Announcement from Adonis, dated 07/30/2024

Good morning neighbors: As you all likely heard by now, I’ve taken ownership over White Sands and am extremely excited to lead the next phase of our project.

Minecraft was my favorite video game growing up and that’s why I immediately saw the massive potential in HYTOPIA (previously NFT Worlds) and its ecosystem when I entered the crypto/NFT space in late-2021.

White Sands instantly caught my eye because the build quality was on another level compared to everything else being launched at the time. The concept of a customizable home on top of a thriving voxel-based metaverse was truly intriguing to me.

I quickly became obsessed with White Sands, minted my first Parcel Pass, and still remember attending community and milestone events like the beta release of our server. It was impressive to see Adam and the team delivering on each promise they made and consistently pushing far beyond that. The quality and functionality inside the White Sands server is, and has always been, extremely impressive.

Mojang’s blog post in July 2022, when they announced the ban on NFTs in Minecraft, was a massive hit to the entire ecosystem. But I was truly thrilled when I saw the NFT Worlds (now HYTOPIA) team pivot to create their own voxel platform. I thought it was smart for White Sands to stick with HYTOPIA instead of attempt to pivot to other metaverse ecosystems, despite community pressure at that time. The reality is that most metaverse platforms will fail. The reason that HYTOPIA has a real chance of success is because Minecraft already has 175 million monthly active players. Creating an interactive blockchain connected world that looks and feels familiar to those players is a MAJOR competitive advantage. White Sands is well positioned to capitalize on it. As Adam mentioned in his announcement, there’s not really an active business model for White Sands at the moment. The company hasn’t generated meaningful revenue since mint. But that’s largely due to what happened with Minecraft, and the recognition that it would take years for HYTOPIA to create a competitive platform. But we’re seeing meaningful progress from the HYTOPIA team and I’m seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve actually been working with Adam and the White Sands team now for over a year behind the scenes. I’ve joined regular calls, provided ideas, and even helped manage our community and social channels. I have a deep understanding and appreciation for the strategy the team has taken while we await the needed support from the HYTOPIA platform. That said, I’ve been thinking a lot about my vision for White Sands now that I’ve taken ownership for it. While I won’t commit today to any specific model or direction, there are a variety of paths we could potentially take. We’ve already created and vaulted hundreds of sellable items for the upcoming HYTOPIA marketplace. We’ve already partnered with multiple external games being developed for HYTOPIA. We’ve explored becoming a distribution channel for other HYTOPIA games, items and brands. Not to mention the fact that we’ve created a massive world with unseen levels of quality which we expect will attract a lot of attention upon release. It’s my job right now to ensure that we continue to build the right foundation to enable any and all possibilities for sustainable revenue, while maintaining plenty of runway to optimize our resources upon HYTOPIA’s launch. I’m currently the creator with the highest engagement on HYCHAIN content and I’m planning on posting more White Sands content going forward on both personal and brand channels. The X platform will be important for our growth at White Sands – this is going to be the top-of-funnel platform where I want to convert social media traffic into new community members.

You can also expect me to implement changes to the Discord in the coming weeks, for example, introducing an onboarding sequence for new folks who join our server for the first time. While we’re not immediately moving out of “stasis” so to speak, we are going to start taking more public steps to prepare for next year. HYTOPIA is not the only HYCHAIN game anymore, the mobile game Loot Legends for example will enter the Closed Beta in August and I am currently in the process of exploring options to provide some utility for White Sands holders there as well like access to a competitive gaming guild inside this game. To be clear, there’s going to be a learning curve here. I’ve never run a project like this in web3. But I’m confident in my capabilities and ideas. And believe with Adam supporting me as a strategic advisor, we can ensure White Sands’ place as a premier brand in the HYTOPIA ecosystem.

I’m genuinely looking forward to being on this journey with all of you.

Adonis