The Sandbox, co-founders Arthur Madrid and Sebastien Borget are setting their sights on addressing one of the most pressing global issues: deforestation. Following an eye-opening expedition to Antarctica earlier this year, the duo has revealed plans for a groundbreaking initiative within the virtual world.

In a recent blog post, Madrid and Borget expressed their commitment to combating climate change by leveraging The Sandbox platform's capabilities. Their vision entails a direct link between virtual activities and real-world impact, with a focus on offsetting carbon footprints and promoting forest regeneration. This initiative marks a significant step forward for the metaverse's role in environmental stewardship.

More About The Sandbox?

The Sandbox, a decentralized virtual world boasting over 27,000 landowners in its alpha phase, now hosts nearly 700 live player-created games with 50,000-100,000 monthly active users. Fueled by the $SAND token, The Sandbox features a user-friendly Game Maker, empowering creators in game design, asset creation, and world-building.

Recent partnerships with over 400 top brands, including FaZe Clan, The Walking Dead, Snoop Dogg, and Ubisoft, have broadened the platform's appeal. The metaverse now boasts over 20 branded avatar collections, allowing players to express themselves through digital identities.

Looking ahead, The Sandbox aims to drive mass adoption by 2025, with short-term goals including transitioning from alpha to beta and enhancing features around achievements, battle passes, and creator monetization. Long-term plans involve expanding to mobile, embracing cross-chain interoperability, and leveraging AI for procedural content generation.

More About Path to Glory?

Dubbed "Path to Glory," this ambitious project is a collaborative effort involving The Sandbox, WeForest, and the Addo Football Youth Academy (afya). Developed by PuzzleBros, Path to Glory immerses players in an experience centered around forest conservation and community engagement. Set in the South African city of Addo, the virtual landscape features key locations like the National Park and Citrus Plantations, highlighting the importance of preserving natural habitats.

Central to the gameplay is the concept of tree planting, facilitated by the purchase of NFT Seeds within The Sandbox. These virtual seeds enable players to grow trees directly in the game world, with each tree bearing the name of its NFT holder. Beyond the virtual realm, each NFT purchase translates into a tangible contribution to WeForest's reforestation efforts, underscoring the project's real-world impact.

Path to Glory is slated for release on Earth Day, April 22nd, signaling The Sandbox's commitment to environmental conservation. This initiative exemplifies the platform's dedication to fostering meaningful experiences that extend beyond entertainment, resonating with players on a global scale.

Creator Fund

In addition to environmental initiatives, The Sandbox is also ramping up efforts to empower creators within its community. The Sandbox is kicking off its creator fund with a 1 million SAND ($475,000) challenge.

Starting on 12th February, the event closes on 22nd April 2024. Spanning 10 weeks, The Builder’s Challenge encourages creators to make engaging experiences in The Sandbox, with the share of rewards being determined by three factors:

• Player engagement: The more players engage with an experience, the greater the rewards.
• Community growth: The more experiences are published, the larger the SAND pool. Every week that sees over 100 experiences created will increase the prize pool.
• Session length: The rewards are also based on the time players engage with an experience.

$SAND Token

Meanwhile, The Sandbox's utility token, SAND launched on February 14th. This milestone saw 206 million tokens, or 9% of the token’s circulating supply unlocked. This is currently worth around $90 million at the time of reporting. The total supply of SAND tokens is 3 billion and with this latest unlock, 86% of them are now circulating.

Although the unlock hasn’t turned the downward trend of the price of SAND, it seems to have slowed its decrease. While the token is down 44% over the last year, it’s down only 12% over the last month and 5.2% during the last 7 days, as per Coingecko. More generally, SAND is down 95% since its all-time high in November 2021, but ultimately up 1,385% since its all-time low a year earlier.

As The Sandbox continues to evolve, these developments underscore its commitment to innovation, sustainability, and community empowerment. With Path to Glory leading the charge against deforestation and initiatives like the Creator Fund fueling creativity, the future of the web3 gaming metaverse looks brighter than ever before.