From Pixels to Protocols: Sebastien Borget on The Sandbox, SANDchain, & the Creator Economy
November 27, 2025
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
• 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: Rusty Matveev, Chief Strategy Officer at Calaxy; Andrew Lawrence, CEO and Co-Founder of Censo; Zac Townsend, CEO and Co-Founder of Meanwhile; Jesper Johansen, CEO and Co-Founder of Northstake; Tama Churchouse, COO of Cumberland Labs; Holly Wood of Boson Protocol; Sid Powell of Maple Finance; Chad Barraford of THORChain; and many others.
Check out our three most downloaded episodes:
- Laying the Groundwork for a Billion-User Blockchain with Rich Rines, Contributor at Core DAO
- Staking the Future: From Blockchain Beginnings to Institutional Innovations with Chen Zhuling of RockX
- The Unstoppable Nature of Blockchain: A Conversation with Bonart Mati of Obligate
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