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Cryptos often are created and used for specific purposes. Transfer of funds, storage of value, lending or even hosting a game. A crypto token pair that has gathered a large amount of attention lately is the Axie Infinity ecosystem, where players play to earn. How does it work and is it worth your time?
Background
Axie Infinity was created in Vietnam by Trung Nguyen & Aleksander Larsen and launched in 2018 as a pokemon like animal collection and breeding game. It didn't gain popularity until 2020 when the AXS tokens were introduced and players could earn by playing the game. Some months after that the game quickly picked up speed and climbed quickly in marketcap. The game also uses a different token SLP which is used for breeding the in-game creatures to acquire new ones.
The game has seen active development and is receiving a steady stream of new features that help attract new players while keeping older ones active. It added a governance platform in 2021 where AXS holders can stake their tokens to help secure the ecosystem until it is sufficiently decentralized. The staking rewards are given out from a treasury that are kept topped up with fees.
Axie infinity has manged to keep steady growth with revenue increasing with each passing month. It was the leading NFT marketplace by volume in May 2021 and its numbers are rivaling or have overtaken most other DEFI & NFT related tokens. Quarter 3 this year has been the best one yet for the game as it saw their revenue increase eight fold, this shows promising growth for the platform.
Axie infinity has two tokens, Axie infinity (very creative) & Smooth Love Potion, they function as governance and utility token respectively. The game runs on ERC-721 smart contracts and hosts different forms NFTs in the shape of pokemon-like animals. There were 4088 original "Axies" (the animal in game) that were minted known as the Origin Axie. These are very expensive and serve as a status symbol in game. By using the utility token you can breed new Axies that can inherit different aspects of their parents, there are currently 500 of these traits/body parts. There's a public calculator to find out the chances for you to get the best body parts for your Axies.
The Axies are used for various activities where having an Axie with good traits can give you an advantage over your opponents. Playing the game & battling nets you rewards in form of AXS & SLP so you can play the game & earn a passive income which is what is the main draw of the game currently. To get started requires a player to have a minimum of three Axies, the minimum amount of ETH an Axie costs ranges between 70$-250$ depending on market price & gas price.
The platform hasn't suffered any major security breaches other than DDoS attack taking down the NFT marketplace for a few hours. Despite running on smart contracts the team of 20-ish developers have added a staking mechanic to help verify the security of the system, AXS are used fo this. 29% of initial token allocation was placed in a treasury to give rewards to stakers, any fee paid will also used to top up this treasury to help incentivize staking.
Splitting this up in two parts. AXS are used to verify security of the system and can be bought or earned as in game rewards. Once a player gets started, they can, in theory, just play the game and earn tokens to grow in power. As each player wants better & better Axies, there is a trade incentivises where players can trade the Axie NFTs and acquire Axies with better body parts for potential better bred Axies.
SLP is needed to make two Axies create a new Axie. These can also be bought or earned in game. Each Axie can be bred 7 times before they are burnt and can only be used for trading or battling. There is a price increase for each time the Axie is used to breed, starting at 150 SLP & ending at 3150 SLP. Both of these tokens are centered around the game and find value in their use case for the different aspects of the game.
Axie infinity today
Axie Infinity is new, relatively speaking, to the crypto scene. It has seen a large spike of growth and continues climbing. The game itself is fun and people that grew up playing similar games can now earn from it. There are players that live off of simply playing and selling the in-game NFTs. It is currently the largest NFT marketplace and is frequently placed in the top 10 cryptos in daily trade volume.
Sky doesn't seem to be the limit for this token. Even though there are competitors in the play-and-earn scene, it'll take time before they get close to Axie Infinity's current spot in the crypto world.
- Unique use case/idea
- Biggest NFT marketplace
- Play-to-earn model
- High starting cost
- Server stability issues
