Build your own empire on the Blockchain network

21 Sep 2020

  • Sandbox is not an ordinary Blockchain project, but a virtual world.
  • The core of this world is the SAND token. Players can create digital assets in the form of NFTs, transfer these assets to the marketplace and integrate into games with Game Maker.
  • Sandbox wants to create a platform similar to Minecraft, using the Ethereum Blockchain.
  • The Sandbox Foundation will support projects in the Sandbox ecosystem, providing grants to incentivize users to produce high-quality content and more games on the platform. At the time of writing, the Foundation has funded more than 15 game projects and 100 users to produce NFT tokens.

Sandbox (SAND) is one of the most interesting projects that I have seen so far. The most interesting doesn't mean the most potential. To me, the interesting point of Sandbox lies in the business model of the project. If successful, this could be the next – big – thing of the Blockchain world.

I. What is Sandbox (SAND)

Sandbox is not an ordinary Blockchain project, but a virtual world. In this virtual world, users can create another world of their own, using the LAND Token.

Sounds confusing right? Actually, when writing a review of SAND, I was interested in the boldness of this project. Basically, Sandbox wants to create a platform similar to Minecraft, using the Ethereum Blockchain.

For example, you are a normal person, and want to create a simple, easy-to-play game like racing. However, creating a complete racing game takes a lot of time and effort. From graphic design to programming, it takes a lot of work.

Instead of having to learn and create everything on your own, you can use Sandbox, a game design platform with beautiful 8-bit graphics.

“LAND” is the concept of a piece of digital real estate in The Sandbox supermarket that players can buy to experience on. After the player owns a piece of “LAND”, the player will be able to include it in games and ASSETS. Multiple “LAND” can be combined to form an estate.

A total of 166,464 LANDs will be available, contained within a map that will form a fictional universe called The Sandbox.

GEM and CATALYST define ASSET’S levels, scarcity, and attributes. CATALYST adds empty sockets (network sockets) to the NFT that can be filled with GEM. The higher the quality of CATALYST, the more sockets your ASSET has.

Users can monetize their time on the platform, keeping 95% of SAND as a revenue share, by:

Product

With its inherent products, SAND will allow you to create games easily. Currently, Sandbox has 3 main products:

  1. VoxEdit

VoxEdit is a 3D voxel modeling package that allows users to create and design motion for 3D objects such as people, animals, and objects. This software can generate NFTs that can be sold on e-commerce platforms and the black market.

  1. Marketplace

Sandbox Marketplace allows users to upload, publish and sell crypto-assets such as NFTs created in VoxEdit. Assets are initially uploaded to the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) network and will then be registered on the Ethereum blockchain to prove ownership. Assets can be traded if their owners are listed on the market.

  1. Game Maker

Sandbox Game Maker allows players to build 3D games for free, with the help of tools out there, with no complex coding or Blockchain, etc.

Infrastructure

The Sandbox platform currently runs exclusively on the Ethereum network. It is used to record ownership of tokens and allows owners to transfer, sell or use tokens. IPFS is used to store all the relevant information of ASSETS and ensures that this information cannot be changed without the permission of the respective owners - as what we expect from Blockchain.

Standard tokens ERC-20 are used for SAND, GEM and CATALYST tokens, while standard tokens ERC-1155 and ERC-721 are used for LAND and ASSETS storage and transactions.

An overview of the Sandbox architecture is shown below:

Sandbox's game mechanics are built on top of Unity. By using Unity's Universal Render Pipeline (URP), The Sandbox will be able to support future mobile application platforms without fear of losing the quality of the game. The game engine also supports custom Voxel models, animation formats (VXM, VXR, VXA) from VoxEdit.

II. Tokenomic of SAND

SAND has a total supply of 3 billion VND, currently circulating 705,000,000 VND (equivalent to 23.5% of total project supply). The SAND token is used by the project as a Gorveno token, Staking, as well as to exchange, buy and sell items in the Sandbox.

Binance will sell a total of 360 million VND of SAND during the IEO on the platform, equivalent to 12% of the total project supply. Previously, the project sold 17% of the total supply through the seed sale, and 4% through the Strategic sale. One thing to note is that the Seed sale and Strategic sale prices of this project are much lower than the IEO price ($0.036 and $0.05 vs $0.08 for launchpad).

Tokens are also divided among the team quite a lot, the team and Advisors are allocated 29% of the total token, and the company will keep 25% of the token. On the one hand, this tactic will help keep the majority of tokens in the hands of project owners, and they will not release them prematurely, making the token easy to hold in price.

On the other hand, if the project fails, or shows signs of stagnation, the token price will be discharged very quickly because the devs who need the money will be the first sellers. Many projects have painfully learned this lesson after 2017-2018.

Overall, SAND's tokenomic is neither too beautiful nor too ugly. With the current situation, SAND can be pushed x3-x5 against the IEO price ($0.04-$0.05).

III. Some thoughts about SAND

This is an interesting project despite the fact that the idea is not too new. No Blockchain project has carried out this idea like SAND before. Sandbox is not a Blockchain game, nor a dApp gaming platform like WINk, EOS or TRX. Sandbox is a tool on which countless other games can be created, it will be closer to a programming language than a platform. If successful, this is one of the few projects that brings Blockchain to life in the most user-friendly and accessible way.

But that's IF. Through 4 years of researching and investing in Blockchain, I have met too many IF words. For SAND to succeed and become a phenomenon, it MUST have massive support from the community OUTSIDE the Blockchain world. If there is a successful game on the Sandbox platform, the number of users pouring into the project will be very large. However, if not, then this will be a dead Blockchain project like many other projects. For example, we can look at the case of the famous Abyss ICO in 2018, when investors bought and held for 2 years, the price was still decreased by 5 times compared to the ICO selling price.

However, Sandbox also has its own strengths. Project team leads are all experienced people in the world of game development and programming. The team is backed by Binance, and will have strong financial backing to be able to achieve its goal.

Also, pricing on Binance's Launchpad is pretty cheap. The capitalization level of $24-25 million for the project is quite low compared to Bull Market. With the current market conditions, I think SAND can completely achieve a market capitalization of approximately $100 million, about 4 times higher compared to the IEO price.

In my opinion, after being listed on the exchange, if the whole market conditions are not favorable, the SAND will go sideways for a long time. It is not until 2021, 1 year from now, that the price can move sideways and make a new high. At that time, I hope the project will achieve much success, so that Blockchain investors can be proud of a rare project that applies Blockchain to daily life.