Axie Infinity

Overview

Axie Infinity is a blockchain game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis in 2018, known for its in-game economy which uses Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies. It has been called "a pyramid scheme that relies on cheap labor from countries like the Philippines to fuel its growth."

Players collect and mint non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which represent axolotl-inspired digital pets known as Axies. These creatures can be bred and battled with each other within the game. Sky Mavis charges a 4.25% fee to players when they trade Axies on its marketplace.

Axie Infinity is built on the Ronin Network, an Ethereum-linked sidechain developed by Sky Mavis. The game's official cryptocurrency is "Axie Infinity Shards/Token" or AXS for short. The game's secondary token, SLP, crashed in February 2022 amid a wider NFT and cryptocurrency crash, losing over 99% of its peak value. In March 2022, hackers compromised the Ronin Network, stealing approximately US$620 million worth of cryptocurrency from the project. The hackers were linked to Lazarus Group, funded by North Korea.

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Gameplay

According to the company's website, Axie Infinity is a competitive game with an "idle battle" system derived from games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Idle Heroes. The game's setting is filled with creatures called Axies that players can collect as pets. Players aim to battle, breed, collect, raise, and build kingdoms for their Axies. The game has an in-game economy where players can buy, sell, and trade resources they earn in the game.

Sky Mavis marketed the game with a play-to-earn model (also called "pay-to-play-to-earn" model) where after participants pay the starting costs, they can earn an Ethereum-based in-game cryptocurrency by playing. Axie Infinity allows users to cash-out their tokens every fourteen days. This model has been described as a form of gambling, and one with an unstable market that is overly reliant on the inflow of new players.

In February 2020, Sky Mavis estimated that a new player would need to spend around US$400 to meet this starting requirement. By August 2020, the cheapest Axie cost approximately US$307, although reports as of March 2022 suggest the floor price of an Axie has dipped to around US$20.

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Development and history

Development of Axie Infinity started in 2017, led by its co-founder and CEO, Nguyen Thanh Trung, alongside Tu Doan, Aleksander Larsen, Jeffrey Zirlin, and Andy Ho. Nguyen had previously spent money on the game CryptoKitties before he began work on his own blockchain-based game, combining elements of CryptoKitties with gameplay from the Pokémon series or Neopets.

In October 2018, the development team released Axie Infinity's first battle system. Development of the real-time card battle system and application commenced in March 2019, and an alpha was released in December 2019.

Sky Mavis launched Ronin wallet in February 2021, which in addition to speeding up transactions and eliminating expensive gas fees for gamers offers the opportunity to play Axie Infinity or any other dApp that run on the Ronin sidechain. According to data published on Statista, in 2022 around 40% of Axie Infinity players were from the Philippines.^([better source needed])

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As a source of income in the Philippines

Starting around August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, Axie Infinity was becoming a source of income in the country. The cryptocurrency's volatility strongly affected the game's viability as a source of income. By July 2021, during a high-point in the cost of the game's cryptocurrency, some full-time users of the app in the Philippines were making significantly more than the national monthly average, but by April 3, 2022, the price of the cryptocurrency had dropped by 94%.

The game's popularity in the country stemmed from the economic hardship caused by the pandemic, during which many residents lost their original source of income. The main motivation behind playing the game was primarily to receive approximately the same amount of income within a few hours a day as with full-time employment.

In the Philippines, the prohibitive cost of entry led to both individuals and gaming guilds renting out assets to allow new players to meet the minimum requirements. These new players, known as "scholars", are often required to meet a quota of in-game earning to continue using the rented assets, and must pay the owners a commission. These commissions vary greatly but can be as high as 75%. The resulting dependency of lower-income individuals has been described as potentially exploitative, lacking in safeguards, and has often been compared to gold farming.

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Limitations and associated risks

Academics and journalists have pointed out risks associated with playing the game as well as limitations of it, focusing primarily on the game's high financial barrier to entry, questions about the project's long-term durability, including accusations of a ponzi or pyramid scheme, as well as possible negative effects of the game on the players' mental health.

1 source for this section

1Axie Infinity — Wikipedia, revision 1372510867

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As a source of income in the Philippines

Limitations and associated risks