Why Ethereum Game ‘The Sandbox’ Is Launching Its Own Chain

Ethereum gaming metaverse The Sandbox will soon have its own creator-focused blockchain called SANDChain, an Ethereum layer-2 network built with the ZK Stack. 

SANDChain aims to become the home for creators on-chain, enabling them to own their content, generate money from their identities, and manage their communities without losing out to the platforms they create on. 

“By leveraging The Sandbox’s existing ecosystem, which includes over 8 million users, 400+ brand partnerships, and the SAND token, we’re laying the foundation for the ‘Creator Nation’: a decentralized economy designed to empower creativity at scale,” The Sandbox co-founder and SANDChain ambassador Sébastian Borget told Decrypt.

“For game creators, including on The Sandbox metaverse but more broadly across the App Store, this means being able to launch loyalty points, quests and game tokens without having to worry [about] seconds-to-minute-long transaction validations.”

The layer-2 network will be powered by three value layers: SANDpoints to track network reputation and loyalty, Creator Points for support of creators and access to their respective tokens, and Creator Tokens—tradable assets that are tied to creator’s brands. 

“SANDchain is about giving creators a financial foundation, not just a following,” said The Sandbox CEO Robby Yung, in a statement. “The Sandbox is thrilled to partner with The SANDChain Foundation to build SANDchain and provide creators with funding rails, automated revenue management, and ways to turn audience support into tangible growth.”

The network will utilize the Sandbox’s SAND token as its native gas token, ultimately enhancing the utility of the token which will power its patron and creator vaults—core parts of its product suite which provide capital reserves for creator loans and aggregates Web2 revenues.

SAND dipped following the news, currently down 2% on the day at a price of about $0.26. It’s down nearly 8% on the month, and remains about 97% off its all-time high price set in 2021.

The Sandbox is an Ethereum metaverse game built around tokenized land plots that owners can create and launch games on, alongside user-owned avatars and in-game assets. The project has secured a large number of celebrity and brand partners, including Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Cirque du Soleil, Atari, Paris Hilton, and Warner Music Group.

SANDChain will launch early access signups on October 1, with its testnet expected to debut on October 14. 

Early launch partners include Animoca Brands, Ethereum NFT collection Cool Cats, ZKSync, and Pucca, a Korean cartoon series, among others. 

“Launching a blockchain has never been more accessible, thanks to the rise of zk-rollups and Ethereum sidechains,” said Borget. 

“When we set out to develop SANDchain,” he said, “we quickly realized that the real value no longer lies in the base infrastructure, which is increasingly commoditized, but in how we differentiate, whom we serve, and how we enable meaningful use cases, such as gaming, entertainment or creator-fans interactions.”

Additional reporting by André Beganski