Top 5 Things to Know About The Sandbox Metaverse

Since Facebook changed its name to Meta in October 2021 and became a metaverse-focused company, that was the moment that Metaverses officially made it and became the next big thing in the crypto market and the tech industry.  

One of the metaverse projects that has received much interest is the Sandbox (SAND). It is a play-to-earn game that combines blockchain technology, gaming, DeFi, and NFTs, all in a 3D metaverse package. The Sandbox has a little of everything, checking all the necessary boxes, which may help it become the first real hit amongst metaverse projects in the current game market.

The key idea behind The Sandbox is building and using your creativity.  Similar to other popular building games like Minecraft. Except with the Sandbox, users can build their virtual world using NFTs. Users can build practically anything using the easy-to-use GameMaker 3D software in the game, with the only limit being their imagination. Because it is a play-to-earn game, users can also profit from playing it. 

There will be a combination of free-to-play and paid games in The Sandbox. The game creator can decide whether they charge for the game or not.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are an essential aspect of The Sandbox, used to verify digital assets in the game. These include verifying ownership of items and creations and also land ownership.

The Sandbox game comprises a large world map broken into small areas called lands. Only 166,464 LAND plots will exist and can be purchased or sold as NFT real estate. The owners of these LANDs can build, customize and improve their areas using other NFTs from the marketplace to increase their value and sell them to earn profits. Premium LAND owners can also become landlords by renting out their real estate to other users or companies, creating the ability to earn a passive income.  

There are other ways to earn, such as charging an entry fee to your land, attending virtual events, or playing games. Groups of users can even combine LANDs to make a larger region called ESTATEs in hopes of attracting more paying users. Additionally, $SAND token holders can lock up their coins and stake them to earn a passive income.

The Sandbox team has begun receiving attention from many well-known brands and influencers. The project already boasts partnerships with brands such as Adidas, The Walking Dead, Atari, Square Enix, Snoop Dogg, and more. These partners have already purchased virtual land and built unique experiences that players can access.

The Sandbox comprises three main products:

VoxEdit

VoxEdit is the software in The Sandbox that allows you to create, rig, and animate your own voxel-based NFTs. Each creation is its own NFT and is called an ASSET. They’ve broken into categories: avatars, entities, equipment, wearables, art, and more. You can use these created items to improve your land or equipment in games on the Sandbox.

After creating your ASSET, you can sell it on The Sandbox Marketplace or buy other users' creations.  Creators can keep 95% of profits, while the remaining 5% is split up and shared with the Foundation Fund and staking pool. Options for creating NFTs on The Sandbox are unlimited. 

The Sandbox Marketplace

The Marketplace is where you can buy and sell ASSETs from The Sandbox. You can use every available ASSET available on the marketplace within the game. Use cases range from improving your LAND, customizing your avatar character, using the ASSETs in your games that you’re creating in the Sandbox's virtual worlds, and more.

Tokenized ASSETs purchased and sold on The Sandbox's Marketplace and secondary markets would be interoperable between different metaverse games and platforms.

Game Maker

Game Maker is a free, easy-to-use tool available in the Sandbox. It allows game designers to build games for playing in The Sandbox metaverse. The best part is that games generated in The Sandbox require no coding experience, meaning anyone with an idea can get started.  

The Game Maker software allows game developers to design, test, and share experiences such as games within The Sandbox. As usual, you can build anything you imagine with The Sandbox.

The native token of The Sandbox is the SAND token, an ERC-20 token designed on the Ethereum blockchain. SAND serves as the platform's utility token, is used as a medium of exchange, and functions as The Sandbox's governance token.

As a medium of exchange, the Sandbox coin powers the economy and makes in-game purchases for everything within the game. Use cases for SAND tokens include: 

> Buying and selling LAND 

> Buying and selling ASSEts

> Playing games and enjoying play-to-earn (P2E) experiences 

> Staking SAND to earn rewards 

> Participating in contests and earning incentives 

> Contributing to The Sandbox’s decentralized governance 

A key note is that The Sandbox plans to move to Polygon, a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum. The move will drastically lower the transaction fees for participating in The Sandbox community and its ecosystem.  Such a move will help this project appeal to an even larger audience that would have been priced out of using Layer 1 Ethereum.

