MWL UNWRAPPED: Sebastien Borget, COO and co-founder of metaverse company The Sandbox (pictured) outlined his vision for the development of a decentralised approach to the virtual world concept, pushing the need for it to evolve into a more open platform not centric to VR headsets.

In an interview as part of Mobile World Live’s latest Unwrapped series previewing MWC23, Borget opened up about The Sandbox’s concept, centred on users buying and owning virtual land using Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) and blockchain technology, which they use to create content, play multiplayer games and even find ways to make money from their assets.

The Sandbox has attracted 4.3 million users including a number of music labels, gaming developers and fashion brands, said Borget, adding it provides these companies “an entry point into Web 3.0, NFT and the metaverse”.

Threat
Central to the company’s mantra is its drive to create a decentralised platform, arguably an approach which could pose a threat to the metaverse being developed by some of the big technology companies including Meta Platforms.

Borget admitted even though Meta Platforms rebranded from Facebook and the term metaverse really gained mainstream status in October 2021, there is still an element of confusion around what it actually means.

Through promoting blockchain and Web 3.0, Borget believes The Sandbox is empowering people to make the metaverse user-centric and community driven, accessible for all and, ultimately, enabling users to develop content without restrictions.

Borget added it will be key to be able to access virtual content without needing a VR headset, “pushing beyond what the metaverse is and embracing the idea of openness”.

Borget was speaking ahead of his appearance at MWC23 in Keynote 8: Enter the Metaverse.

Click here to watch the full interview.