What is The Sandbox

The Sandbox is a play-to-earn blockchain game that enables users to develop a virtual environment using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain. Players may construct their avatars to access the numerous games, locations, and centres on The Sandbox metaverse. Think of it as the DeFi version of Minecraft on the blockchain.

Sandbox (SAND) is the native token of The Sandbox. It is an ERC20 utility token that allows you to buy and sell LANDS and ASSETS in The Sandbox metaverse. It is also the governance token of The Sandbox DAO.

A Brief History of The Sandbox

The Sandbox was founded by Arthur Madrid, who is the company's CEO, and Sébastien Borget, who is the COO. It started in 2012 and was primarily on mobile platforms, which gathered more than 40 million global installs on mobile devices. It aims to bring blockchain into mainstream gaming, attracting both crypto and non-crypto game enthusiasts by offering the advantages of true ownership, digital scarcity, monetisation capabilities, and interoperability.

The Sandbox has been laying the groundwork for the Players & Creators 100% Ownership Economy using NFTs and LANDS for the last 3 years. The project has acquired US$3.41 million in funding from strategic investors, including Hashed, Square Enix, and True Global Ventures. Their team has already deployed numerous robust creative tools in beta.

In November 2021, The Sandbox raised $93 million in funding from investors led by the Japanese mobile giant SoftBank. The Sandbox has secured over 60 partnerships to develop content on the platform, including brands like Smurfs, Shaun the Sheep, DApp game studios like Dapper Labs (CryptoKitties), Square Enix (Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider), and iconic game companies like ATARI (Rollercoaster Tycoon, Pong).

How The Sandbox Works

The Sandbox platform is now operated entirely on Ethereum, which records token ownership and enables owners to transfer, sell, or use them freely. IPFS is used to store all ASSETS-related information and assures that the information can't change without the approval of the appropriate owners. The ERC20 standard is utilised for SAND, GEM, and CATALYST tokens, while the ERC1155 and ERC721 standards are used for LAND and ASSETS storage and trading.

The Sandbox supports its web interface with a standard backend operating on the cloud (currently AWS) blockchain integration. An S3 bucket stores the artist's assets before they mint. While The Sandbox now ensures the privacy of an artist's work (to prevent it from being duplicated before minting), the team anticipates that future systems will prohibit even The Sandbox from accessing an artist's work before minting.

When a UGC asset mints, The Sandbox backend publishes the ASSET on IPFS, making it publically tradeable. The Sandbox smart contract stores the hash of each ASSET so that the ASSET's owner can always show ownership of not just the number recorded on the blockchain, (which many initiatives in the blockchain gaming industry stop at) but the voxel model and numerous renderings.

The Sandbox is a dynamic virtual world filled with user-generated creations. Using VoxEdit and Game Maker, players may develop and create their own NFTs, such as avatars, virtual goods, and even games. They may not only utilise the virtual goods to interact with other players, but they can also monetise these NFTs by trading them on the Sandbox Marketplace.

What is The Sandbox Used for

Sandbox's virtual world lets gamers use free design tools to develop and customise their games and digital assets. The virtual goods produced may subsequently be commercialised as NFTs and sold on The Sandbox Marketplace for SAND tokens.

The SAND token is The Sandbox's native token. The token serves as the foundation for all game transactions and interactions. Users can participate in The Sandbox's games and competitions or purchase SAND on cryptocurrency exchanges.

Furthermore, holders may stake SAND inside the game to gain benefits, including a part of the earnings from all SAND token transactions. Most importantly, staking SAND increases your chances of discovering precious GEMs and CATALYSTs, the game materials required for building rarer ASSETS.