The Sandbox is a community metaverse where gamers can design, share and live virtual experiences. Based on the Ethereum blockchain, the virtual world of The Sandbox attempts to change the dynamics of the video game market with the principle of “Play-to-Earn” and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Let’s discover this metaverse and its different tokens, in particular the SAND.
What is The Sandbox (SAND)
The Sandbox (SAND) is a game initially designed for smartphones in 2011 by the company Pixowl, founded by two Frenchmen: Arthur Madrid (CEO) and Sebastien Borget (COO).
The game became a real success. Initially intended to compete with Minecraft, The Sandbox mobile game has generated over 40 million downloads worldwide. In the seven years since its creation, over 70 million worlds have been created in The Sandbox and its sequel, The Sandbox Evolution, released on 23 June 2016.
In 2018, The Sandbox was acquired by Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based game development company. Indeed, it was Animoca Brands that developed The Sandbox platform with Voxel-style graphics similar to other popular games such as Roblox or Minecraft. The Sandbox’s protocol is blockchain-based, allowing users to create an entire universe and its economy, taking the game to a new level.
The Sandbox is a play-to-earn game, but it is also much more than that. It is first and foremost a virtual world, one of the most developed metaverse to date, in which players can own, build and monetise virtual assets and game experiences through non-fungible tokens (NFT). The project has partnered with a number of influencers, brands and artists, including Snoop Dogg, Atari, Ubisoft, Warner Music Group, Binance and Deadmau5.
The Sandbox has been developed around a complete economy, in order to satisfy gamers, investors, artists and game designers. To make this economy work, in addition to its own cryptocurrency SAND. The Sandbox is built around three main pillars: a marketplace, modelling software and game design software.
The Sandbox (SAND) logo
The Sandbox metaverse ecosystem
The Sandbox metaverse ecosystem is built around three axes: a marketplace (Marketplace), a creation software (VoxEdit) and a development software (Game Maker)
The Sandbox Marketplace
The Sandbox Marketplace was built on the Ethereum blockchain. It supports ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens and allows creators and players to trade NFTs called ASSETS or LANDs for payment in SAND tokens, which is the native cryptocurrency of The Sandbox. 5% of sales go to the Sandbox Creator And Game Maker Fund which will subsidise certain game creators and projects
VoxEdit
The Sandbox’s modelling software, called VoxEdit, allows you to create ASSETS (game elements) in voxel (the Voxel is to 3D what the pixel is to 2D image, i.e. the basic brick). VoxEdit therefore allows modelling, but also animating creations according to defined scenarios. During the Alpha and Beta phases, only the 1,000 artists who are part of the Sandbox Creator Fund will have the privilege to put their ASSET on sale.
Game Maker
The third pillar of The Sandbox is the Game Maker. The ASSETS developed by the artists are tested in various game experiences. The Game Maker allows users to position and interact with these ASSETS in a piece of LAND (an ERC-721 token).
You must own a piece of LAND or partner with an owner in order to publish a game you have created in it.
Game Maker allows you to define the behaviour of objects according to predefined parameters. No programming knowledge is therefore necessary.
Overview of the world of The Sandbox
What are the tokens in The Sandbox and what are they used for
The Sandbox ecosystem is built around 5 tokens:
- LAND ;
- SAND ;
- ASSET;
- GEM ;
- CATALYST.
Focus on the SAND token
The main token of the virtual universe of The Sandbox is the SAND, used to purchase other digital assets related to this metaverse.
It is an ERC-20 token, which will also be used in the governance of the decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) that will be set up by The Sandbox in the near future.
It is also possible to stake the SAND in order to earn passive income. This is the only way to obtain GEM and CATALYST tokens, both of which are used to enhance the specifics of the game’s items, namely ASSETs, by adding attribute points to them at mint time.
