December 8, 2021, the record-breaking $4.3 million plot of virtual real estate purchase on Sandbox is the largest property transaction recorded in the Metaverse. It gets exciting! A gamer identified as P-Ape spent about $500,000 to purchase a piece of Land beside Snoop Dogg’s virtual mansion on Sandbox. With Snoop Dogg’s collaboration with the company, partnership with global brands like Adidas, $210 million transactional exchange since Sandbox’s inception in 2012, and apparent Land-grabbing efforts by some NFT giants, reality in the Metaverse is becoming commonplace, and Sandbox is a relevant player.
Sandbox (SAND) is a Tokenized Asset for gaming ecosystems in the Metaverse. The blockchain-based virtual world is community-driven, decentralized, and allows creators/gamers to create Assets, and rent, share and sell their Assets within the gaming market.
In a simpler term, imagine Sandbox as a real-world where you (or a brand or a company) can create Assets (clothes, bikes, cars, sneakers) and share, rent, or sell these Assets to other people.
The Sandbox is a gaming ecosystem that allows gamers to create, sell, and assume absolute ownership of their creations. Unlike the traditional gaming systems where the developers assume control of Assets and place value on Assets created by gamers, Sandbox’s Ethereum-based gaming ecosystem forfeits full control of user-generated content. It creates a more robust revenue-sharing system where developers, users, and gamers can make in-world profits.
The Sandbox (SAND) Marketplace
The Sandbox marketplace provides tokenized Assets, including the SAND—an ERC-20 token used for all ecosystem interactions and transactions. For example, a gamer uses SAND for transactions like avatar customization, equipment purchase, and playing games. In the future, Sandbox creators, Pixowl, intends to empower SAND into a governance token, allowing holders to influence ecosystem changes after they establish the Sandbox decentralized autonomous organization. But, perhaps, the most prominent feature of SAND and the Sandbox marketplace is the virtual Land purchase power of the token. With SAND, gamers can purchase Assets, including digital Lands represented by the ERC-721 NFT, and house their games and other digital Assets on their Lands.
Components of the Sandbox Marketplace
Lands and Estates
Since Facebook changed its brand name to Meta, the Metaverse, including digital Assets, currencies, and Lands, has soared in value. Sandbox’s 4.3million Land sale is a testament. As of writing, the low-average plot of Land, with a 1 (96m) by 1 (96) dimension can sell for anywhere between $11,000 and $13,000, according to a report from Fortune. Likewise, virtual Lands in high-value areas with digital Assets can have a purchase value worth millions.
In Sandbox, users can join adjoining Lands together to form estates. For example, a parcel of Land with a 3 by 3 dimension contains three plots. Sandbox metaverse has 166, 464 Lands, out of which the developers kept about 10% of the Lands for special Sandbox events and reserved extra 25,920 Lands to reward gamers, partners, and creators. As more Lands are bought off from Sandbox, one should expect scarcity in the coming years, leading to Land appreciation and second-hand resale. Second-hand resale answers the question of what happens when Lands finishes on the Sandbox metaverse. People who purchase Lands on Sandbox today are often keen on reselling some parcels in the future, opening doors for new enterers into the virtual marketplace. Albeit decentralized, we should expect that the future value of Land will be determined by factors like Assets on the Land, the influence of the avatar’s real-life persona, and demand-supply chain, amongst others.
Another feature of Lands in the Metaverse is its importance in creating digital concerts, tours, meets, and greets. Epic’s Fortnite Travis Scot concert is a perfect example that saw over 12.3 million players participate. The concert, tagged by Forbes as a “Stunning spectacle,” was mind-blowing, but yet a glimpse at what Blockchain-based metaverses like Fortnite and Sandbox will achieve in the future. The near future for Sandbox includes a partnership with Adidas, The Walking Dead, The Smurfs, and over 160 global brands. Through its official Twitter account, Adidas announced a partnership with Coinbase and has a parcel of Lands in the Sandbox metaverse.
The Snoop Dogg – Sandbox collaboration is exciting, as it represents a revolution in hip-hop, from the millions of fans across the globe willing to interact with Snoop’s avatar on Sandbox to inviting Snoop to perform on a fan’s Land. Snoop, on December 2021, announced on Twitter that there is an early access pass for people who want to experience his metaverse mansion. Snoop’s home exhibition entries include private passes at $5,700 per pass. Other Landowners on the Sandbox metaverse charge gamers and individuals rent fees for either touring or renting their virtual space.
VoxEdit
With Voxedit, users can create animated 3D objects, including tools like motorcycles, bikes, cars, animals, and avatars. Each thing created in the Sandbox metaverse is an Asset created on the ERC-115 token standard and can be minted either as an NFT or a fungible token. Gamers and users can create and mint Assets as they please. They can also fill their Lands with these Assets or sell off the Assets in the marketplace.
SandBox Marketplace
The Sandbox Marketplace is a digital arena where users can sell their Assets. Before selling an Asset, a user must upload the Asset to the IFPS—InterPlanetary File System.
