The opportunity for blockchain-based gaming has never been greater. Thanks to the explosive uptake of cryptocurrencies, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and overall decentralized ledger technologies, there’s a global marketplace for gamers looking to buy and sell in-game items on a completely decentralized framework. At the moment, few blockchain gaming ecosystems are geared up for a metaverse type of experience better than Sandbox.
At its core, the Sandbox ecosystem can be broken down into three main parts: the game, the DAO (decentralized autonomous organization), and the social network/ marketplace. The Sandbox game is a creative blockchain-based gaming experience that allows you to create your worlds using virtual in-game assets called LAND
Similar to Minecraft, the player gets access to pre-made templates that enable the building of fully functional in-game assets and utilities, but with NFT-based assets that are decentralised and a play-to-earn business model resembling that of Decentraland. The LAND in Sandbox stands for digital real estate, with each owner having a say in how the platform is run.
The value of each piece of virtual land in Sandbox’s virtual world is determined by its location and closeness to other beneficial features, simulating the real-world real estate experience. Players that join early have an advantage over latecomers since they can earn money from their virtual properties in a variety of ways. Due to this, the value of LAND assets on Sandbox has risen.
Sandbox is creating a unique metaverse-ready gaming environment for its users. wth millions of users already on board, here is a review of what Sandbox has to offer.
SAND Ratings
Developer Engagement
Rating: High Justification: The Sandbox has received a lot of attention as a result of the incorporation of NFTs and a Metaverse design, which has increased developer participation.
Medium Disbursement Rating
Reason: Of the 675 million SAND tokens that are now in existence, only 22% are in circulation. The pre-mined token distribution mechanism used by Sandbox allocates 19% of its tokens to the team, 10% to its advisors, 25.82% to the platforms fund, 17% to the seed sale, 4% to the strategic sale, and 12% to be issued during the ICO.
Liquidity
Rating: High The SAND cryptocurrency has a 24-hour trading volume of nearly $2 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.
Network Speed
Rating: Moderate
Because of the increased network congestion on Ethereum, SAND’s use of the Ethereum blockchain places speed restrictions on its network.
Who Created Sandbox?
Arthur Madrid and Sebastian Borget, co-founders of Pixowl, a software business that develops games using blockchain technology, launched Sandbox. The Sandbox was a mobile-only game that lets players create their own virtual environment before it was integrated with the blockchain. It has been available since 2012. Between 2012 and 2018, the game attracted up to 70 million users thanks to its immediate success on both the Android and iOS platforms.
Players can use SAND, the game’s utility token, to construct digital assets and NFTs on top of the virtual land assets in the game’s most recent iteration, which is currently running on the Ethereum blockchain.
Experts with experience working for major corporations like Facebook and Zynga as well as serial entrepreneurs with a good track record in start-ups make up the team behind the project. What’s even more interesting is that the project’s team wants to offer platform users control over the entire platform through a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)
How Does Sandbox Work?
The focus of the game Sandbox is creating your own environment. To survive in this new world, you’ll need to do everything from gather materials to raise livestock and make tools. Anything is based on the idea that “everything you construct belongs to you,” allowing for a pleasant and engaging way to introduce blockchain technology to general audiences.
The VoxEdit tool, which is part of The Sandbox’s creative play-to-earn paradigm, allows users to design and animate NFT-based elements. You can then trade those assets on the platform’s marketplace and play any game you can think of on Game Make.
How are LAND In-game Assets Used in Sandbox?
Digital properties named LAND are a part of the Sandbox metaverse experience. These may be purchased on the platform’s marketplace with the SAND token and utilised to create a variety of experiences.
For example, players can create their own games on top of LAND, publish those games to earn SAND tokens, or just exchange their LAND for other in-game items. They can even charge other players a fee in SAND tokens to access their LAND.
The key feature of LAND is that every piece is created as an NFT on Ethereum’s public blockchain, making it tradeable and giving owners full custody. There are more than 160K pieces of LAND available on the Sandbox, and big businesses like Atari, Binance, and Coinmarketcap have already seized some of them.
In the game, LAND can be divided into three kinds. The first uses a typical 96 by 96 metre unit. Then there are “Estates,” which are made up of various LANDS and provide a more complicated gaming environment. Districts of land that are held by different players can also be used to work together toward a common goal. A district can be created from two or more adjacent LANDS, and each owner must invest a specified number of SAND tokens in order for the district to be created.
How Many Types of In-game NFTs Are There in Sandbox?
Out of the 10 types of digital assets that could be created using the ERC721 protocol, the platform has built six of them.
The six different categories of NFTs that you can make with the voxel editor are: materials, animals, creatures, props, equipment, and digital collectibles. The Sandbox includes a converter tool that allows users to convert assets into ERC20 tokens.
How is the SAND Token Used?
The platform’s utility token is the SAND token, as was already explained. The first of its many use cases is its use as an ERC20 currency that can be used on the platform to enter games and buy other in-game assets.
Additionally, artists that animate in-game objects on the platforms use SAND. To post their in-game creations to the platform’s marketplace and to purchase Gems that give their in-game creations more rarity and individuality, these creative individuals require SAND.
Another governance token is SAND. It can be used to influence how decisions are made on the platform. As previously indicated, the Sandbox team aspires to be a fully-fledged autonomous decentralised organisation where users and artists have complete control and ownership over the whole network. Users of the platform have the ability to vote using the SAND token on crucial issues like feature prioritisation, giving credit to content and game developers, among other agendas.
Additionally utilised for staking, the SAND token enables platform users to generate passive income. Staking is divided into two stages, the first of which is adding SAND liquidity to decentralised exchanges like Uniswap. The project team is also trying to increase SAND yields on users who own LAND, rewarding LAND owners with SAND. This activity is in addition to liquidity mining.
Additionally, the SAND token is built so that 5% of all transactions are divided in half, with the other half being distributed to stakeholder participants and the other half going to the platform’s foundations. As the platform expands, this raises the aggregate sum granted to stakers.
Where Can I Buy SAND?
There are various exchanges where you can buy SAND tokens, with Binance being the most well-known. You can purchase it using either BTC or ETH, but you’ll need to take specific actions to do so, like opening a wallet and adding your Binance address to it. Here are few additional places where you may purchase SAND besides Binance:
Gemini Kraken Bybit Gate.io Kraken Huobi Global FTX Uniswap KuCoin
SAND Token Advantages
Players can purchase and sell in-game items as well as provide their services on the Sandbox platform by using the utility token known as SAND. Additionally, it serves as a reward for early adopters who stake their SAND on the network, earning dividends from transaction fees in return. The payouts of staking rise over time as more transactions are completed. With a listing on more than 100 cryptocurrency exchanges, the token is also readily accessible.
SAND Token Disadvantages
The biggest drawback of the SAND coin is that, unlike its rivals Decentraland and Sandbox, it is not a deflationary token. This might be a disadvantage for certain traders who want to invest over the long run in a deflationary cryptocurrency project. Additionally, the pre-mined nature of the tokens may result in centralization if the distribution is not done properly.
