We are building an affiliate network called Laguna Network. It is similar to Rakuten Rewards where users instead of earning cashback in fiat, they earn crypto. We want to have $SAND token as one of the most desirable choice of cashback token on the platform. The general idea is that if the user is earning 4% of cashback from the merchant today, we will increased it 7% in $SAND token; 4% is paid for by the merchant and 3% from Sandbox DAO
The main benefits are:
A) User acquisition and activation channel for Sandbox Ecosystem on a pure variable cost basis. To get $SAND tokens into the hands of real web3 users and educate them about Sandbox. The $SAND token is only used when the user chooses $SAND as his/her choice of reward. We can run customised campaigns like additional $SAND for blue chip NFT holders like Mocaverse, BAYC etc or only selected merchants on Laguna.
B) Driving up the price of $SAND in the open market. Unlike other proposals where the $SAND is sold to fund initiatives; we are not selling any of the $SAND tokens. In fact, we are buying more than the total amount of $SAND tokens we are asking for. Using the same example above, we will use the 4% of fiat funding from the merchants to buy up $SAND tokens in the open market and bundle it with the bonus given by Sandbox DAO and give it to the user.
Laguna Network is a new venture incubated under Menyala. Menyala is a venture builder founded by Temasek, a global investment firm headquartered in Singapore. Project is led by Yix (@yx3142 on X); adviser at Menyala and been active in the web3 and Mocaverse community.
We are looking to launch our closed beta after token2049; end of september and we are in talks with the Sandbox DAO team on an initial ask of ~90,000 $SAND tokens for a launch campaign.
This is not a bad idea for user acquisition, it’s out of the box and potentially could work interestingly.
The reality is that 95% of the users will sell without even questioning what the Sandbox is, driving the user acquisition cost off the charts.
What could work for effective user acquisition, is a cashback voucher to be spent on Sandbox assets, but techwise, this seems rather too complicated or feasible to implement.
The only way I see this partnership being interesting for the Sandbox is to have:
If the person who did the cashback on SAND sells the crypto: Laguna pays to the user 6% Cashback.
If the person who did the cashback spends on Sandbox marketplace: Sandbox DAO pays to Laguna 8% of the total cashback spent.
Laguna will benefit from the advertising, and at this point, Laguna needs more the Sandbox for User Acquistion, than Sandbox needs Laguna for User Acquisition. To make it a fair deal, this would split the costs and the risks. If Laguna believes this is a good strategy for User Acquisiton, they should have no problems with revised terms.
A deal is only good when both parties end up happy.
My 2 cents.
I am of the exact same opinion the mechanism should be beneficial for both and avoid selling pressure. I am not expert and sure why a voucher would be so complicated to put in place but this certainly the best option and will increase liquidity of the asset market.
Initially I was not really positive on this idea but if a win/win mechanism can be found I would be positive.
For a “sandbox voucher” you talk about, we will need some form of integration with Sandbox Marketplace for it work. I will try to get in touch with the Sandbox team to start the conversation on this.
On the point of 95% of users selling without question, that is the behaviour we want to change with Laguna Network. Couple of things we are doing to reduce this “95%” statistic to a higher proportion of users converting into Sandbox users:
Like most cashback platforms, the user does is not allowed to withdraw the $SAND token on the day of purchase. Typically it takes 1-3months for the merchants to verify the purchase is completed and no refund is made on that purchase (could be longer if the user books a hotel that is 6months down the road). So during this time, the $SAND token is bought off the open market and held in Laguna Network on behalf of the user. During this period, we have content and quests about Sandbox in Laguna to explore and learn more about the Sandbox ecosystem.
The second feature is we have a form of membership tier in Laguna. Either you hold selected blue chip NFTs or you hold above a certain dollar value of $SAND in your Laguna wallet, you get better perks like higher % of cashback and other benefits that we are negotiating with real world businesses.
Third, the campaigns are mathematically designed that even if all 100% of users who receive the $SAND tokens sell them at some point, there is still a net buy from the open market. This is unlike most DAO proposals where majority of the $SAND token is sold to fund the initiative, in our case 0% will be sold by the team and 100% will be used as incentive while at the same time time using affiliate fees from retailers to buy 150% of that value of $SAND from the open market. Any unused $SAND token, will be returned to the DAO.
I think the sandbox voucher concept will work really well in phase 2 after we create some awareness about Sandbox with our users and allow users to enjoy tangible utility (higher VIP tier) on Laguna.
