Get In The Sandbox: Introducing Play to Earn with Sandbox Alpha

• The Sandbox, a decentralized gaming platform with massive potential, releases its play-to-earn model next week. It’s a first look at the game’s Multiverse, a sneak peek at the rapidly expanding digital world. Players can earn up to 1,000 $SAND tokens during the 3-week live event starting November 29.
• $SAND, in-game currency for The Sandbox, is an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum Blockchain. As of this writing, $SAND was trading at $4.95, and has a market cap of just over $4.4B.
• A $93M injection of funds from Softbank Vision Fund 2 earlier this month means significant momentum for The Sandbox in 2022, with plans to expand the Metaverse and its partnerships with gaming studios, big brands and creatives.
• The Sandbox ecosystem is growing rapidly, with a 500% increase in users this year. This is one game-fi player to watch closely. And there’s still time to get in early for passive income opportunities.

What is The Sandbox?

If Minecraft and Roblox came together on the blockchain, you’d get The Sandbox, a decentralized gaming platform in the pixelated style of voxel art. Next week, Sandbox Alpha attendees will get an exclusive preview of the game play and a chance to earn digital currency. But first, a bit about the game.

The Sandbox runs on Ethereum blockchain, where players and creators buy and sell pieces of its Metaverse in the form of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). NFT technology ensures digital security, authenticity and scarcity, driving up value.

Players can make real money in the digital world.

Gamers make assets to share with others, or to buy and sell on a blockchain-based marketplace like OpenSea. The Sandbox game franchise is one of the world’s largest independent user-generated content and gaming platforms, with 40 million downloads.

Anyone can become a creator in The Sandbox.

They have huge partnerships with celebrities and some of the most recognizable brands in the world:

Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Deadmau5, and Atari are all LAND owners.

LAND is a digital piece of real estate in The Sandbox Metaverse, a plot with neighbors and proximity to resources and other assets just like IRL. Game designers use LAND to build digital experiences, such as games or dioramas that other players can explore.

Each plot of LAND is a unique, non-fungible ERC-721 token on the Ethereum blockchain. A total of 166,464 LANDs will be available. That’s it. There’s still some available, with the next LAND sale coming up this quarter (more on that in another post). Owning LAND is an opportunity to stake $SAND, but it also gives you a voice in the governance of the Metaverse — hence the player-owned model.

Why should I care now?

Off the back of a fresh $93M investment round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, The Sandbox has significant momentum going into 2022 with huge plans to expand the open Metaverse.

The ecosystem is already expanding rapidly:

• 50 first-party projects
• 6 Development Studios
• > 1k Creators building inside The Sandbox
• 500% user growth
• 500k wallets connected
• 30,000 monthly active users

The Sandbox has already paid out over 2.5M $SAND to 30,000 creators and game makers.

But why should I care, like, right now?

Play to earn is coming to The Sandbox next week in the form of Sandbox Alpha. You can make up to 1,000 $SAND and earn exclusive Sandbox Alpha NFTs. This is huge, the first step in their mission to turn players into creators in a fully player-owned economy. It’s your first chance to play in the The Sandbox, with the full game launching WHEN??

The deets:

On November 29th at 1PM UTC, The Sandbox will launch Sandbox Alpha, an open multi-week play-to-earn experience, and one of the first playable experiences inside The Sandbox Metaverse.

Players will have the opportunity to explore The Sandbox metaverse for the first time through 18 experiences — these could be games, X or X.

Sandbox Alpha Event

I get it. Now how do I get in The Sandbox Alpha event?

The Alpha Pass is an NFT ticket that will allow players to explore all 18 experiences of the Alpha Season content and earn up to 1,000 $SAND and 3 exclusive NFT rewards by competing all the Alpha Season objectives.

Players without an Alpha Pass will still be able to access three full experiences and the Alpha HUB, a central multiplayer experience showcasing a range of locations and quests and an ability to meet other players. However, they will not be able to earn the play-to-earn rewards.

There will only be 5,000 Alpha Passes available. Here’s how you can get one:

1. If you are a Sandbox LAND owner, you can join the Alpha Raffle for 1 of 1000 passes. The more LAND you own, the higher your odds of winning.
2. Register HERE between Nov 22nd and Nov 28th
3. Daily social contests will be held once the event launches, giving you a chance to win one of 750 Alpha Passes each week for 3 weeks. Follow the Sandbox Twitter account or join the Discord Channel to get enter.
4. You can buy an Alpha Pass on OpenSea. But watch out for fakes. Always look for the official verified collection blue checkmark beside the creator name to make sure it’s legit. Don’t buy one of these after December 20th. That’s when the season closes and you won’t be able to claim any of the rewards.

What should I look for next?

In 2022, the Sandbox has a lot in store, including:

• Virtual entertainment destinations including the first virtual concerts from Snoop Dogg and Deadmau5. (You can take a tour of Snoop Dogg’s digital mansion).
• A player Driven Governance will launch with staking and voting mechanisms for SAND, LAND and AVATAR holders
• A mobile version and community tokens launch late next year

This week, The Sandbox is opening up its Metaverse for the first time. Soon, thousands of games will be created simultaneously and collaboratively without central authority. The company has some serious backing from high-profile investors, advisors and partnerships with some of the biggest names in gaming, web and blockchain technologies.

If you’re interested in the cross-section of gaming and blockchain, you do not want to miss the event that kicks it off.

In my next post, I’ll walk through how to buy LAND in The Sandbox, step by step.

For now, you can review my Sandbox review series on YouTube.