The usefulness of the SAND token is therefore multiple:
- Transactions: artists and players will exchange ASSETs for SAND. SAND is also needed to deposit ASSETS on the market;
- Governance: SAND will be the governance token for The Sandbox DAO. Holding this token will give you a vote in the future development of The Sandbox metaverse, but also in the use of funds dedicated to creators;
- Staking: you can earn passive income by staking SAND on the platform. It is important to note that staking is the only way to farm GEMs and CATALYSTS, which are essential for the creation of ASSETS;
- Fee capture model: 5% of the fees from The Sandbox marketplace will be used to strengthen its cash flow and foundation;
- Foundation: Raises funds that are used to develop the metaverse economy, offering grants to the most deserving artists and projects;
There will be a total of 3 billion SAND on offer. At the time of writing (March 2022), approximately 1.089 billion SAND tokens are in circulation. All of them will be released during 2024.
The other tokens in The Sandbox
The LAND is an ERC-721 token. These NFTs represent parcels of land in The Sandbox metaverse, measuring 96 sqm within the game.
There are a total of 166,464 plots, and this number is not expected to change. Of these plots, about 16% are for partnerships and rewards, and 10% remain the property of The Sandbox team. You then have two ways to monetise your LAND.
The first way is to create a gaming experience on your plot. You can then charge players in SAND tokens to participate. Of course, the better your game, the more successful you will be. Beyond quality, you can also offer an experience in which players can earn SAND.
The second way to monetise it is to rent out your LAND to people who can deploy interesting games. In this way you can ensure a regular passive income, just as you would with a real estate investment.
Adjacent LAND plots can be combined into Estates. These estates can be owned by a single person or a group of owners. The advantage of Estates is that they have greater visibility on The Sandbox world map. For this reason, large companies covet these spaces to establish their digital presence on the metaverse. There are four plot sizes: 3×3, 6×6, 12×12 and 24×24.
Part of the metaverse map of The Sandbox
Estates owned by several people are called Districts. The owners join together to develop the district with a common impetus, with self-governance. Eventually, The Sandbox will allow districts to become full DAOs.
ASSETs are ERC-1155 tokens that allow interaction in The Sandbox. Creators can grant them a certain rarity depending on the number of copies available.
ASSETs are then classified into five categories:
- Wearables: they correspond to everything that will cosmetically customize your avatar. Each part of the avatar’s body can be customized to create a unique avatar;
- Equipments: these are the ASSETS that provide functionality to your avatar. As in most games, equipment offers upgrades and is stored in an inventory or worn by the player. Classically, we find helmets, swords, shields, gloves, etc. ;
- Entities: These ASSETS make up the game environment and its interactivity. They are for example avatars, animals, monsters, landmarks, etc. Creators can program the entities to interact with the player in several predefined scenarios;
- Art: Here we enter the pure aesthetics of The Sandbox. Art ASSETS are used to make the game experience more attractive. We are talking about stylized objects, statues, buildings, etc. ;
- Blocks: These are environmental ASSETS, also cosmetic, but which transform the appearance of the landscape. Water, sand, lava, grass are some examples.
Some of The Sandbox entities as NFTs
The Sandbox fundraising events
The Sandbox has grown significantly over the course of 2021: it has more than 500,000 registered wallets and 12,000 unique virtual LAND owners, and has generated more than $144 million in asset sales since its inception.
The Sandbox’s creator economy is growing rapidly, creating new categories of digital jobs such as NFT creators, virtual architects, game creators, etc.
In order to stimulate this economy, The Sandbox announced in November 2021 that it had secured $93 million in its Series B funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Other investors in the round include Animoca Brands, True Global Ventures, Galaxy Interactive Blue Pool Capital, LG Technology Ventures, executives from GoldenTree Asset Management, Sound Ventures, Polygon Studios and Samsung Next. In parallel, Wedbush Securities acted as exclusive placement agent and financial advisor to The Sandbox and Rubicon Law provided legal advice to The Sandbox.
This investment round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 will help us develop our growth strategy, operations and acquisition of players in The Sandbox ecosystem, while clearly demonstrating that the world’s most innovative fund believes in Web3 and decentralisation as the next major trend,” said Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox.
