Crypto Academy week 10 - Homework post for @levycore
INTRODUCTION
I have to be honest, this lesson was my first insight on Non-Fungible Tokens. It’s another proof that blockchain technology is breaking boundaries. Professor @Levycore has done really well trying to breakdown the concept in just a single lesson. Now I will go ahead to attempt the assignment given.
What are NFTs
NFT is a new concept to me. To understand it better, I had to defined the terms differently.
For something to be Non-Fungible it means that it is not interchangeable and therefore unique.
Tokens are non-generalized digital assets.
A Non-Fungible Token is therefore a unique, non-generalized digital asset. This means that there is only one of its kind in the whole crypto world. This is very different from regular crypto coins that are similar. 1 Eth in Africa is the same as one Eth in Europe but one NFT is just one.
To complete the task, I’m going to talk about a popular NFT project which is The Sandbox.
The Sandbox
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In 2011, Pixowl Inc. realized a potential market in the gaming industry. Headed by Arthur Madrid(CEO) and Sebastien Borget(COO), in 2012 the company came up with The Sandbox, a virtual world that encourages trading of user-generated content. This virtual world was created in the form of a game-maker that saw huge success. The platform was released for both PC and mobile users.
In a bid to beat competitors, Pixowl turned to blockchain technology for their platform. In 2018, The Sandbox became a decentralized gaming platform on the Ethereum Blockchain giving users more control over their, so called, voxel assets. At this point, The Sandbox evolved from just a gaming platform to a whole ecosystem allowing users to create their own games or play existing games using their own tokens with better control in the metaverse.
Concept
The Sandbox was named to literally match the meaning of a children’s sandbox where the imagination of kids come to form.
With over 40 million downloads, The Sandbox allows users to create, sell and buy their own NFTs in a decentralized and permissionless fashion while improving the gaming experience. This is made possible by these three important parts of the ecosystem:
1. VoxEdit:
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2. Marketplace:
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3. Game Maker:
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The Sandbox Tokens
• SAND : The SAND token is an ERC-20 Utility Token that is really essential in the Sandbox ecosystem. It is used to access the games and all their features. It is also used for in-game purchases like LAND and equipment purchases. The finite supply of SAND is 3,000,000,000 SANDs.
• LAND : Described by Pixowl as “the epicenter of the metaverse”, LAND is an ERC-721 Non-fungible token on which the Sandbox metaverse is based. LAND literally represents digital land forms or real estate that users buy and base in-game constructions through the GameMaker. Total supply of LAND is capped at 166,464 LANDs and a combination of LANDs is termed an ESTATE.
• ASSET : ASSETs are created with VoxEdit or bought with SANDs. These user-generated tokens are unique(non-fungible) and are used as in-game elements.Users can spend SANDs to upload their ASSETs in the Marketplace. ASSETs use the ERC-1155 standard in the Ethereum blockchain.
• GEM and CATALYST : These tokens are used to show that an ASSET is unique, rare and scarce. CATALYST is used to create virtual holes in ASSETs that GEMs fill.
The Sandbox benefits
• The decentralized nature gives users a better control over their assets. They can sell them, hold them and own 100% of profits.
• There is a better player-game interaction on Sandbox than other game platforms.
• Community engagement is also an advantage of the Sandbox platform.
• The users have a say in the governance of the platform by the use of SAND tokens.
How users make money on Sandbox
• SAND tokens can be bought and sold on exchanges for profit and staked for rewards.
• Users can trade their ASSETs as NFTs on the marketplace.
• Games created with Sandbox can be monetized by the creators.
• LAND owners can lease and rent their virtual real estate to increase the value.
$SAND
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SAND is a utility token of the SandBox metaverse that powers the virtual economy. It was introduced into the Sandbox metaverse in 2020 to foster a better gaming experience. The token facilitates accessibility and transactions in the Sandbox ecosystem. This “little” token powers the mini-economy as LANDs and ASSETs can be bought and sold with it.
As an ERC-20 standard token, SAND works with the Proof-of-Stake (POS) consensus and can be staked for rewards.
Introduction of SAND into the Sandbox metaverse has given users governance rights on the platform through a Decentralized Autonomous Organization(DAO) system. Users can vote on issues on the platform with each user’s voting power tied to the amount of SAND tokens they have.
SAND can be earned in Sandbox games or it can be bought on popular exchanges like Binance, Huobi, Poloniex, Liquid, Uniswap, Upbit, BitMart, Bithumb and so on.
Some stats of SAND as of writing
| Price | $0.37 |
| All Time High | $0.98 (March 28, 2021) |
| Rank | #156 |
| Market cap | $255,760,726.50 |
| Trading volume | $103,087,454.73 |
| Curculating supply | 686,821,749 SAND |
| Total Supply | 3,000,000,000 SAND |
" stats from CoinMarketCap.com
The SandBox has an active account on Medium.com where they post regular updates and give insights on the project.
They also have accounts on Instagram and Twitter
CONCLUSION
Honestly, this course has been very enjoyable. I chose to write on The Sandbox randomly but learning about it has been worthwhile. I have completed the task given to the best of my abilities.
Special thanks to @levycore
Hi @awesononso, thank for submitting your homework
Feedback
Good explanation but the conclusion is out of the topic.
Rating : 5
Can you show me how to write a better conclusion?
Just that? That’s really unfair honestly.
I’ll try to make the conclusions better nonetheless.