The Sandbox Marketplace: Introducing blockchain to artists
We are working on the final steps of the first phase of The Sandbox Marketplace, scheduled to launch by end of Q2 2019, and we want to share some of the benefits of bringing artists into the blockchain gaming ecosystem — and explain the process of how voxel assets become tokens on the blockchain (ERC-721 or ERC-1155).
The Sandbox Marketplace
While working to eliminate any friction points for non-crypto users looking for simple and accessible user-experiences, we on The Sandbox team are adopting key technologies to best adapt to the evolving nature of the blockchain ecosystem.
As we approach a Marketplace release, we are now working with more than 65 artists who joined through The Sandbox creator fund and have created over 1,500 voxel assets created so far. We’re right now finishing the last steps needed for the release of the first Marketplace version.
The Marketplace part of The Sandbox ecosystem has two important functions. First, it’s the initial step for tokenizing voxel assets. Second, it introduces artists to the blockchain, as they are presented with a non-FIAT, decentralized Marketplace to sell their assets. This open market will allow for the free trading of in-game tokenized assets which are inter-operable between different platform and games (not just users of The Sandbox).
From Voxel assets to Non-Fungible Tokens
By adopting the best standards to handle thousands of items while paying the lowest gas cost possible (or even no gas cost at all), we are implementing native Meta transactions, a term first coined by Christian Lundkvist to describe a mechanism allowing users to interact with the Ethereum blockchain without needing to own ether.
Once creators upload their assets to their account, they will not need to own ether to broadcast such meta-transactions, although someone does need to act as the “relayer” to spend ether to allow the content of the transaction to be performed on the network — and in this case The Sandbox can act as a relayer, providing a useful service to our users.
(Note that as The Sandbox pays the transaction fee in ether with our own server-side hot-wallet, we require the user to pay us in Sand, our crypto currency.)
Artists on blockchain
Once an artist decides to create a voxel assets or animation through VoxEdit, he or she will have the option to export their creations directly to their Marketplace account, which can be linked to multiple wallets. As artists choose from the different categories of assets on the Marketplace, they’ll have the option to upload their assets to the Marketplace through escrow-less auctions. In these auctions, they’ll be relying on a buyer and allowing the use of cryptographic signatures to sell and buy assets, without the need to escrow those assets (thus avoiding a costly transaction).
Apart from introducing artists to the blockchain using our decentralized Marketplace to sell their assets, this open market will allow for the free trading of in-game tokens (both Non-Fungible Tokens = NFTs and Fungible Tokens) assets between different platform users.
You can learn more about this feature on our previous article: Blockchain Features in The Sandbox
The Sandbox Ecosystem: What’s next
As we approach the release of the first version of the Marketplace (scheduled for Q2 2019), which empowers creators to create, publish, and monetize a myriad of unique experiences on a decentralized platform with cryptocurrency payments, our big next step is the integration of all the parts that will make up The Sandbox ecosystem.
VoxEdit, our 3D voxel modeler and animator, is the base foundation of the ecosystem where artists will be able to create assets and animations. The Marketplace, in which creators will be able to monetize their assets created on VoxEdit as Tokens, is another important element. Finally, there’s The Sandbox game itself, which we expect to emerge as the new standard in world building games, with large numbers of user-created 3D voxel assets and games available on the blockchain.
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