What is The Sandbox?
The Sandbox is a virtual world in the sandbox genre. The project’s metavirtual universe resembles Minecraft, which uses “cubic” graphics. Users can freely develop a virtual world, create real estate and objects, move and participate in mini-games.
The project is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Players own portions of the metaworld, which are non-interchangeable LAND tokens. Users create virtual world objects represented as NFTs.
Digital real estate and objects are traded on The Sandbox Marketplace. SAND utility tokens are used for interaction with the metaviverse, calculations on the platform and other purposes.
Who created The Sandbox and when?
The Sandbox was founded by Arthur Madrid and Sebastian Borge in 2011. The game’s predecessor was developed by Pixowl Inc.
Madrid is the CEO of the project. Before creating the game, he worked at Eurogroup Consulting France. Borge served as project manager at 1-Click Media before The Sandbox.
The game was introduced in 2012 for the iOS operating system and later for Android. Since 2015, Sandbox Evolution was released for mobile devices. Both products are the predecessors of the modern solution.
In 2018, Animoca Brands acquired the studio Pixowl Inc. After that, the developers proposed a modern implementation of a virtual universe built on blockchain. The project was announced at the Pocket Gamer Connect conference.
The trading floor appeared on the platform in 2020. The virtual universe is available for gameplay from 2021. At the time of writing, the project is still being finalized and some features are not yet available.
The platform is growing rapidly thanks to partnerships with well-known organizations and celebrities. The Sandbox has partnered with American rapper Snoop Dogg, Adidas, Atari and others.
The project raised funds through Binance Launchpad in August 2020. The developers received $3 million from the token sale.
In November 2021, the platform raised $93 million from Japan’s SoftBank and other investors.
How does The Sandbox Metaworld work?
The Sandbox meta-universe is designed as a sandbox – users move around the virtual world and participate in mini-games. In such projects, players shape the universe and fill it with objects. They are the authors of the content, which provides them full freedom of action.
The Sandbox is similar to the iconic Minecraft.
The metaworld is set in a 408 by 408 area, with a total of 166,464 plots.
Users buy properties with pre-created objects. Only owners can add content and edit it.
Each area is 96 by 96 meters in size. The metaworld consists of voxels (volumetric pixels). In the virtual world, one cubic meter is divided into 32 voxels at three coordinates.
Players can own areas with multiple plots. There are properties of different sizes:
- Small: contains 9 plots (size 3×3);
- Medium: contains 36 plots (size 6×6);
- Large: includes 144 plots (size 12×12);
- Extra large: includes 576 plots (size 12×12).
What can I do in The Sandbox?
The Sandbox is a GameFi-like project. Players have the opportunity to earn as part of the gameplay.
In order to interact with the virtual world, registration is required. This requires you to connect a Web3 Wallet and enter your username and email. When registering you can use your Google, Facebook or Twitter account.
Each participant has an avatar – you can use a ready-made character or create your own.
Users are given various opportunities for creativity. Players can create virtual objects, build buildings or change the topography of the areas they own.
The platform provides two solutions to develop the meta universe.
VoxEdit is a 3D modeling program that allows you to create objects from voxels. The elements are assembled into a single composition of colorful cubes like a LEGO constructor. The program is designed to implement static and animated objects.
In the meta-universe, the tool allows you to create plants, animals, objects and structures. With its help you can realize avatars and wearable objects (for example, weapons or clothes).
Created objects are non-interchangeable tokens. This allows you to export them to a marketplace. Many users make money by selling voxel objects.
Game Maker is a software package for creating scenarios. The solution is designed to fill the meta-universe, implementing mini-games and applications. The tool can work with static and interactive objects.
You don’t need deep programming skills to use the program. It allows working with objects obtained with VoxEdit. With the help of the program, users create interactive environments on their own territories. Players can also share scenarios with community members.
The Sandbox’s metavirtual universe is built from objects represented as NFTs. These include buildings, objects, and wearable items. Objects and plots are traded on The Sandbox Marketplace.
Once purchased, they can be used in the metaworld. The Game Maker tool allows you to place objects on your own plots.
Property owners have additional sources of income. They can charge fees to visitors, rent out areas, and make a profit from mini-games. In the case of rentals, they generate income from presentations, training sessions, or other events held there.
How is the tokenomics of The Sandbox structured?
The project uses SAND, LAND and ASSETS assets.
The means of payment is SAND cryptocurrency – utility-token of ERC-20 standard. SAND is used on the internal marketplace for trading plots and objects. The issuance limit is 3 billion coins. The commission of the platform is 5% – it is charged for the creation of game objects and scenarios. A portion of the fees goes towards the development of the platform.
SAND stacking is available to users. They receive profits in proportion to the amount of assets blocked. If the user has contributed to the stacking, he has a better chance of finding valuable game resources GEM and CATALYST. The latter are needed to create rare objects.
LAND, non-exchangeable tokens of the ERC-721 standard, are plots of the meta universe. They are traded through the transfer of NFT tokens.
The maximum issue of LANDs corresponds to the number of plots. They can be purchased at public auctions. Trading began in 2019, with most of the plots already sold out. A list of the auctions held is available on Sandbox Gitbook. A total of 27 rounds of sales have been held.
As of this writing, there are 104,397 LAND tokens in circulation.
The developers plan to create a mechanism for voting using SAND and LAND. Users will be able to manage the project through the DAO, determine the direction of its development and decide to allocate funds to developers who propose improvements. According to the roadmap, the feature will be added in 2022.
The user objects of the metacomplex, which consist of voxels, are represented by ASSETS tokens. These are NFTs of the ERC-1155 standard. These include stationary objects and items that can be attached to an avatar.
How is The Sandbox developing?
The project gets its main income from the sale of plots, directing part of it to the development of the platform. In 2021, revenues totaled $80 million. The sale of plots will continue until 2023.
According to the roadmap, a mobile version of The Sandbox is scheduled to launch in 2022. Developers will further improve the VoxEdit and Game Maker tools.
Celebrities have a significant influence on the promotion of The Sandbox. In December 2021, the platform sold 189 plots next door to the property of American rapper Snoop Dogg. One of them sold for 70,903 SAND ($458,038 at the time).
A number of companies are planning to integrate with The Sandbox. Warner Music Group will open a music park there in 2022.
Italian fashion house Gucci plans to implement an interactive Gucci Vault space at The Sandbox. Purchased designer items will be available for use in a virtual universe. Gucci has already purchased the site for this purpose.