Decentraland and Sandbox: an in-depth analysis

Original title:Metaverse Mania: An Overview of Decentraland and Sandbox"

Source: Sting, TheTie

& NBSP; Iris Dong &   Mike Jin.Encryption valley

What is the Metaverse

At a basic level, the "Metaverse" concept is a digital world where players can participate and create social and economic activities with other individuals in a shared virtual environment. These computer-generated environments range from popular, detail-oriented destinations such as Hawaii or the Australian Outback to dystopian futuristic worlds in movies we all love; The possibilities are endless. Games like Runescape, Minecraft/Roblox, Counterstrike, Club Penguin and even Pokemon Go show the younger generation how to interact with each other in virtual worlds and teach key economic principles, This will inspire entrepreneurship in many people.

With the popularity of these games, the problems of centralization and closed loop quickly came to light. Although players pay for the game, they do not own assets collected and purchased in the game, nor can they transfer items from one game or "world" to another (even direct sequels or upgrades). Many companies even enforce strict terms of service when it comes to exchanging in-game assets for legal tender. Enter the concept of Metaverse.

While many of these games provide a storyline or goal, due to the nature of the open world and the introduction of the economy, players begin to develop their own motivations and goals. Players begin to work outside of established gameplay boundaries and begin to speculate on in-game assets and develop peer-to-peer market Spaces. For example, players can trade on the "Grand Trading platform" in the Runescape game and play multiple roles in a bustling marketplace. As market makers, players can facilitate trading and provide liquidity to buyers and sellers. As laborers, players can use their time, skills, and knowledge to farm resources in the game and sell goods in the market. As collectors, players can hype and buy rare items that they deem valuable. Finally, as a dedicated player, players can buy the best items and get better status for their character.

The start of the peer-to-peer virtual economy was groundbreaking. For the first time, the player had options other than those offered to them by the game designer; Economic gain, entertainment, and social interaction are all intertwined in a pseudo-decentralized way.

When most people hear the concept of Metaverse, they think of the utopian society in Ready Player One. While this is entirely possible, I think the first iteration to catch on will be a more realistic social environment that mimics the experience we currently enjoy. We all know how much life has changed in the past year, so let's paint a picture of the Metaverse. You've finished work for the week and are going out on Friday night with some friends who live on opposite sides of the world. Because of the distance between you, you chose to see your favorite DJ play his first show on Decentraland. Because of the time difference, you have a few hours before the concert starts, and no one goes to a concert without a preview. You all went to your local ZED Run racetrack, watched some racehorses and had a few cold drinks. Your friend mentions that a horse he owns is racing in 10 minutes, and if he wins, the next round is his treat.

While you and your friends cheered on Strawberry Diesel, she pulled away and crossed the finish line in first place. What a beautiful day. Excited, you move on and all make your way to the live pub, your friend orders the round he promised, and you all continue to talk about how exhilarating the game was. Ten or fifteen minutes pass, and you hear the doorbell ring. The local food/alcohol delivery service has just delivered the 6 pack of beer your friend ordered from the ZED Run pub. Now back in Metaverse, with a cold drink in hand, you all touch your glasses and continue your banter. The day continues with a few more drinks at the bar and some more games. Finally time for the main event.... .

What are non-homogeneous tokens, and how do they make all this possible

Non-homogeneous tokens, commonly referred to as NFTs, are defined after a quick Google search as "units of data stored on the blockchain, proving that the asset is unique and therefore not interchangeable. NFTs can often be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files."

While we now see NFTs primarily representing digital objects, it's a popular misconception that NFTs are only digital and cannot represent physical objects. The original ERC-721 standard was introduced in January 2018 to create and implement a unified API in smart contracts that would enable the tracking and transfer of these tokens.

Modeled on the popular ERC-20 token standard, the ERC-721 token adds a further element of recognition when distinguishing tokens. The original proposal stated that the new standard was inspired by the ERC-20 standard but was "not sufficient to track NFT because every asset is different (irreplaceable) and a certain number of tokens are the same (fungible)". The unique identifying properties of ERC-721 allow for the development of new uses; Virtual collectibles, real estate, art, debt contracts and other "negative value" contracts. Simply put, "Generally speaking, all houses are different, and no two kittens are the same. Negative value contracts are distinguishable, and you have to track the ownership of each separately."

