Sebastien Borget describes himself as an entrepreneur and dad with 14 years of experience in growing startups and 11 years in mobile gaming. Passionate for blockchain technology and education, he is a strong proponent of nonfungible tokens in gaming.
He is a co-founder and the chief operating officer of The Sandbox, a decentralized gaming virtual world utilizing NFTs. He is also the chief operating officer of Pixowl, the developer of The Sandbox game, which is now owned by Animoca Brands. This blockchain-driven metaverse allows users to build, own and monetize their gaming experiences using NFTs and SAND, the main utility token of the platform. The Sandbox users can buy LAND as a digital piece of real estate, alongside promotional partners and LAND owners such as Snoop Dogg, Richie Hawtin and The Smurfs. His work was publicly recognized with The Sandbox being nominated for two consecutive years in Apple’s list of the App Store’s best games of 2012 and 2013.
Borget is also the president of the Blockchain Game Alliance, or BGA, a nonprofit organization made up of over 200 key members of the industry that serves to promote blockchain technology within the gaming industry.
Besides speaking French, his mother tongue, English and German fluently, Borget also reports having a beginner’s level understanding of Spanish and Chinese.
The Sandbox NFT Marketplace beta officially launched its first phase at the end of March 2021. The Sandbox became a top player in the virtual land economy last year, consistently topping OpenSea charts for its high trading volume, alongside Decentraland. It also boasted trading a total volume of $70.5 million in just one December week. The Sandbox formed partnerships with major brands like Care Bears and The Walking Dead and with musicians like Snoop Dogg and Deadmau5, which served to grow its user base.
The Sandbox Alpha, an open, multi-week play-to-earn event, launched its first season last December, giving over 200,000 players the chance to explore The Sandbox metaverse for the first time and glimpse the possibilities offered to LAND owners. The company ended 2021 with strong growth: two million registered wallets and 18,500 LAND owners.
As BGA president, Borget increased the number of members of the association. He also spearheaded The Sandbox Foundation’s growth, which launched as a decentralized autonomous organization, and The Game Maker Fund initiative. The foundation was created to fund game makers’ projects, offer grants to NFT artists, and host play-to-earn tournaments.
Borget is expected to keep working to further advance The Sandbox metaverse with each new phase of testing. Demand for digital land sales will likely remain high as more people discover what the open Metaverse could mean in terms of culture, NFTs and entertainment.
After a $93 million Series B funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in November 2021, there is a strong likelihood that new play-to-earn games and live experiences will be developed, and new partnerships with popular brands will be unveiled in 2022. Borget is a regular speaker at conferences and events around the world and in his native France, so surely more panel appearances and lectures from him regarding the blockchain industry lie ahead. Since The Sandbox continues in beta form, game makers and players can hopefully anticipate a timeline for the metaverse’s official rollout to arrive very soon.
Adoption, Metaverse
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Masters in Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications
The Sandbox
