The Sandbox (SAND)

Key metrics (as of August 5th 2020)

1. What is "The Sandbox" (SAND)

The Sandbox is a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain using the platform’s utility token SAND.

Players can create digital assets in the form of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), upload them to the marketplace, and integrate into games with Game Maker.

A LAND is a digital piece of real estate in The Sandbox metaverse that players can buy to build experiences on top of. Once player owns a piece of LAND, the player will be able to populate it with games and ASSETS. Multiple LANDs can be combined to form an ESTATE.

A total of 166,464 LANDs will ever be available, contained in a map that will form The Sandbox metaverse.

GEM and CATALYST defines the tier, scarcity, and attributes of ASSET. CATALYST adds empty sockets to the NFTs that can be filled with GEMs. The higher the quality of the CATALYST, the more sockets your ASSET will have.

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

• Selling ASSETS: Users can create and sell ASSETS on the marketplace as NFTs.
• Owning a LAND: Buy a LAND in one of the LAND sales. Players can then rent them or populate them with content to increase the LAND's value.
• Building Games on the Game Maker: Build and monetize games using the Game Maker on the LANDs that are owned by players.

Through the use of ERC-1776, The Sandbox allows platform users to initate transactions on the Ethereum blockchain while transaction gas fees are paid by the platform, optimizing overall user experience.

The Sandbox platform utilizes a fee capture model, where 5% of all transacted value is being collected from marketplace transaction fees. The other 95% of all transacted value is collected from LAND sales, premium NFT sales, and subscription services. A total of 26.50% of all SAND transaction volume goes back into the Foundation. It is calculated as: 5% x 50% + 95% x 25% = 26.50%

The Foundation supports the ecosystem of The Sandbox, offering grants to incentivize high quality content and game production on the platform. As of the time of writing, the Foundation has funded over 15 game projects and granted 100 artists to produce NFTs.

Recent news

• July 2020: Announced LAND presale 4 and introduced The Sandbox's Transportation System.
• June 2020: Released private beta of Game Maker and Treasure Hunt.
• May 2020: Released alpha version of Game Maker and released beta version of VoxEdit.
• April 2020: Introduced GEMs and CATALYSTs and the Value System.
• March 2020: Announced partnership with Atari.

2. Existing products

The Sandbox platform consists of three integrated products that together provide a comprehensive experience for the production of User-Generated Content (UGC). The Sandbox further benefits users by allowing them to secure copyright ownership of UGC through the implementation of NFT standards.

2.1 VoxEdit

VoxEdit is a 3D voxel modeling package that allows users to create and animate 3D objects such as people, animals, foliage, and tools. Voxels, which are the equivalent of square 3D pixels similar to building blocks, can be manipulated using VoxEdit to easily create ASSETS.

2.2 Marketplace

The Sandbox’s Marketplace allows users to upload, publish, and sell their ASSETS made in VoxEdit. ASSETS are first uploaded into an InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) network and then registered on the Ethereum blockchain to prove ownership. ASSETS can be sold by making a sale offer on the Marketplace.

2.3 Game Maker

The Sandbox's Game Maker allows players to build 3D games for free. With the help of visual scripting tools, no coding knowledge is required.

3. Technical infrastructure

The Sandbox platform currently runs exclusively on Ethereum, which is used to record the ownership of tokens and allow owners to transfer, sell, or use them without restrictions. IPFS is used to store all related information of ASSETS, and ensures that this information cannot be changed without the permission from respective owners.

The ERC-20 standard is used for the SAND, GEM, and CATALYST tokens, while ERC-1155 and ERC-721 standards are used for the storage and trading of LAND and ASSETS.

Figure: The Sandbox Tokens

An overview of the overall Sandbox architecture is shown below:

Figure: The Sandbox architecture

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

4. Token sales and economics

4.1 Token allocation

4.2 Token sales data

4.3 Token governance and use of funds

As of writing, The Sandbox team has used approximately 65.00% of funds raised according to the allocations below:

• 52.31% Team
• 27.69% Development
• 15.38% Marketing
• 4.62% Administrative

The Sandbox team holds its funds in crypto, stablecoins, and fiat currencies. Funds are stored in crypto exchanges with 2FA authentication, and EUR bank accounts. Movement of funds requires the approval of at least 2 out of the 3 executives of The Sandbox.

