Axie Infinity is creating new opportunities for the unemployed to make an income through gaming.
Here is some information about Axie Infinity from its white paper
“Axie Infinity is a Pokémon-inspired universe where anyone can earn tokens through skilled gameplay and contributions to the ecosystem. Players can battle, collect, raise, and build a land-based kingdom for their pets.
“All art assets and Axie genetic data can be easily access by 3rd parties, allowing community developers to build their tools and experiences in the Axie Infinity universe…
“The key difference between Axie and a traditional game is that Blockchain economic design is used to reward our players for their contributions to the ecosystem. This new model of gaming is known as “play to earn”. Axie has attracted thousands of players from developing countries in the pursuit of a new income stream during the Covid pandemic.”
A new report by Bloomberg shares that blockchain has inspired gamers around the world to earn some extra income.
Vincent Gallarte, an IT analyst who was recently laid off, also started playing Axie Infinity to generate passive income with his side hustle.
Axie is a Vietnamese game that allows users to collect tradeable coins rooted in blockchain technology. The project raised $7.5 million even though it started with no funding at all! This included investments from billionaire Mark Cuban and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
Over the summer, Axie’s user base has grown from 30,000 daily users in April to 1 million today. They have made $30 million worth of Ether transfers over the past month. About half their users are in developing countries like Brazil, Venezuela, and the Philippines.
Although the Axie Infinity platform is an opportunity for side hustles, there are concerns that it will exploit and abuse players. New users must purchase 3 “Axies” at the cost of about $200 each to start on this new endeavour.
Vanessa Cao, the founder of venture capital firm BTX Capital, believes that the Axie model is “unhealthy and unsustainable.”
She said: “Players need to spend hundreds of dollars upfront just to play. It’s a wrong concept. You can’t ask people to pay before even having any idea what the game is about.”
According to famous analyst and influencer Elliot Wainman, gaming-based blockchain projects will be the next big driver for crypto-asset adoption.
As reported by The Daily Hodl, he said: “Games are the only thing that I see as truly decoupled from the crypto ecosystem. Because when you play a game and you enjoy the actual game, it has intrinsic value. “
Wainman pointed to the “staggering growth” of the blockchain-based game Axie Infinity as an indication of the industry’s potential:
“I’ve been saying this for so long, that users are the key, because if you have users, then you have network growth, and if you have network growth with [a] hard-cap supply of assets, then you most likely have asset appreciation. It’s a very, very clear way to drive value to crypto ecosystems. “