Update on CATALYSTs and their Distribution

The last few months have been a busy, exciting time for The Sandbox’s creators: The metaverse is now open, our Game Maker 0.9 is out with brand new features, and our Marketplace is now live on Polygon!

TL;DR:

• CATALYSTs now allow creators to mint ASSETs on our Marketplace on Polygon.
• The initial supply made available to claim to LAND Owners is just an early launch.
• More CATALYSTs will be released gradually to respond to creator demand while preserving the exclusivity of each tier.
• We will be introducing more solutions, such as Lazy Minting, to empower creators and give them the possibility to sell their ASSETs on the Marketplace on Polygon.
• Creators with a special project who wish to request a FREE distribution of CATALYSTs to mint their ASSETs can register via this form. Each submission will be reviewed and free CATALYSTs will be given to Creators with the best content.

The Marketplace is now open to everyone, introducing an improved CATALYST system

We have a legacy of 6.9 million ASSETs minted on the L1 Ethereum blockchain that are available, we thought gradually releasing CATALYSTs would help maintain the utility of each ASSET according to the exclusivity of its tier (common, uncommon, rare, etc.). In light of this, we announced the introduction of CATALYSTs on our Polygon Marketplace:

• A new ERC-1155 CATALYST Token used to mint ASSETs, allowing to burn one per ASSET copy, ensuring a 1:1 ratio between ASSET copy and CATALYST
• In order to maintain the integrity of the tiering system, CATALYSTs are minted based on the following distribution:

• Minting ASSETs is a powerful tool for creators to generate NFTs and sell to players enhanced and customized equipment and wearables, collectibles and passes. Minting ASSETs also helps builders create faster with beautiful and unique props.
• We suggest you use highly available Common CATALYSTs to mint your passes and props and reserve the higher tiers for powerful and unique equipment.
• Please note that you do not need CATALYSTs to publish your experience with the ASSETs you created, only if you wish to sell them on our Polygon Marketplace.

CATALYST distribution up to today

With that in mind, let’s get into what we have distributed so far:

To LAND Owners:

• We have made 92,500 CATALYSTS available to LAND Owners (85% of the total distributed supply to date).
• LAND Owners have until December 28, 2023 2pm UTC to claim their CATALYSTs.

The number of CATALYSTs each LAND Owner received was based on a scoring system, as per below:

Each LAND an owner held at the time of the snapshot contributed to their total LAND Owner score, calculated as follows:

• 1 point for each regular LAND held
• 5 points for each premium LAND held

Each LAND Owner’s score defines their rank, based on the tiering system below. Each tier determines a set number of CATALYSTs the LAND owner is eligible to claim.

With this system, two LAND Owners with the same categories and number of LANDs will consistently receive the same number of CATALYSTs.

As you can see in the below table, all LAND owners are eligible to claim at least 3 CATALYSTS, while the top 150 have received 13 CATALYSTS including top tier ones. This ensures a distribution based on how many and what type of LAND each LAND owner owns

To Creators:

• On November 30th, we gave approximately 16,200 CATALYSTS to Creators that have been part of the Creators Fund since 2021 and Trusted Partners that have been part of the Partner Program since 2022 (15% of the total distributed supply to date).
• The distribution was made to 210 active Creator Fund artists and 35 Trusted Partners who expressed interest in participating in the initial giveaway.

This is an initial launch, but we are gradually making CATALYSTs available to maintain the exclusivity and utility of each tier. CATALYST circulating supply will fluctuate as some get burned and more are released into the ecosystem.

We will keep releasing new CATALYSTS to Creators

As part of our mission to empower creators and give them the means to express themselves, we have defined two immediate action points:

1- Special Projects

The Creators with a special project who wish to request a FREE distribution of CATALYSTs to mint their special Collection / ASSETs should complete and register via this form.

The Sandbox’s Content team in charge of NFTs and the Marketplace will review submissions regularly to grant you FREE CATALYSTs.

We expect to distribute CATALYSTs this way, depending on demand.

2- Creator LAND Owners with live published experiences on the MAP

• We will prioritize distribution of CATALYSTs to help Creators with live experiences monetize their work.
• A minimum of 50,000 CATALYSTs will be made available to claim for LAND owners who already have published their experience at the time of this article’s publication. The giveaway will be live on Friday December 22.
• The exact calculation formula and numbers will be shared on X when the distribution is finalized.

Other ways to get CATALYSTS

If you need immediately a few CATALYSTs for your project, LAND owners and Builders can sell or buy CATALYSTs on OpenSea’s dedicated page.

We are working to make CATALYSTs available for purchase on The Sandbox Marketplace on Polygon in early 2024. Stay tuned.

Introducing Lazy Minting in 2024

This is a preliminary step before a full circular ecosystem between Players and Creators for the CATALYSTs. In the second half of 2024, we expect to improve even further by introducing Lazy Minting. This system will not require CATALYSTs to put up your ASSETs for sale:

• Land owners will be able to list for sale an unlimited number of unique ASSETs. The listed ASSETs will remain unminted until purchase.
• The minting process will be done upon purchase by the buyer.
• The ASSETs listed for Lazy Minting will be purchasable with CATALYSTs, not SAND.
• Creators will set the ASSET CATALYST tier required to purchase, maximum supply and list it on The Sandbox Polygon Marketplace.
• The buyer will need to have the required CATALYST in their wallet when purchasing an asset with Lazy Minting
• The CATALYST will burn in the minting process
• Creators will automatically get a share of the CATALYST price in SAND in their wallet when a user burns a CATALYST to mint a copy of their asset
• Buyers will be able to acquire CATALYSTs on The Sandbox Marketplace on Polygon or through secondary markets
• If a creator wants to set a custom price for their ASSET, they will be able to mint their ASSET directly, as they do today, and list them for sale pre-minted for a SAND price.

By introducing Lazy Minting, we will enable two positive things for the community:

• An unlimited and hassle free sale system for creators
• An effective pricing system for all types of ASSETs for buyers, aimed at ensuring the availability of low-cost ASSETs. We believe that lower tier Common CATALYST ASSETs should be minted and cost users around $1.

Stay tuned on X and our other socials for more information on our go-forward CATALYST distribution strategy. LAND Owners, claim your CATALYSTs from the first distribution round here before December 28 at 2PM UTC.