What is The Sandbox (SAND)?

What is The Sandbox?

The Sandbox is a sandbox-style virtual world. The project’s metaverse recalls Minecraft, with its blocky aesthetic. Users can freely expand the world, create real estate and items, move around and take part in mini-games.

The project runs on the Ethereum blockchain. Players own parcels of the metaverse represented by non-fungible tokens called LAND. Users can also create in-world objects represented as NFT.

Digital real estate and items are traded on The Sandbox Marketplace. For interacting with the metaverse, transacting on the platform and other purposes, the native SAND token is used.

Who created The Sandbox and when?

The Sandbox was founded by Arthur Madrid and Sebastien Borget in 2011. The game’s predecessor was developed by Pixowl Inc.

Madrid is the project’s chief executive. Before creating the game, he worked at Eurogroup Consulting France. Before The Sandbox, Borget was a project manager at 1-Click Media.

The game debuted in 2012 on iOS, and later on Android. From 2015, Sandbox Evolution was released for mobile devices. Both products were precursors to the current iteration.

In 2018, Animoca Brands acquired Pixowl Inc. The developers then proposed a modern, blockchain-based virtual world, announced at the Pocket Gamer Connect conference.

The marketplace launched on the platform in 2020. The virtual world has been available to play since 2021. As of February 2022, the project remains under development and some features are still unavailable.

The platform is expanding quickly thanks to partnerships with well-known organisations and celebrities. The Sandbox collaborates with American rapper Snoop Dogg, as well as Adidas, Atari and others.

The project raised funds via Binance Launchpad in August 2020, securing $3m through the token sale.

In November 2021, the platform raised $93m from Japan’s SoftBank and other investors.

How is The Sandbox metaverse structured?

The Sandbox is a sandbox-style metaverse in which users roam a virtual world and play mini-games. In such projects, players build the universe and populate it with assets. They are the authors of the content, giving them broad creative freedom.

The Sandbox resembles the iconic Minecraft.

The metaverse spans a grid of 408 by 408 plots, for a total of 166,464.

Users buy land with pre-built objects. Only owners can add and edit content.

Each plot measures 96 by 96 metres. The metaverse is built from voxels (volumetric pixels). In the virtual world, one cubic metre is divided into 32 voxels along each of the three axes.

Players can own estates composed of multiple plots. There are several sizes of real estate:

• Small: contains 9 plots (size 3×3);

• Medium: includes 36 plots (size 6×6);

• Large: contains 144 plots (size 12×12);

• Very large: includes 576 plots (size 12×12).

What can you do in The Sandbox?

The Sandbox is a GameFi project. Players can earn within the gameplay loop.

Registration is required to interact with the virtual world. You need to connect a Web3 wallet (for example, MetaMask) and provide a username and email. You can also register using Google, Facebook or Twitter.

Every participant has an avatar—either a ready-made character or one of their own design.

Users are offered various creative tools. Players can build virtual objects, construct buildings or alter the terrain of plots they own.

The platform provides two tools to help expand the metaverse.

VoxEdit

This is a 3D-modelling program for creating voxel-based assets. Elements are assembled into a composition of coloured cubes, like LEGO. The program supports both static and animated objects.

VoxEdit can be used to create plants, animals, items and structures. It also enables the creation of avatars and wearables (for example, weapons or clothing).

Created objects are non-fungible tokens, allowing them to be exported to the marketplace. Many users earn by selling voxel assets.

Game Maker

Game Maker is a suite for building scenarios. It is designed to populate the metaverse and create mini-games and applications. The tool works with both static and interactive objects.

Deep programming skills are not required to use Game Maker. It works with assets created in VoxEdit. With it, users craft interactive environments on their own estates. Players can also share scenarios with the community.

The Sandbox metaverse is built from objects represented as NFTs. These include buildings, items and wearables. Trading of assets and plots takes place on The Sandbox Marketplace.

After purchase, assets can be used in the metaverse. Game Maker enables users to place them on their own plots.

Landowners have additional income streams. They can charge visitors, rent out plots and earn from mini-games. If they rent out land, they receive income from presentations, training sessions or other events held there.

How does The Sandbox tokenomics work?

The project uses SAND, LAND and ASSETS.

The medium of exchange is SAND, a utility token under the ERC-20 standard. SAND is used on the internal marketplace to trade plots and items. The maximum supply is 3bn coins. The platform charges a 5% fee—levied when creating game objects and scenarios. Part of the proceeds goes to platform development.

SAND staking is available. Users earn in proportion to the amount locked. If a user stakes, they have a higher chance of finding valuable in-game resources, GEM and CATALYST, which are needed to create rare items.

LAND, ERC-721 non-fungible tokens, represent plots in the metaverse. Trading takes place by transferring NFT tokens.

The maximum issuance of LAND matches the number of plots. They can be purchased at public auctions. Sales began in 2019, and most plots have already been sold. A list of auctions is available on the Sandbox Gitbook. In total, 27 sale rounds were held.

At the time of writing, 104,397 LAND tokens are in circulation.

The developers plan to introduce a voting mechanism using SAND and LAND. Users will govern the project via a DAO, set its strategic direction and decide on grants for developers proposing improvements. According to the roadmap, this feature will be added during 2022.

User-created metaverse objects composed of voxels are represented by ASSETS tokens. These are ERC-1155 NFTs. They include static objects and elements that can be attached to an avatar.

How is The Sandbox evolving?

The project’s primary income comes from land sales, part of which is reinvested into platform development. In 2021, revenues totalled $80m. Land sales will continue until 2023.

According to the roadmap, a mobile version of The Sandbox is planned for 2022. The developers will subsequently improve the VoxEdit and Game Maker tools.

Celebrity involvement has helped propel The Sandbox. In December 2021, the platform sold 189 plots next to American rapper Snoop Dogg’s holdings. One sold for 70,903 SAND ($458,038 at the time).

Several companies plan integrations with The Sandbox. In 2022, Warner Music Group will open a music park there. The Italian fashion house Gucci plans to launch an interactive Gucci Vault space in The Sandbox. Designer items purchased will be usable in the virtual world. For this, Gucci has already acquired a plot.