Now that we understand what NFT is from a technical perspective and why it was created, let's dive into why this technology is at the heart of Metaverse. Many of the issues we discussed earlier are the result of a single centralized studio or company controlling all aspects of the game/economy. Since traditional development studios reap all the rewards of these digital economies, they have little incentive to share those revenues with players. Now, forward-thinking studios are beginning to see that a small portion of residual revenue from a valuable asset (in the form of royalties or marketing fees) can equal a longer term revenue stream for the studio and increase the value to the end user. Games like Axie Infinity, F1 Delta Time and ZED Run are pushing the boundaries of developing these experiences, digital assets and ecosystems for their users. This leads us to the question of interoperability. Right now, game companies have no incentive to let you use assets in later iterations of the same game or across ecosystems, because they lose potential revenue by letting players do so.

However, if you can't use your item the way you want and where you want, this leads to some of the biggest questions in NFT, whether you really own that item. If you can't sell the item, does it belong to you?

Owning your items, being able to hold them outside of the game, and being able to freely trade your items and use them across multiple games or platforms are all very new concepts, but before NFTs, such a framework didn't exist. Let's look at the main advantages of blockchains and the main reasons Metaverses uses them.

I) Non-modifiable assets

Projects and assets are tokenized using the ERC-721 and 1155 standards.
Ownership, scarcity, and other information are stored in the token's metadata.
This helps maintain a public record of transactions, supplies, activities, etc., and limits fraudulent/counterfeit items as they can be verified against the original mint contract.

II) Ownership
Users who create or purchase items on the platform have full ownership.
The player has the option of keeping full custody or giving custody to the platform (depending on the ability of the platform), which means you are responsible for your assets.
By users maintaining custody of their assets, they are able to remove a centralized party or middleman, which can greatly reduce costs and security risks.
Whether the game developer still supports the game or not, since you have custody of your items, you can use them, you can continue to use them, or you can sell them as you wish.

III) Interoperability
This gives players the ability to use assets, avatars, and other items across multiple games and/or ecosystems.
This can be done by using the same item in different games or by having different interpretations of the same asset on different platforms, and the possibilities are endless.

IV) Publicly accessible primary and secondary markets for digital assets
Rather than a closed ecosystem where only the primary publishing market provides revenue for the big companies, developers can return the revenue they earn to content creators.
Users have the final say on their assets, and they can be sold, given, traded, etc.
Providing secondary market infrastructure helps reduce fraud and nefarious activities and ensures that creators receive royalties on secondary market sales.
Users who create value for the ecosystem will be able to earn those benefits in monetary terms.

Why is content creation such a powerful tool

One of the most important additions and shifts in an enterprise's business model is the realization that you can generate revenue from the content that users create on the platform. Instead of charging for participation in community events or for viewing content posted by the business itself, companies can create an infrastructure for content creators and capture most, if not all, of the revenue that individual generates. We're already seeing a huge shift in content generation in society, led by companies like Myspace and Facebook. But at the end of the day, very little of the revenue earned from user-generated content actually ends up in users' pockets.

With NFT and cryptocurrencies, many projects aim to break this parasitic chain. Often referred to as play-to-earn rewards or ecosystem rewards, Dapps and protocols have developed a variety of unique ways to reward community/ecosystem participants. A few examples of the ways the agreement chooses to attract participants are: issuing currency as a reward to ecosystem participants, a framework that enables creators to establish and sell content/work as an NFT in local currency, and allowing creators to earn revenue directly from generated content. This provides the opportunity for content creators to make a living trading native currency for any preferred currency or asset, without having to worry that a centralized company will suddenly limit their revenue streams for no reason.

What is theDecentraland

Decentraland is a decentralized virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Decentraland allows users to create, experience, and monetize their content and applications.

The platform uses NFTs to make LAND a scarce asset, which is what developers build on. By creating Decentraland SDKS and user monetizing tools, users can develop their LAND and provide various forms of entertainment, including interactive experiences on top of traditional goods and services. Decentraland's goal is to build an open economy run by the community in the form of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), which also controls the creator funds that guide the development of Decentraland's metauniverse.

The origin of

Decentraland the ecosystem has two core parts: blocks, an irreplaceable asset (ERC721), and MANA (ERC20), an alternative currency used to buy blocks and other in-game transactions. Decentraland project was originally started in 2015 as a proof-of-concept to use the Ethereum network. The first iteration of proof-of-concept was described by the team as "Decentraland's Stone Age"; It consists of a 2D grid of pixels, and the owner and color of each lot are encoded into the metadata. It then evolved into a 3D virtual world simulation in late 2016, as the team explored the option of hosting the data on the chain and making each plot accessible to the testers. Since this was before Ethereum, the team chose to use a modified version of the Bitcoin blockchain to host a "distributed hash table" or a similar directory. Users can look for the package they want in the hash table, and it will lead them to the file containing the package's contents. Users can then load files and interact and roam around the package, all in a fairly decentralized manner. This proof-of-concept is in many ways the foundation of Decentraland today.

technology

Fast forward a few years, and the technology stack has evolved to a more complex level. In today's iteration Decentraland is built on top of the Ethereum network and consists of several components to enable the existence of ownership and an open economy we mentioned earlier. On the technical side, the protocol consists of three layers.