The Sandbox team and partnerships
The Sandbox team
As we saw at the beginning of this file, The Sandbox was founded by two Frenchmen, Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget.
The Sandbox website shows that the team is scattered all over the world, with more than 200 people.
Key members of The Sandbox team
The Sandbox partners
To date, more than 165 brands and artists have already partnered to create their virtual world in The Sandbox, including Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Atari, The Smurfs, Deadmau5, etc.
Among the French partners, the Casino and Carrefour groups have already invested in plots in The Sandbox, in anticipation of the development of their e-commerce platforms in Web 3. Havas Group also entered the metaverse at the end of February. The company aims to offer brands an immersive experience. Using virtual and augmented reality technology, the company has created “Havas Village” in the metaverse.
High profile LAND owners in The Sandbox include Binance, Bored Ape Yacht Club, CyberKongz, CoinMarketCap, Pranksy, GrowYourBase, MetaKey, Zepeto, Socios, the Winklevoss twins and Bill Lee of Craft Ventures.
In addition, The Sandbox has added the following luminaries to its advisory team: Guy Oseary, founder of management company Maverick, whose clients include Madonna, U2 and Bored Ape Yacht Club; Nicholas Adler, director and brand curator of entertainment icon Snoop Dogg; Thomas Vu, former executive producer and head of franchising and creative at Riot Games; and Mathieu Nouzareth, co-founder of FreshPlanet and creator of SongPop.
Some of the partners of The Sandbox and LANDs in their possession
How to buy SAND tokens
SAND tokens are available on many platforms such as Binance, Kraken, Huobi Global, KuCoin, and many more.
Explanations for buying SAND on Binance
- Register with Binance;
- You will receive an email and will need to click on a link to verify your account;
- Deposit funds on the platform;
- Click on the Market menu and search for the pair SAND/USDT ;
- Now you can buy SAND for the amount of your choice;
- Congratulations You are now in possession of SAND tokens!
Notes and opinions about The Sandbox and its SAND token
The Sandbox is part of the transition from the historical “Free-to-Play” model to the new and improved “Play-to-Earn” model. It is now possible for players to earn money while playing and participating in fun and interactive experiences in The Sandbox metaverse.
What’s more, The Sandbox allows the most talented creators to provide themselves with a passive source of income by developing new game experiences, without the need for constant maintenance of the platform.
However, it should be noted that LAND is not as liquid as the SAND token. Even though demand is very high, it is not possible to buy and sell LANDs on a Binance or Coinbase platform.
Indeed, the interest of a LAND lies mainly in its position on the world map. The NFTs platform OpenSea and the official marketplace of The Sandbox allow to check every attribute of a LAND, and most buyers look for buying opportunities on these platforms. It should also be remembered that the sale of a LAND is accompanied by the sale of all the assets attached to it.
If only 1% of Minecraft and Roblox users tried The Sandbox, nearly 2 million players would enter the metaverse. However, the popularity of the metaverse and the value of its token SAND have increased significantly over the course of 2021, and many more announcements and developments are in the works.
Season 1 of The Sandbox Alpha took place at the end of 2021, and the experience was a real success. While the event was open to everyone, only holders of an exclusive Alpha Pass were able to access the play-to-earn aspect of the game. In total, 5,000 Alpha Passes were distributed free to the community via Twitter and other competitions.
The Sandbox has a lot of contests, especially on its Discord, so be sure to check it out. If you were one of the lucky few to have won an Alpha 1 Pass through these contests, you could have made a nice profit, as these NFTs sold for up to 2.7 ETH on the secondary market, or a whopping $11,300 by the time Season 1 launched on November 29, 2021.
The project’s founders also envision that The Sandbox metaverse could eventually be run entirely by its community, as a decentralised autonomous organisation.
The Sandbox is undoubtedly one of the most promising metaverses and the one with all the chances on its side to succeed. It remains to be seen whether its team will be able to stand up to other technology giants who are also seeking to create the metaverse of tomorrow.
