A guide to The Sandbox
The Sandbox empowers gamers to monetise their creativity in an NFT metaverse.
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What is The Sandbox?
The Sandbox is a decentralised world-building game that utilises blockchain technology. It is a platform that enables users to play, create and monetise voxel assets and gaming experiences. Voxel assets are 3D pixels that can be used to create 3D digital items.
Players can create digital assets through the free VoxEdit software. These assets can be turned into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), then uploaded to The Sandbox marketplace. There they can be sold to other Sandbox players. Assets purchased in the marketplace can be added to your inventory, used on your LAND or avatar, put into a game, or resold on the marketplace.
Players can utilise the free Game Maker software provided by The Sandbox to develop and monetise their own games using assets from the marketplace. The Game Maker software is as intuitive as the VoxEdit software is for creating assets. Neither requires prior experience in coding. This makes it an easy on-ramp for anyone who has ever been tempted to try creating their own game. Games can be uploaded to land and creators can receive rewards and payments from players who engage with their content.
The Sandbox utilises the power of blockchain technology and flips the traditional gaming experience on its head. Players and content creators are rewarded in a virtuous cycle that results in a dynamic gaming experience.
What are NFTs in The Sandbox?
To understand the true potential of The Sandbox, it is important to understand the importance of NFTs. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are key to the game's economy and mechanics. Fungibility simply refers to something that is easily exchangeable. $1 is fungible because it can be exchanged for almost anything. Things that are non-fungible are things that are not easily exchanged, things that have unique qualities, and a unique valuation. NFTs are basically items that have a unique stamp of authenticity making them collectible. NFTs in The Sandbox are recorded on the Ethereum blockchain. This means they have an immutable record of who owns them.
NFTs are vital to the ecosystem of The Sandbox because anyone can become an asset or game creator. The more unique and appealing the asset is, the more players will be willing to spend on it. This helps promote a virtuous loop within the game by incentivising asset creators to create the most exciting assets for the game. It enables an infinite number of possibilities for creators and increases the overall player experience as a result.
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How does play to earn work within The Sandbox?
Players can interact with The Sandbox through their unique avatar. They can roam the Sandbox world, view other players' content, play games that other players have created, or attend events on other players' land. Alternatively, they can interact with The Sandbox through creating assets for the marketplace or a game by the game maker software within the game.
What is SAND?
SAND is the native utility token within The Sandbox game. It is an ERC-20 token that is built on the Ethereum blockchain. It is used for everything within the game and is the basis for all transactions and interactions. SAND's uses include:
- Gaining access to other players' land and games they have created.
- It is used by content creators to upload their content to the marketplace and buying GEMs used for defining the rarity of their created assets.
- SAND is a medium of exchange within the marketplace for purchasing assets
- SAND is the governance token for voting within the game. SAND owners can vote themselves or delegate their voting rights to another player.
- SAND is used for staking to earn additional rewards.
Tokenomics
What is significant about the tokenomics of The Sandbox is that every transaction in the marketplace introduces a 5% fee capture. This fee is then redistributed through staking SAND rewards, rewarding creators through funding, and rewarding players for simply interacting within The Sandbox universe. Players are constantly rewarded for interacting within the world, giving them SAND tokens that they can reinvest into the world and support the asset or game creators they are interacting with.
Where can I buy SAND?
SAND is readily available on most cryptocurrency exchanges at this time.
How to play The Sandbox
The Sandbox was originally launched in 2012 as a mobile game. However, the release of it as a blockchain-based NFT metaverse has been delayed. The roadmap indicates that the progressive opening of the Metaverse to landowners won't occur until Q1 2022. This opening will also be restricted to landowners who have built high-quality experiences.
The launch of the DAO with staking and voting mechanisms won't launch until Q2 2022 and we can expect the launch of the first virtual concerts to occur in Q3 2022 with Deadmau5.
How does LAND work?
LAND is an ERC-1155 token that can be bought and sold on Opensea.io. LAND is essentially a small piece of digital real estate within The Sandbox. Players can customise their LAND into a unique space where they can host games, build multiplayer experiences, create housing, or offer social experiences to the community.
Players can be as creative as they want with their LAND or rent out their property to other players. Through customising their space, players are able to monetise their LAND ownership through charging players entrance fees to play games or attend events that they host like a concert, show or viewing party.
The Sandbox overview
The Sandbox is in its infancy, but has the potential to be a thriving metaverse. It can be a launchpad for content creators to build their own world and portfolio while generating an income. It can be used as an income property for players who own LAND and wish to rent or resell their virtual property. It can be used for social gatherings and events to connect with friends and other Sandbox users, or simply for gamers who enjoy world-building games and have not yet been introduced to cryptocurrency.
The Sandbox's success will ultimately be determined by the player base. If it is a fun interactive game for players then the sky's the limit.
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