1) Consensus layer: Who owns LAND and what is displayed in it

This layer uses smart contracts to store information about non-falsifiable land parcels in the correct format and then stores it in a ledger. The key metrics that are stored are the owner, the coordinates of the lot, and the contents within the lot (the "Content description file").

2) Land content layer/Content distribution layer: Where are the files of the plot stored and how are they accessed

This layer communicates with the consensus layer through smart contracts, fetching content files from a decentralized database. The file is then presented for the user to view as they pass through different lands. This is important because Decentraland does not rely on decentralized servers, which means the world can continue to exist as long as users continue to host/create content and pay for decentralized server fees. In the words of Decentraland, it "provides [them] with a powerful anti-censorship capability that removes the power of central authorities to change the rules or prevent user participation."

3) Real-time layer: How do users interact, communicate and perform tasks in the same virtual environment

Since there is no centralized server to host the world that players can interact with, players must do it on their own in a peer-to-peer manner. Initial guidance meant that project supporters had to host the servers themselves and figure out ways to coordinate within the community to curb bad actors, but now daOs can vet the hosts to ensure that reputable members of society host the servers. Essentially, this layer is where all players integrate other users, voice and text communication, and interaction with the environment on a global scale, making it an important part of the "meta-space" experience. While the other two layers ensure ownership, tracking, and rendering of the environment, the real-time layer is the place where Decentraland players are connected in the same space.

What makes Decentraland different

DAO  The Foundation of Creator

One of the things that has made Decentraland the first mover is how fast they have been able to build and implement technology in the blockchain space. Decentraland not only builds and implements daOs to manage the protocol, at the time of this writing, the protocol itself is fully decentralized. So what exactly is Decentraland DAO

The DAO is represented by the community and also owns the main smart contracts and assets that manage and control Decentraland. In addition, the DAO controls a large amount of MANA for community events and other operational tasks to keep Metaverse running. The community can propose and vote on policy updates and various other projects, such as partnerships, NFT projects, to allow within Metaverse through the DAO portal supported by the Aragon Protocol. Daos are supported by the Security Advisory Board (SAB) to address technical deficiencies in smart contracts and contracts required for upgrades. The Committee consists of 5 members appointed by the Decentraland team and the community.

Below is the estimated annual inflation (at the time of MANA's public sale) based on foundation funds being emitted to creators to promote growth, all of which are subject to change based on DAO's recommendations and revisions.

SDK and game builder

Decentraland provides a drag-and-drop game builder that allows users to build an experience using a range of projects, as well as a command-line SDK that gives developers more control over the generated environment.

Tokenomics and scarcity

Use cases of MANA:

The initial use is to purchase land in primary land sales. Burn 1000 MANA - > 1LAND

Buy LAND on the secondary market

Purchase items in the game (wearables, names, NFT, etc.).
Payment of service charges (e.g. land development or recreation).

MANA is also set aside as a "Creators fund" to encourage content creators to continue building and contributing to the community.

Holders of MANA tokens can participate in the Decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that manages Decentraland.

LAND Maximum supply: 90,000 LAND

What is the Sandbox

Sandbox is a unique Metaverse designed to create a sustainable game and content creation ecosystem. Using the 3D Voxel style demonstrated in popular games such as Roblox and Minecraft, the sandbox aims to provide tools not only to build experiences relevant to specific locations, but also to provide assets that can be used and sold across the ecosystem. One of the key points of the platform is to enable creators to create assets in a decentralized way, that is, along with their LAND NFT and ERC20 SAND tokens, they use the ERC1155 standard (which we'll explore in more depth later). ASSETS is the second NFT in the Sandbox ecosystem; The team used this unique NFT standard to address the problem of content creators not receiving a share of the revenue they directly generated. Instead of pouring hours of time and energy into the game to find indirect ways to benefit, the Sandbox team provided the framework to create these assets, as well as a market to provide currency directly to consumers.

The ecosystem consists of three core components that revolve around the belief in composability between game/subway and reward content creators.

Voxel Editor (" VoxEdit ") -- As described by Sandbox, this easy-to-use but powerful free 3D Voxel modeling package allows users to create and animate 3D objects such as people, animals, leaves, and tools, and export them to the Sandbox marketplace as game assets.

Marketplace -- is a web-based marketplace that allows users to publish their work in ERC 721 and 1155 formats and to sell/trade ASSETS they have created in VoxEditor.

