Ordering Pizza and Community Empowerment in Virtual Worlds

Many people will look at The Sandbox and immediately think it’s a clone of Minecraft. Yes, sure it’s a game with a strong focus on user generated content, but in The Sandbox players can own land thanks to blockchain technology. There are even 36 companies that have already bought land within this virtual world. These companies will be building extensions of their own products or completely new experiences. Potentially these virtual worlds on the blockchain are a digital version of Disney World.

Having a virtual world where you could chat with friends was fun in the late nineties. After that came virtual worlds where players could buy digital clothes or a virtual house. Nowadays you can even run your own Minecraft server and have a complete world at your disposal. Virtual worlds on the blockchain add a whole new layer where players have real ownership and the digital world serves as a bridge between different projects. Insiders often refer to this as ‘the metaverse’, a place where several digital universes collide.

Currently Cryptovoxels, Decentraland and The Sandbox are the most popular virtual worlds on the blockchain. Cryptovoxels is already live, Decentraland opens its doors on February 20th and The Sandbox is aiming for a open beta release this summer. I sat down to have a talk with Nathan Sexer, Head of Growth &…