Game Making
With the Sandbox Game Maker, gamers and users can create 3D games entirely free without coding knowledge. The extensive and deeply immersive tool helps people make game Assets and quickly incorporate the Assets into the marketplace, enhancing interaction with other users who may like the game.
Understanding The Sandbox Ecosystem
Sandbox is undoubtedly one of the biggest gaming platforms—and its stance in the virtual reality world has pushed digital Asset creation, storage, transfer, and avatar interaction seamless. The platform covers Ethereum gas fees for players and offers 50% of the SAND token transaction volume to support the virtual ecosystem and the Sandbox foundation. Sandbox pays for Ethereum gas fees on behalf of players, making the user experience more seamless. Additionally, 50% of the SAND token transaction volume is allotted to The Sandbox Foundation, supporting the ecosystem by funding grants and promoting the platform.
How to Make Money in Sandbox
Create Assets With VoxEdit and Sell as NFTs
The Sandbox allows users to create Assets, from motorbikes to avatars, animals, and vehicles, and sell them on the Sandbox marketplace. The value of one Asset differ from the other, and can range from a few SANDs, a few thousand SANDs, to tens of thousands of SANDs.
Create Your Game
Sandbox Gamemaker allows users to create their own game through the Game maker’s interactive and easy-to-use UI. Then, after completing your game, you can monetize it and earn as other players play the game.
Rent or Sell Land
Rent or sell your Land to other users for a price. You can increase your LAND value by populating it with Assets. Like Snoop, you can offer visitors a tour of your estate—of course, for a price. You can also invest in Lands you think might become more valuable in the future and sell either on the Sandbox marketplace or on any third-party NFT exchange like Rarible or OpenSea.
Understanding Sandbox Tokens
An Asset
A creator can upload an Asset into the Sandbox marketplace—thus, into the Blockchain ecosystem, and then convert it into Non Fungible Tokens in the smart contract ERC-1155. The ERC-1155, an Ethereum Blockchain Standard, allows users in the Sandbox Metaverse to mint several copies of the same Asset. That is, with the smart contract ER-1155, you can mint a Non-Fungible Token –NFT (Remember that NFTs are not exchangeable; instead, they are unique digital Assets. Hence, one NFT cannot be exchanged for another NFT). However, with the ER-1155, you can create an NFT Asset and mint the Asset into many replicates.
With the feature, creators can create NFTs, say a bike, through the smart contract ERC-721 and then mint many copies of the same bike through the smart contract ERC-1155 and sell in the marketplace.
Categories of Assets
Entity
An entity is a single-level design in the ecosystem. For example, an entity can be an ax, a tree, a bird, or a dragon.
Equipment
Equipment can be used for attack or defense and is added to your avatar. Equipment can be a shield, a spear, or even a flower. As you adventure through Sandbox, you can create and mint special equipment for your avatar and improve your strength, speed, power, magic, and luck.
Block
The Sandbox Metaverse Game Player comprises basic blocks; however, players can create their blocks for a unique user experience.
References
David Hamilton, January 5, 2022, “Investing in the Sandbox: Everything You Need to Know.” Retrieved from: https://www.securities.io/investing-in-the-sandbox-sand-everything-you-need-to-know/
CoinMarketCap Data: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/the-sandbox/ratings/
Harry Robertson (December 27, 2021) “A co-founder of the metaverse explains what on earth is going on in the metaverse –where land is selling for millions, and Snoop Dogg is hanging out.” Retrieved from: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/metaverse-the-sandbox-virtual-world-land-sales-decentraland-nfts-crypto-2021-12
Sebastian Borget (December 23, 2021) “The Sandbox (SAND): Tokenized Assets for Gaming Ecosystem.” Retrieved from: https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/the-sandbox-sand-crypto-nft-virtual-world
Kyli Logan (December 9, 2021) “Snoop Dogg is Developing a Snoopverse, and Someone Bought a Property in His Virtual World for almost $500,000.” Retrieved from: https://fortune.com/2021/12/09/snoop-dogg-rapper-metaverse-snoopverse/
Tim Hakki (November 27, 2021) “Adidas Goes Full Metaverse with Coinbase Partnership and the Sandbox Real Estate.” Retrieved from: https://decrypt.co/87087/adidas-goes-full-metaverse-with-coinbase-partnership-and-the-sandbox-real-estate
Bharat Sharma (December 11, 2021) “Another Virtual Record: Virtual Plot Worth $4.3million Sold on Metaverse.” Retrieved from: https://www.indiatimes.com/technology/news/virtual-plot-worth-43-million-sold-metaverse-556305.html
Natasha Dailey, (January 7, 2022). “The Cheapest Piece of Metaverse Land You Can Buy is Going for a Whopping $11,000” Retrieved from: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/metaverse-land-plots-decentraland-sandbox-selling-for-11000-2022-1
