The Sandbox NFT project review

What is The Sandbox?

The Sandbox is mainly a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences, all on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform was envisioned to compete with major game makers like Minecraft and Roblox, by providing its creators with ownership of their creations in the form of NFTs, and rewarding them for their participation in the Sandbox ecosystem.

The Sandbox also provides users with free software, such as VoxEdit and Game Maker, that can be used to create digital assets, games, dioramas, and art galleries. All of these can be monetized and provide their creator with a passive income.

Naturally, The Sandbox also features a built-in NFT marketplace that allows the trading of tokenized in-game assets for various games. 

How does The Sandbox work?

The platform’s products - VoxEdit, Game Maker, and its Marketplace provide users with broad user-generated experience possibilities in a copyrighted environment.

VoxEdit is a voxel editing tool developed by The Sandbox. A voxel represents a value on a regular grid in a three-dimensional space, in 3D computer graphics. The tool enables artists to create voxel assets in the form of ERC-1155 that can be used in games in The Sandbox metaverse. The tool can also be used in the creation of player avatars, which just like all other VoxEdit created products can be sold in The Sandbox marketplace. 

VoxEdit contains a modeler where users can create their models from scratch, a Rigger - where already created models can be animated and bone-like structures can be created, as well as a Templates section containing templates of skeleton structures that can be used as a base for the animation of models. Currently, VoxEdit is advertised as the only software capable of exporting assets to The Sandbox Marketplace.

The Game Maker tool allows users to build 3D games for free from scratch with no coding experience required, due to its visual scripting tools. These games can then be deployed on LAND purchased from the Marketplace and can integrate assets built by the VoxEdit tool. The Game Maker also features numerous different themes for the plots of LAND, templates filled with assets, and gameplay elements that can be edited, there are also various preset rules and objectives that creators can modify. The Game Maker can be used in the creation of NPCs, where the platform provides four preset behaviors that can be further customized. All assets imported in the Game Maker can be transformed into NPCs and may include Quests behavior. 

Just like all other assets customizable in the Game Maker, so is the player’s avatar, whose run and sprint speeds, as well as the jump force, attack damage, attack speed, and health can be edited to suit each creator’s taste. 

The Sandbox Marketplace is where users can purchase digital plots in the form of LAND NFTs, as well as all kinds of game assets also in the form of NFTs. All trades on The Sandbox Marketplace are done in SAND tokens, and sellers are allowed to determine the value of their NFTs, on top of which The Sandbox adds a 5% fee, split between a foundation fund to support creators and a staking fund. 

How to use The Sandbox?

The Sandbox Metaverse contains plots of LAND in the form of ERC-721 NFT tokens where users can build their creations and interact with other Sandbox players. The ecosystem also includes SAND tokens used to facilitate various transactions part of the gameplay, including the purchase of LAND and interacting with user-generated content. 

Therefore, as a first step to using The Sandbox app, and creating a Sandbox account, users need to connect a wallet The Sandbox supports and get hold of some SAND tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Currently, The Sandbox wallet support includes MetaMask, Coinbase wallet, Bitski, and Venly, however, on the official documentation webpage of the project there is a disclaimer that some hardware wallets such as Ledger are also supported and if a user wishes to connect with such a device, they need to choose the MetaMask option when registering. Detailed guides on registering an account on The Sandbox are available in the project’s documentation.

Once registered, users can browse The Sandbox map available on the website of the dApp and can choose a plot to purchase from the built-in Marketplace. LANDs' proximity to large partners and other key positions is said to play a role in the gameplay, visitor counts, economy, and accessibility of the experiences built on top of the plots. LANDs can be combined into larger ESTATEs and DISTRICTs as long as they are adjacent to each other, which can always be split into their building parts.

VoxEdit and the Game Maker tool are free for download and available on The Sandbox webpage. There's a 5-percent fee The Sandbox charges its Marketplace users for each trade.