Games /Metaverse - This part of the ecosystem is where everything comes together. Using assets created in VoxEdit or purchased on the open market, users can build their own experiences and games in plots of land. The "assets" of each plot can be filled with complex game mechanics through the game editor, creating a more static visual experience. Together, these blocks and the unique gaming experiences created within them constitute the Sandbox Metaverse.

The history of the Sandbox

Sandbox was originally developed for mobile games on Android and iOS in 2012 by its parent company Animoca Brands. The app was widely used and racked up 40 million downloads in the early days of mobile gaming, reaching nearly 2.6 million monthly active users at its peak. In 2015, Sandbox games became available for download on PC via the popular gaming platform Steam, and users created 70 million unique worlds and environments for other users to interact with. This early experience with user-generated content led Animoca Brands to jump into blockchain gaming in 2019, bringing their flagship product, Sandbox, to market.

With a lofty step towards innovation, the team stated that their mission was to "build a system where creators can produce, play, share and trade without central control, enjoy safe copyright ownership, and earn SAND". While there is already a huge market for free-form games based on Voxel, the team believes that by building a sandbox ecosystem with blockchain technology and incorporating NFT, they can solve many of the problems currently plaguing the game industry, such as:

The Sandbox, the white paper

What is the ERC-1155 Token standard

Similar to the ERC-20 and ERC-721 token standards we discussed earlier, the 1155 standard can be used to create fungible, non-fungible, or even semi-fungible tokens. To understand why the 1155 standard was created, let's first look at the limitations that two existing standards place on user-generated and professionally generated content.

For ERC-20 tokens, they cannot be uniquely identified, and a new contract needs to be issued for each type of ERC-20 token. Using the ERC-721 token is important when each project needs to be completely unique and each minted token is different from the other tokens in the collectible, but it can be expensive and cumbersome if there is a duplicate NFT in the collectible as part of the contract. In this case, we will seek to use the ERC-1155 token standard, which will enable us to create multiple tokens from a single contract, each with specified metadata, supply, and other details.

For example, if we were to mint Pokemon cards with an ERC-721 contract, we would need to create a new contract for each card type to take into account different rarity, supply, etc., which would incur a significant cost because the Gas fee required to deploy each contract and mint each card would be a unique token. In addition, the same task is much easier and cheaper to perform using the ERC-1155 contract. Using semi-homogeneity, we were able to create multiple card types as separate token ids, specifying not only the source data, but also the supply of each card within the same contract.

Extension of Layer 2

Details haven't been fully announced yet, but on June 28, 2021, the Sandbox team said they will be working with Polygon (Matic) 's Layer 2 extension solution and hope to implement it in the future to address the limitations and high costs of the Ethereum main chain.

VoxEdit & Game Builder

Sandbox VoxEdit is a very powerful tool that allows users and developers to build environments and assets in great detail. Below is the game generator, which allows users to build on top of LAND and add advanced game mechanics to the experience they create.

Partnerships and major IP

Sandbox's partnerships with real world and cryptocurrency native ips and brands are second to none, with the team having over 50 IP partnerships at the time of writing, highlighting some of the key family names below. Parent Animoca Brands is known for its portfolio, which includes names like Binance, Flow, Dapper Labs, Atari and Polygon. In addition to an impressive portfolio, Animoca not only owns substantial real-world intellectual property and has invested in some of the largest infrastructure in the NFT space, but is also responsible for some of the biggest blockchain games to date, such as F1 Delta Time.

Tokenomics and scarcity

Use cases for SAND:

The user/player uses SAND tokens to buy assets and land in the game.
Artists/creators use SAND to upload assets to the market and buy "crystals" to define the rarity of assets.
Players can hold SAND to participate in management/DAOs.
SAND can be used to buy shares and receive passive income paid in sandbs, catalysts and gems. The latter two are used to create assets.
Lay the foundation for stimulating the continued growth of the Sandbox ecosystem and high quality content creation.

Fee model =5% transaction fee will be divided equally between the foundation and the bet reward, using SAND to buy anything in the ecosystem.

Largest land offered through primary sales: 166,646 lots

As we can see, the price and volume of MANA and SAND are closely related to the price and volume of MANA in its early years. However, the recent surge in SAND trading has narrowed MANA's price gap with its own.

Looking at sentiment data over the last three months and the average number of tweets, we can see that MANA has maintained a very stable number of tweets in the community. While the average number of tweets dropped from May to June, SAND also stagnated during the same period, only recently seeing a real increase in mentions. The emotions surrounding these projects have remained highly stable and highly correlated with each other.

The original link

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia