From Pixels to Protocols: Sebastien Borget on The Sandbox, SANDchain, & the Creator Economy

Sebastien Borget, co-founder and global ambassador of The Sandbox, joins host Dylan Grabowski to discuss the long road from mobile gaming startup to a leading voice in metaverse. Borget explains why SANDchain, the new L2 for creators, represents the next step in decentralizing digital ownership, how The Sandbox navigates market cycles, and what sustained building looks like after the hype fades.

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Sebastien Borget, co-founder and global ambassador of The Sandbox, a leading decentralized virtual world where players can create, own, and monetize experiences. Together, they explore the evolution of The Sandbox from a 2D mobile game to a metaverse platform with over 8 million users, and discuss the launch of SANDchain, a new layer-2 network designed to empower creators across gaming, art, and social media.

What you’ll learn:
• How The Sandbox evolved from a mobile game to a global Web3 virtual world
• Why creator monetization challenges led to early NFT adoption in 2018
• What lessons Borget learned from building through multiple market cycles
• How SANDchain expands the creator economy beyond gaming
• Why meaningful partnerships matter more than hype in Web3
• How The Sandbox continues to innovate through scalability and decentralization

And much more!

Sebastien Borget is the co-founder and global ambassador of The Sandbox and a leading voice in the Web3 gaming industry. With over 15 years of experience across mobile, cloud, and gaming startups, Borget has helped pioneer user-generated content and digital ownership, shaping how creators engage and earn in decentralized environments.

Previous guests include: Paul Neuner, Founder and CEO of Telcoin; Aryan Sheikhalian, Head of Research at CMT Digital; David Hoffman, co-Founder and host of Bankless; Fabian Gompf, Chief Executive Officer of the Web3 Foundation; Kurt Hemecker, CEO of the Mina Foundation; Sunny Lu, co-Founder and CEO of VeChain Foundation; Joe Doll, general counsel at Magic Eden; Philippe Schommers, the Head of Infrastructure at Gnosis; and many others.

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