Sandbox in focus, step into the metaverse

By Austras | Crypto in focus | 2 Dec 2021

People have been dreaming of creating and existing in a digital world. This metaverse has sparked a trend that has sent several underdogs in the crypto world flying. Facebook/Meta wasn't first company to attempt this, Sandbox actually came out in 2012, but why is it sparking in value now and have it always been a blockchain?

Background

The original version of The Sandbox was a game for phones and windows, where you basically played as a god discovering new elements. Wait, what? This game I actually played myself back in 2014 and enjoyed quite a bit, but The Sandbox we know today isn't the mobile game developed by Pixowl in 2012. Animoca Brands acquired Pixowl and gained the rights for their IPs in 2018. The project was still headed by Arthur Madrid but development shifted completely. The Sandbox we know today was put in development and launched their test-net in June 2020. The full launch of the game is very close and is garnering some well deserved hype.

The info about SAND on Coinmarketcap has several errors, always DYOR or you would've believed that SAND was around in 2012

The history for The Sandbox is relatively brief apart from the confusing aspect of the IP starting as a phone game. Our version that we think of when we think about The Sandbox is launching their Alpha as I'm writing this. It's garnered a great deal of attention and investment, despite not being fully launched yet.

Network

SAND is a ERC-20 token that uses both the underlying blockchain and their own Proof of Stake to keep the network secured. The protocol is fairly simple, it allows users to submit their own voxel assets made through the program Voxedit as NFTs. NFTs are stored on the IPFS (interplanetary file system) and Unity used to render the assets in game. The entire world is a sandbox where users can create their own world and games freely, nothing is pre-built.

Staking rewards comes from a 5% transaction fee on all purchases/sales which is split 50/50 to stakers and the foundation. The foundation & company allocated almost 50% of the total amount of SAND to themselves (foundation, company reserve & founders). All assets are either in crypto exchanges or European bank accounts in the form of fiat, crypto or stablecoins. Any movement of the funds or reserve requires 2 out of 3 executives' approval.

Use cases

The use case for Sandbox is very loose, it's a game that users build. The main purpose of the token itself is to trade NFTs and LAND. NFTs being the in-game assets and LAND being locations where creators can place and build worlds for players to enjoy. There is a total of 166,464 LAND that can be bought, several pieces of LAND can be put together to form a ESTATE. If the LAND forming an ESTATE is owned by several people it's known as a district.

Creators can place prices or fees for participating in their games or set up so that players can earn rewards for playing their game. Nothing, as stated before, is pre-built, so how any part of the game world will function is entirely up to the players. There can be theme parks, play to earn minigames or premium gaming experiences. All in game assets is made using Voxedit and follows the same three-dimensional pixel style known as voxels.

Sandbox today

The team behind The Sandbox is very experienced in game creation and seems to be a perfect fit for this endeavour. With the impending main-net launch several large companies (such as Atari) which have put this project in the eyes of the public. But as you can see on its price chart the hype for it is fairly recent. The announcement of the Metaverse has caused investors to flock here and cause the price to go up. The Sandbox seems like a fun project that many people are interested in. But if it's just hype around the Metaverse or if its something that will stay we'll see with time as the Metaverse unfolds.