As The Sandbox development has evolved and begun transitioning to a project built with Polygon, so have its staking methods. Initially, when the project was Ethereum based only, the only way to stake was to be a liquidity provider. It can be a challenging experience where you must balance two coins to maintain liquidity. Such a process isn’t convenient for everyday users and presents a risk of impermanent loss if the balance were to be de-pegged.  

However, SAND on Polygon (mSAND) improves this process. The process is very similar to nearly every other staking coin. With only mSAND, staking no longer requires a liquidity balance.

Before you start staking The Sandbox (SAND), your tokens must first be on the Polygon blockchain. You can bridge your tokens to Polygon if they are still on the Ethereum chain. The Sandbox has a bridging tool that is available on its website.

How to Bridge SAND to Polygon

1. Go to your profile on The Sandbox website. 

2. Click on the Bridge SAND icon.

3. Sign in with your MetaMask account.

4. Choose how much SAND you would like to bridge to Polygon.

5. Confirm the transaction.

How to Stake mSAND

1. Visit the staking area within the Earn tab of The Sandbox website.

2. Connect your wallet to the game. Ensure that you have sufficient funds for staking. 

3. Click on the Approve icon. 

4. After approval, you can now deposit your mSAND to be staked. 

5. Choose how much mSAND you would like to stake. Then click and sign the transaction.

6. Your mSAND is now officially staked, and you will begin earning rewards.

Claiming Your Staked Earnings

You can claim your SAND staking rewards every week. Here’s how: 

1. Visit the same Sandbox staking tool as used above. 

2. Click on Claim and sign the transaction.

The Sandbox’s most significant competitor in the cryptocurrency market is Decentraland.  In many ways, Decentraland (MANA) is very similar to The Sandbox (SAND). It is also a decentralized virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Like The Sandbox, users can create, experience, and monetize user-generated content, games, and applications on its platform.

A key area where MANA has an advantage in this space is that it was the original pioneer and first mover in the blockchain metaverse realm. That means it has better brand awareness and has already gained crypto users' mindshare regarding blockchain metaverses. The first mover advantage is a powerful obstacle that The Sandbox must work hard to provide a quality experience and gain popularity to overcome shortly.

One key thing to remember is that Facebook's announcement changed the game and jump-started the movement towards metaverses when they changed their name to Meta—dedicating their future to becoming a metaverse company. This move greatly benefited SAND and every other project in this space, significantly increasing the value and awareness of metaverse projects. But, simultaneously, The Sandbox’s most significant competitor was born.  

Other tech companies will likely follow Facebook's steps, making the competition even more intense. The Sandbox must continue building, gaining users, and establishing itself well before this happens.

The great thing is that there is enough room for more than one metaverse project to be successful. Meta's experience will likely be a much more centralized and controlled experience. The Sandbox can shine by setting itself apart by being decentralized and controlled by the SAND token holders.

Investing in metaverse projects has risks. The space is still young, and there will be many growing pains, just like the early internet dotcom bubble. Many projects will show up and receive great hype, but only some are successful and could stay long-term. 

However, there is no denying the enormous potential that metaverse projects present. We are in the infancy of the metaverse space, and this is an excellent opportunity to get in early. 

SAND is currently available in the vast KuCoin ecosystem. Here’s more on how to buy The Sandbox (SAND) on KuCoin. 

The Sandbox has a chance to be one of those projects that can make it. Many aspects are working in its favor, but the key is that it has already been released and is a successful project that stands on its merit. If The Sandbox continues to grow in popularity and gain users, it could become a home run in your crypto portfolio if you have the patience to hold onto SAND long-term.

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