The sandbox
- There has been quite a stir around the metaverse, and Wall Street is getting excited about its money-making potential.
- A piece of land at The Sandbox just sold for $ 4.3 million, as buyers scramble for a piece of land near Snoop Dogg’s virtual mansion.
- Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget told Insider that it’s still early days, but an entirely new economy could be built soon.
Nobody knows what the metaverse will be like. Or it will even really turn into something.
The term fuzzy refers to virtual worlds in which people create avatars to play, work, build things, or watch virtual events. Big beasts like Facebook want to get in, but crypto developers are currently making the rush.
Either way, there is a lot of hype about it right now. The Wall Street crowd is very excited about its money-making potential.
Nothing has fueled that commotion more than the massive property transactions taking place, with parcels of virtual land changing hands for millions of dollars.
Right in the center of the virtual earth boom is The Sandbox, a decentralized blockchain-based metaverse. An expanse of virtual land inside it just sold for $ 4.3 million, though it has yet to be fully released.
As the virtual world unfolds next year, people will be able to build and sell items, play games to earn tokens, trade properties, and more.
Sandbox has seen $ 211 million in land sales
Sebastien Borget co-founded the gaming company The Sandbox in 2012 and is now its COO. He says that sales of virtual land have exploded in recent months and that total sales between 2019 and today amount to $ 211 million.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts, creators, and gamers have been drawn in. The cryptocurrency ‘arena’ has risen more than 9,000% in the last year.
“So far the reception has been good and we have thousands of users playing simultaneously [in the alpha version]”Borget told Insider. However, he added:” It is still very early.
Read more: More than $ 100 million of metaverse lands were sold in the last week alone. The co-founder of a virtual real estate company discusses why the opportunity in digital properties could increase 200 times in 16 months.
He envisions it becoming a digital economy with virtual concerts, art galleries, museums, and architectural practices.
Borget has been very excited for the arrival of legendary rapper Snoop Dogg to The Sandbox, with Doggfather set to put on virtual shows. Someone just coughed up $ 450,000 for land near Snoop’s mansion, probably the most expensive land sale per square foot yet.
Encryption technology ‘enables user ownership’
Early metaverses like The Sandbox and Decentraland have their roots in decentralized crypto technology, with transactions denominated in digital tokens.
But why should metaverses be based on crypto technology? Couldn’t they just be written using normal computer code?
Borget said that blockchain technology is very useful in allowing users to own the content they create in The Sandbox, because it allows them to mint it in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, a kind of unique crypto collectible.
It also allows complex networks to exist without any one entity having overall control. For example, the amount of land in The Sandbox is finite, Borget said, and it is governed by a so-called smart contract written on the blockchain.
“I’m working to grow the decentralized part of the metaverse where we allow users to own their identity and be sovereign,” he said.
Metaverse is drawing on big brands
However, that is not to say that the crypto metaverse is some kind of socialist state. Companies like The Sandbox seek to make money through numerous user fees. Sandbox takes a thick 5% every time someone buys or sells something with the sand token, for example.
The Sandbox believes that deals with major brands are key to creating a vibrant economy within the metaverse and engaging users. Museums and art galleries may be a long way off, but so far The Smurfs, Care Bears, and The Walking Dead have signed up.
It talks about Borget’s vision of the metaverse, a peculiar place where fun is paramount.
“Avatars … will have access to very diverse and culturally diverse experiences,” he said. “And that makes it an attractive place to be.”