SAND token supply distribution (%)

SAND token release schedule

4.4 SAND token overview and use-cases

The SAND token has the following use cases:

• Medium of exchange: Players can potentially collect SAND through gameplay, and subsequently spend SAND to play games, purchase equipment, or customize Avatar characters. Creators can spend SAND to acquire ASSETS and LAND. Artists can spend SAND to upload ASSETS to the Marketplace and buy GEMs for defining item rarity.
• Governance: SAND allows holders to participate in governance decisions. SAND owners can vote themselves or delegate voting rights to other players of their choice.
• Staking: Users can stake SAND tokens to earn rewards, as well as GEMs and CATALYSTs for ASSETS creation.

5. Project team

6. Roadmap, updates, and business development

6.1 Original roadmap and achievements

6.2 Updated roadmap

2020 Q3

• Public release of Game Maker Beta.
• Launch of LAND token presale 4.
• Release of Marketplace upgrade for SAND purchases, P2P Sales, ASSETS minting with GEM & CATALYST.

2020 Q4

• Launch of the public beta of The Sandbox Game.
• Launch of play-to-earn mechanism.
• Release of multiplayer component.
• Launch of regular LAND token sales.
• Release of VoxEdit 1.0.

2021

• Launch of Foundation DAO with SAND staking.
• Release of Game Maker 1.0.
• Release of The Sandbox Game.
• Release of games on smartphones and tablets.
• Release of user-generated games with multiplayer modes.

2022

• Enabling games on consoles.
• Release of the co-building mode of Game Maker.

6.3 Commercial partnerships and business development progress

• Atari: Atari is a video game company established since 1972. The Sandbox's partnership with Atari will allow Atari to showcase its games and content in The Sandbox gaming metaverse.
• SBS Game Academy: SBS Game Academy is a video game education institution in Korea. SBS Game Academy will develop a curriculum around The Sandbox Game Maker.
• Shaun the Sheep: Shaun the Sheep is a cartoon with its own series and two feature films. Shaun the Sheep's cartoon charactors will be ported to The Sandbox as ASSETS on the platform.
• Matic Network: Matic Network is a blockchain scalability network that aims to provide secure, scalable, and instant transactions powered by Proof-of-Stake side chains. Matic Network will collaborate with The Sandbox team to achieve faster transactions and a better UI/UX experience on The Sandbox platform.

7. The Sandbox's activity and community overview

7.1 Social activity

The Sandbox team currently focuses its community development strategy on the English and Korean speaking audience, and will add support for other languages as the project grows.

Current community growth strategies of The Sandbox include:

• Partnering with content companies to onboard well-known IPs.
• Conducting LAND token sales to promote the generation of user-created content.
• Conducting AMAs to educate the community.
• Constantly engaging with the public on social media channels.

Future community growth strategies of The Sandbox include:

• Conducting staking programs to incentivize community participation.
• Launching play-to-earn mechanism to attract new users.

Community and social channels (data as of August 5th 2020)

Discord | 13.3K Members
Facebook (The Sandbox) | 657.0K Members
Facebook (VoxEdit) | 2.0K Members
Instagram (The Sandbox) | 4.9K Members
Twitter (The Sandbox) | 9.2K Followers
Twitter (Voxedit) | 1.1K Followers
Telegram (English) | 1.0K Members
Telegram (Korean) | 578 Members
Youtube | 56.0K Subscribers
Blog

7.2 Development activity

8. Appendix

• Litepaper
• Whitepaper
• LAND token sales
• Game Maker tutorials
• VoxEdit Tutorials
• AMA

8.1 Advisors

• Yat Siu (Chairman and Co-founder at Animoca Brands)
• Alexis Bonte (COO at Stillfront Group)
• Ed Fries (General Partner at 1Up Ventures)
• Mikhael Naayem (Chief Business Officer at Axiom Zen and CryptoKitties)