AMA Recap with Binance Turkey
Another AMA was completed by the team with the Turkish community last August 12th, 2020 at 6 PM (UTC).
Introduction
Jing (Binance Angel): Welcome @sebastienborget!
Sebastian Borget: Hello hello!
Hello, I am Sébastien Borget, COO, co-founder of The Sandbox, which is a decentralized gaming platform (http://sandbox.game). I am also the president of the Blockchain Game Alliance and an advocate for #NFTs & blockchain in games. Nice to meet you all!
Let’s start with a first teaser of The Sandbox, to give you some appetite for our game platform https://youtu.be/oi1mis3DGZE
The Sandbox is a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences in the Ethereum blockchain using SAND, the platform’s utility token. As a player, you can create digital assets (Non-Fungible Tokens, aka NFTs), upload them to the marketplace, and drag-and-drop them to create game experiences with The Sandbox Game Maker.
PLAY. CREATE. OWN. GOVERN. EARN. Welcome to the Metaverse!
The Sandbox virtual world lets you participate in:
- NFTs: own & sell your game creations
- Staking & Governance: Rewards
- DeFi & Play2earn
I’m also happy to invite you to our Turkish community https://t.me/SandboxgameTurkey
Jing (Binance Angel): Hi Sebastien! You are probably the first speaker who introduced himself/herself with a video.
Sebastien Borget: Good to know. I’m happy to be 1st :p
Jing (Binance Angel): It’s a pleasure to have you here. Let’s wait a bit for everyone to join the Sandbox Turkish TG group! https://t.me/SandboxgameTurkey
Sebastian Borget: I’m ready to roll with the questions 👍
Jing (Binance Angel): Alright, let’s kick off the Segment 1! Knowledge, knowledge, knowledge!
Segment 1: Q&A
Jing (Binance Angel): My first question is — How does The Sandbox game platform work? When will players be able to enter the platform?
Sebastien Borget: Alright, let’s start with the basics…
We will be opening the public beta of the game in December, 2020. At its core, The Sandbox is an ecosystem for Players and Creators, consisting of three main components: a Voxel Editor (named “VoxEdit”), an NFT Marketplace, and the game itself. These are the 3 main components (some already launched in Beta or Alpha)
- First VOXEDIT: it is a 3D modeling and animating package that allows users to create and animate 3D objects such as people, animals, foliage, and tools.
- Then the MARKETPLACE: it allows users to upload, publish, and sell their ASSETS made in VoxEdit, as Non-Fungible Tokens (Both ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens).
- And finally the GAME MAKER: it allows players to build 3D games for free. With the help of pre-assigned behaviors and visual settings, no coding knowledge is required to use this incredible software.
Players will be able to pre-register, create their avatar, and customize it. The first experience is for players to socialize, talk, walk, and interact with each other. Players can collect tokens and resources and trade them with other players, creators, artists, etc on the platform. This business model is called play-to-earn, as anything they collect in the game is truly owned by players; they can trade it to other players (inside the marketplace or outside on other websites), transfer it to other players, or even resell it through our currency $SAND.
Here’s one more teservideo (in-game footage) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDkf1CrkF7Y
Jing (Binance Angel): Thanks for the answer. Here comes my second question — What is the utility of $SAND tokens? What can I do on the platform with $SAND?
Sebastien Borget: $SAND will enable players to create, play, own, govern, trade, and earn within The Sandbox virtual world gaming platform. It is the ERC-20 token that will be used all across The Sandbox metaverse. $SAND is an essential part of The Sandbox platform and we are working on establishing key mechanics that makes it intrinsically tied to the platform and its value. It will serve as:
- The 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.
Also, our fee capture model is important, as a total of 26.5% of all SAND transaction volume goes back into the Foundation.
The role of the Foundation is to support the ecosystem of The Sandbox, offering grants to incentivize the production of high-quality content and games on the platform. To date, the Foundation has already funded over 15 game projects and granted 100 artists to produce NFTs that will be available at the Public Launch in December 2020.
Jing (Binance Angel): My next question is — What is play-to-earn? How can I monetize my time and activities with $SAND as a player?
Sebastien Borget: Great question! This is a very exciting new business model for video games. The play-to-earn in The Sandbox is supported by a blockchain-powered circular economy. At its core is the idea that everything and everybody involved in the community of The Sandbox is being rewarded for their participation. The Sandbox endeavors to build an ecosystem where interests are aligned between all the users — players, creators, landowners, curators, $SAND investors, etc. — who contribute to it.
We are bringing DeFi and Gaming together: the tokens collected by the players are ERC-20 and can be exchanged as valuable resources between the different types of users (hence a circular economy). We hope to create liquidity pools and DEX like Uniswap for these ERC-20 resources, like GEMS and Catalysts for example. There are many ways in which users can monetize their time on the platform while keeping 95% of $SAND as revenue share, by:
- Selling ASSETS: Users can create and sell ASSETS as NFTs on the marketplace
- Owning a LAND: Buy a LAND in one of the LAND sales. Players can then either rent them or populate them with content to increase the LAND’s value.
- Building Games on the Game Maker: Creators can build and monetize games using the Game Maker on the LANDs that are owned by players.
- Playing and participating in the game: In the Game, not only can creators profit from their creations, players can play-to-earn by collecting resources, rewards, and tokens.
Jing (Binance Angel): Play-to-earn, fantastic idea! Thanks for the explanation. My 4th question is — How does the Foundation and Creator/Game Makers Funds work?
Sebastien Borget: $SAND is a governance token that allows holders to participate in Governance decisions of the platform, using a DAO structure. They can exercise voting rights on key elements such as Foundation grant attributions to content and game creators and feature prioritization on the platform Roadmap. SAND owners can vote themselves or delegate voting rights to other players of their choice. In October 2019, we launched a $2M Creator Fund to help players build, share, and monetize amazing games on The Sandbox gaming platform.
