Reading time – 4 min.
Until recently, avid gamers were considered zombie-like “vidiots”, whose addiction prevented them from successfully graduating from school or finding a decent job. Video games are now recognized as a valuable tool for developing life skills.
For example, Mincraft by Microsoft is used to demonstrate engineering solutions, and World of Warcraft teaches students about strategic thinking. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg talk about the educational benefits of digital quests, and Brock Pierce attributes his own success in mining to early exposure to the world of computer entertainment. Do not lag behind celebrities and ordinary citizens. So, in the Philippines, a popular blockchain game helps residents to get information about new technologies, as well as earn good money.
Features of national ingenuity
Axie Infinity, created by the Vietnamese startup Sky Mavis, looks like a children’s “walker” with cartoon characters, but in fact it is a social platform that allows you to earn non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It is the most popular NFT platform on Ethereum. Participants breed and grow Axies digital creatures, fight and trade. To join the process, the user needs to purchase at least three Axies with ETH.
Filipino Aijon Inton from Cabanatuan first learned about this project in February 2020 on YouTube. Intrigued by the Play-to-Earn slogan (“Play to earn money”), I decided to give it a try.
“At first I just wanted to understand what it was, but a few days later I was amazed when I received my first income,” he admits.
In a week, the young man earned about $ 206, and soon taught the whole family to play, including a 66-year-old grandmother. After some time, Inton began to talk about a new opportunity to earn money for his neighbors. As a virtual coin trader since 2016, he has helped friends set up an account to buy ETH and get involved in the process.
“Getting $300 or $400 a month for a crypto investor isn’t that much, but for Filipinos it’s good money,” says Gabby Dizon, co-founder of mobile app development company Altitude Games.
Today, almost 60,000 people in the country play Axie Infinity. Its popularity is quite understandable. The Philippines has been hit hard by the pandemic, resulting in a 9.6% contraction in GDP. According to IHS Marki, this fall was the most severe since data collection began in 1946. Therefore, many citizens see Axie Infinity as a real opportunity to make ends meet.
Bulldog Rhino mix
Axie Infinity can be described as a combination of Pokemon and CryptoKitties, also using the blockchain and popular in 2017-2018. CryptoKitties also allowed members to buy and breed virtual animals on the underlying Ethereum blockchain network. The developers said then that their project is the first step towards the availability of distributed ledger technology.
There are several ways to make money with Axies. For new players, the most common is to get a small love potion (SLP) utility token and sell it through a liquidity pool on the Uniswap decentralized trading platform. Released as a hero victory reward, the SLP is in high demand.
Experienced and determined members have the opportunity to earn more money by trading Axies. In August 2020, two very rare virtual creatures were sold for 60 and 90 ETH. The highest price ever received for a token is 110 ETH.
Since players are syncing and exchanging money via Ethereum, some investors fear that this could provoke volatility in cryptocurrencies. Moreover, up to 5,000 new users are registered in the project every week, and profits are approaching $1.8 million.
The Giants provided the hype
But not only Axie Infinity has a high profit due to the current situation in the world. Most NFT-pegged gaming platforms are doing better than ever in 2021. Companies developing video platforms on a decentralized basis are raising record funds for their development.
The total investment in the blockchain games market reached $1.03 billion, of which $634 million came from venture capital funds.
The excitement in the NFT markets has intensified with the arrival of sports giants there. The National Basketball Association (NBA) recently launched a series of tokens called NBA Top Shots. Other sports legends such as Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (Football) and PGA Tour golfer Bryson DeChambeau have also created and sold branded NFTs.
NFTs and card games are rapidly gaining momentum in the sector. The hugely popular Witcher Gwent has launched a unique character offering on the OpenSea marketplace. Many gamers are already trying to get their hands on the coveted cards. The gaming world is on the verge of changes due to the active use of blockchain technology.
Sources: CNBC, Coindesk, YahooNews
