The Sandbox Could Completely Revolutionize How We Trade Digital Currencies

Virtual game worlds that feature their own in-game currencies, economies, and financial systems have always attracted the attention of economists. The first complex virtual economy was provided by WhyVille, an educational website for children that incorporated a functional currency that could be managed by participants. WhyVille 1.0 was released in 1999, and it is still going strong today, but now we have exciting projects such as The Sandbox, which is making waves with its non-fungible token (NFT) economy.

The Sandbox runs on SAND, an NFT that players can use to finance the creation and trading of digital assets within the game. SAND is a token that complies with the ERC20 standard, which means that it can be traded on cryptocurrency exchange platforms for Tether, and eventually into dollars or other fiat currencies. Developers of The Sandbox recently completed a $93 billion funding round through SoftBank, and this explains why SAND has climbed by more than 390% since October 27.

SAND can be used by players who spend to buy SAND-backed assets from other players. These assets are called SAND-items or Sandbox-items. The Sandbox has a built-in marketplace, and players are encouraged to buy SAND-items from other players to increase their own virtual wealth. The Sandbox is similar to online game worlds like Minecraft, and players are able engage in competitive and cooperative play. This allows players to create items, which they can then sell in the game.

Why does this all matter in the cryptocurrency space? SAND-items allow users to generate revenue from game assets that are generated within the game. SAND-items also serve as a unit of account in the game. SAND can also be used to purchase real-world currencies such as euros or dollars. This increases SAND’s real-world value, which is why SAND is growing at a rapid rate in crypto markets. NFTs have already boosted the cryptocurrency market; in fact, some analysts believe that the overall capitalization of the NFT segment could soon approach the value of Bitcoin.

The time has come to stop treating virtual worlds as games that merely milk money out of players through loot boxes and micro-transactions. Now that SAND is here, things have changed.