This Game Makers Fund will be supervised by the Foundation’s DAO, whose role is to support the ecosystem of The Sandbox, managing the offering grants to incentivize high-quality content & games production on The Sandbox gaming platform. As of today, the Foundation has funded over 15 game projects and granted 100 artists to produce NFTs.
We expect that the overall valuation of the metaverse will be growing through the valuation of all games funded by the Foundation, creating a virtuous circle that enables the funding of bigger games. As bigger and higher quality games are produced and published on the platform, more players will come and participate within the economy of The Sandbox Ecosystem.
Jing (Binance Angel): Thanks for the answer! My last question is — What is your plan to achieve full decentralization and main-stream adoption?
Sebastien Borget: Very good question! The Sandbox is a pioneer in the space of blockchain gaming, NFTs, and true digital ownership, and we are thrilled to have Atari, Square Enix, and more major IPs to be announced soon, who will collaborate and publish games on our platform.
Our team is comprised of senior gaming staff; we have over 8 years of experience making successful games and have proven experience with key achievements, partnerships, LANDS sales, revenue, and more that we can deliver toward our vision. $SAND adoption will be fostered differently according to the different stages of the project with unique techniques for early adopters and loyal players.
We hope that within the next 5 years, 100% of the $SAND tokens will be in the hands of players, and we will have achieved full decentralization. The Community of $SAND holders will be able to participate in Governance decisions of the platform, using a DAO structure, where they can exercise voting rights on key elements.
In Year 1 (2021), we plan to achieve significant growth during the 1st year post-game launch, bringing artists & players into the platform, with no awareness of tokens. We will supply an initial high-level of issuance to early adopters, key partnerships with gaming companies, and renowned brands through the Creators Fund and through staking rewards to token holders.
In Years 2 and 3, we will continue with a high-level of issuance to active players and creators through the Creators Fund, and we plan to convert free to play players into active ones.
Then after Years 4 and beyond, we will retain loyal players and increase the decentralization of $SAND circulation until the Company holds 0% of $SAND in reserve and 100% of the SAND is in the hands of the players.
Then, about mainstream adoption — our strategy is to partner with major Games and Entertainment brands, then through the brands and their fans, we can reach mainstream gamers and creators through their favorite brands.
Bring leading gaming Brands & IPs and leverage on those key brands building great experiences as well as trust. We are creating an appealing gaming metaverse that aims at attracting all types of people: young & old players, casual & pro gamers, newbie creators & professional artists.
More community growth strategies of The Sandbox include:
- Conducting LAND token sales to promote the generation of user-created content.
- Conducting AMAs to educate the community.
- Consistently engaging with the public on social media channels.
Jing (Binance Angel): Thanks for the long answer!
I’ve finished my questions. Now, shall we move on to the exciting Segment 2?
Sebastien Borget: Yes go go go!
Segment 2: Community Questions
Q1: I am excited about the many partnerships with Sandbox. There are several well-known game developers like Atari and Paladin Studio. Will the games run on your platform?
Sebastien Borget: Thank you, yes, the games these gaming studios are developing will be running on the LANDS of our metaverse and developed using the Game Maker. One of the exciting things for Creators is they can build, own and monetize games, next to gaming giants like Atari, Square Enix, and more!
In the current game market, the centralized ownership and control of user-generated content limit creator rights and ownership. Players and Creators cannot trade the virtual goods and digital assets they purchased or won in games.
With The Sandbox, we aim to overcome these limitations by building a decentralized gaming platform where creators are able to craft, play, share, collect, and trade without central control, enjoying secure ownership with the ability to earn cryptocurrency (SAND). This ownership will be established and guaranteed through the use of NFTs, where every in-game item will have a unique and immutable blockchain identifier.
We do believe millions of players are interested in exploring the benefits of decentralization, interoperability, and the creator’s ecosystem.
Q2: Could you explain the main Business Model of SandBox? How SandBox generates revenue for its Platform Growth & Developments?
Sebastien Borget: Good question! We are running a decentralized platform and in the long term, our revenue is driven by providing services for our community of SAND holders, enabling them to keep playing, earning and building. Our revenue model is based around the sales of NFTs, including our LANDS and other IP-branded NFTs, as well as transaction fees (5%) on all SAND transactions. We have already sold for $1,250,000 USD of LAND presales in 4 rounds. And now with $SAND our ERC-20 token is becoming the main currency on the platform.
Q3: How will Sandbox control the integrity of players in its marketplace? By what criteria does Sandbox select partners to support? And what are the benefits of working with Sandbox?
Sebastien Borget: We will put in place a decentralized curation system, where anyone can report inappropriate content by Staking SAND, and if after moderators review the report is correct, you can win more $SAND and the creators lose SAND. But if you report not correctly, you lose your stake. We also have Terms of Services in place of course.
Q4: Will we be able to walk the map all over the earth or will this process be a pure teleportation system between games? Will Sandbox become an open digital world?
Sebastien Borget: Players will arrive directly within worlds through spawn points and portals. They will be able to move to adjacent LANDS and use transportation portals to allow fast-travel between distant LANDs. Portals will allow visitors to easily explore the game experiences in their LAND — similar to the benefit of having a subway station next to your place of business. So our map is 2D and you can explore games on the map, or by using the borders or the fast transportation system. I think I covered the first part already. Through our partnerships with IPs and Gaming. For the second part, having Binance as a strategic partner will help The Sandbox to bridge the gap and help to onboard the Roblox and Fortnite generation to a new gaming experience where they can own, earn and trade everything in the game. The Binance ecosystem is strong, its community is amazing and together we can bring mainstream adoption of blockchain gaming!
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