The Sandbox SAND token staking

Following the discontinuation of the Ethereum liquidity-providing program, the Sandbox team has created various liquidity programs on Polygon, with plans for more opportunities coming in the future. 

SAND holders who provide liquidity to the SAND/MATIC pairs on Polygon are eligible for a monthly allocation of SAND accrued from trading fees. Rewards are distributed pro-rata relative to a trader’s percentage of total liquidity over the course of a one-month period. SAND staking can be accessed from users’ profiles after clicking on the Staking tab, where users can see all details on the staking programs available. 

The second Sandbox staking program available to SAND holders requires the bridging of SAND to Polygon for mSAND and is handled by a service called Biconomy. The program started in February 2022 and in its first four weeks, 500,000 mSAND was redistributed weekly, as planned. Apart from fees for bridging SAND from Ethereum to Polygon, mSAND staking is gasless, provided a user hasn’t used up their monthly quota of gasless transactions. Following the first four weeks, mSAND stakers are eligible for a share of 500,000 mSAND monthly. All rewards on this program can be claimed each week. 

The SAND token

SAND is an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain. The token is The Sandbox’s utility and governance token and is the currency of the project’s ecosystem. It is used for buying and selling NFTs from the Sandbox Marketplace. The token is also required when playing some of the games created in The Sandbox metaverse, depending on the creators’ discretion. The token can also be used to hire and pay game designers and visual artists to create assets and collaborate on projects. Sandbox players are allowed to host contests on their LANDs and give SAND tokens as rewards. 

The total supply of SAND is 3 billion tokens, and there are no plans on introducing burning mechanics to it. Of the 3 billion total supply of SAND, 12% were allocated for a Binance Launchpad sale, 17.18% were allocated for a Seed Sale, 4% went for a Strategic Sale, 12% were kept by the Sandbox Foundation tasked with the project’s development, 19% were given to the core Sandbox team, 10% were given to strategic advisors, and 25.82 were kept by The Sandbox in the form of a Company Reserve.

SAND holders wishing to exercise their voting right and participate in the governance of the platform can do so on key elements such as Foundation grand attributions and game creators and feature prioritization on the platform’s roadmap. Voting rights can also be delegated to other users.

Is The Sandbox safe?

The Sandbox was founded in 2011 by Arthur Madrid - the current CEO of the company and Sebastien Borget who acts as the COO of The Sandbox. Other Sandbox team members include Marcelo Santurio - CFO, and Lucas Shrewsbury - CTO. In 2018, the brand was acquired by Animoca Brands and has acted as its subsidiary since. 

All of The Sandbox audits can be found on the project’s dashboard on this webpage.

Partners

The Sandbox is one of the most prominent Metaverse projects and as such features many collaborations both with artists and companies. Among the celebrities to own digital plots of land where they promote themselves or just enjoy interacting with their fanbase and The Sandbox community are Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Will Smith, Orlando Bloom, former Walt Disney president Michael Ovitz, and famous Japanese football player Honda Keisuke.

Famous brands to own a digital plot in The Sandbox Metaverse include Adidas, Atari, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Care Bears, The Smurfs, The Walking Dead franchise, Deadmau5, and many more. 

What's next?

The Sandbox roadmap for 2022 includes a progressive opening of the Sandbox metaverse to LAND owners who have built high-quality experiences. During Q2 2022, the company plans to establish a DAO with staking and voting mechanisms for SAND, LAND, and AVATAR holders. In Q3, The Sandbox users should expect the launch of the first virtual concerts by Deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin, and the launch of the Walking Dead game. In Q4 2022, the team is expected to roll out a mobile version of the Sandbox app. Other goals for 2022 include the establishment of more partnerships and games platforms, availability of games on consoles, regular LAND sales, and a Co-Building Mode for the Game Maker app, as well as major updates for the VoxEdit tool.

Links

https://sandboxgame.gitbook.io/