Founders

The Sandbox was founded by Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget, both from France. Arthur Madrid serves as the CEO, while Sébastien Borget holds the position of COO.^[1][2][3]

Launch

The Sandbox has not yet fully launched, with its official release expected in the latter half of 2023 after additional alpha test periods. The platform has been gradually building its ecosystem and user base, with over 1 million users with connected wallets that have generated over $216 million in gross merchandise value (GMV) as of 2022.^[4][5][6]

Community and Target Audience

The Sandbox targets users and content creators who want to exchange original metaverse experiences and develop and play games.^[7] The platform emphasizes the power of the community by allowing members to be both creators and users.^[8]

Partnerships and Collaborations

The Sandbox has established partnerships and collaborations with over 200 brands and celebrities, with the aim of creating a diverse metaverse.^[5] In addition, The Sandbox has partnered with the World of Women NFT collection to establish the WoW Foundation, committing $25 million over five years to support the foundation's goal of bringing more women into the NFT space and the metaverse through education and mentorship.^[4][9]

Roadmap

The Sandbox released an updated LAND Roadmap for 2023, focusing on empowering the community and promoting innovation among creators. The roadmap includes several milestones and features, such as enabling LAND owners to self-publish experiences by the end of Q3 2023, minting assets as NFTs by the end of Q4 2023, and offering options to create ESTATEs and rent LAND.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Platform and Technical Infrastructure

The Sandbox's technical infrastructure consists of a traditional backend supported by cloud computing, leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its web frontend and Amazon S3 for storing assets before minting them as NFTs.^[5] The platform runs on the Ethereum blockchain for documenting token ownership and asset transactions, and it uses the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) for storing information associated with in-game assets to prevent unauthorized modifications.^[5]

Cinerama Land Sale

In November 2023, Sandbox conducted the CINERAMA LAND sale. LAND represents digital real estate within The Sandbox's Metaverse, utilized by creators for crafting games, social hubs, and dioramas.^[20]

Tokenomics

The Sandbox's economy consists of its native ERC-20 token, SAND, and NFTs.

SAND serves as the utility token on the platform, facilitating transactions and enabling users to interact within the platform's protocol and participate in DAO voting on the project's future.^[8][14]

NFTs in The Sandbox ecosystem represent ownership of digital assets, such as LANDs, which represent digital real estate within the metaverse. There will only ever be 166,464 LANDS available, which can be used to host games, build multiplayer experiences, create housing, or offer social experiences to the community. In addition, NFTs can represent ownership of in-game items and avatar collections, which can be used within the virtual gaming world or traded on the marketplace.^[1][5]

Gaming and Experiences

The Sandbox offers a variety of gaming and immersive experiences for its users, including games, virtual concerts, shows, art exhibits, and social parties.^[15][5] The platform's game engine and tools enable users to create experiences and large-scale games on their LAND plots, allowing them to interact with their NFTs and customize their in-game experiences.^[15][5]

The platform also features a play-to-earn model, empowering players to monetize their time in the metaverse and trade the Ethereum-based utility token, SAND, while participating in a circular economy.^[5]

Asset Creation and Marketplace

The Sandbox platform features tools for asset creation and a marketplace for trading user-generated content. VoxEdit is a voxel editor that allows users to create 3D models and animations for use in games or as NFTs.^[16] The Game Maker tool enables users to build and customize games on their LAND plots, using assets created with VoxEdit or purchased from the marketplace.^[1]

Staking Program

The Sandbox NFT Staking Program was launched on the Binance NFT Marketplace, allowing users to stake their SAND tokens and earn exclusive NFT rewards. The program only supports LAND NFTs held on the Polygon network. Users with LAND NFTs on Ethereum can participate by bridging their LAND NFTs to the Polygon network first and then depositing them into Binance.^[17][14]

No Content for Ownership Rights as of now.

The various NFT collections on The Sandbox ecosystem each have different rarity traits. These rarity traits are determined by factors like scarcity, uniqueness, and utility within the metaverse. For the LAND NFTs, the main rarity trait is Land Type. There are two main Land Types, which are Regular and Premium.^[18]

The platform also collaborates with media companies and celebrities to offer NFTs that can be used as profile pictures and provide additional utility and recognition within the virtual environment. One such example is an NFT collection on The Sandbox inspired by Gordon Ramsay. According to The Sandbox, the 2,333 Ramsay-inspired NFT avatars can be used to roam and play games inside the metaverse.^[19]