individuals looking for artistic mediums or business opportunities or just a source of entertainment. Consider Decentraland as the virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum network that lets people create experiences and monetize their developed applications or content. In simple words, it is a virtual world where users can purchase digital land and later navigate to monetize or build something on the same land.
On the other hand, the SAND coin is the native cryptocurrency of the SandBox blockchain network. It is a blockchain-based virtual world, like Metaverse, that lets people build, sell, buy, and create digital assets via their highly interactive online game. Its network has combined the power of both Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). Sandbox was launched with the primary goal of making blockchain gaming mainstream.
Available Digital Land for Purchase
Both MANA & SAND are top contenders of Metaverse, yet they are different in their own way. The SandBox consists of 166,000 plots of digital land that is further grouped into districts or estates. Districts can be owned by more than one person, while estate can be owned by an individual. These purchased lands can be customized and monetized by being traded on the SandBox network.
On the other hand, Decentralan has a total of 90601 parcels of land. Anyone can purchase these parcels using the network’s native currency called MANA. The available parcels are grouped into districts, estates, parcels, and plazas. Herein, estate means more than one parcel, plaza means community-owned untradeable parcels, and district means parcels having similar themes).
The Team behind SandBox & Decentraland
The team behind SandBox has been operating in the gaming industry for a significant amount of time. It has also launched various PC games and mobile games over the years with the help of its global team. Currently, they have partnered with some big names, including Snoop Dogg, Big Fan, Ubisoft, Skybound Entertainment, and many more.
Decentraland, on the other hand, has around 20 big investors. With names like Samsung, Polygon, Animoca Brands, and more, you can be sure the coin has some real potential. Even the South Korean government is one of the many partners of Decentraland. Currently, the founders of Decentraland have stepped down from major positions. They are now acting as the company’s advisors, ensuring Decentraland achieves the set goals.
Governance Method
Decentraland has LAND & MANA, the two main tokens. The first token, i.e., LAND, is the non-fungible parcel in which the entire gaming virtual world is divided. MANA, on the other hand, is the ERC20 token that is burned to claim LAND in the game and also facilitates the purchase of goods and services within the virtual world. Decentraland relies on DAO, a mechanism where the whole community will collaboratively vote for things like the wearable items allowed (or disallowed), LAND policy, auctions, and more.
While in Decentraland, the users get full autonomy to make decisions as a community, the same is not the case with SandBox. In SandBox, the governance decisions cannot be taken without the platform’s participation in such decisions via a DAO structure. Some such examples where SandBox’s involvement will be needed are voting related to feature prioritization on the platform roadmap, foundation grant attribution to content, the delegation of voting rights to other players, etc.
Latest Developments
In Decentraland, there is not much difference with regards to purchasing LANDs, but as its part, users should know that the platform has partnered with Sotheby’s. After the official partnership agreement was signed, Decentraland announced new developments, including the opening of a virtual gallery. In collaboration with Sotheby’s, users will now be able to shoot and edit videos within the Decentraland platform.
SandBox, on the other hand, has migrated to a Polygon NFT layer 2 as part of its latest development. This update is expected to make the platform utilize 100 times less energy than Ethereum, making it an ideal option for the ones concerned about the environment, sustainability, and scalability. SandBox also announced its liquidity mining launch.
SAND or MANA: What to Buy?
Both the platforms have their own features, making them the best in their respective cases. However, as investors, it is essential that you acquire enough details and information about both before investing in either platform’s native currency. You can purchase SAND or MANA or both on any trusted and popular crypto exchange. Just to be safer, ensure you do your own research to avoid making any FOMO-induced crypto purchases. It will help you in the short and long run.