The sales performance of "breaking US$20 million in the last 30 days" allowed the blockchain game Axie Infinity to once again enter the field of vision of Chinese crypto-asset players. The game is also currently the project with the highest transaction volume in the NFT market. As of July 8th, its daily transaction The amount exceeded 20 million U.S. dollars.

　　From the perspective of game attributes alone, Axie Infinity is not complicated-players use ETH to buy three fantasy creatures named "Axie", and upgrade them by breeding, mating and multiplying in pairs can produce new breeds of unique genes, and put them in Fight in the arena and get game rewards.

　　Doesn't it sound like the handheld game "Pokemon" (aka "Pokemon")? But when it is put on the blockchain chain, everything becomes different.

　　Various types of Pokemon Axie are NFTized and turned into non-homogeneous token assets. The protagonist of the traditional game is only for entertainment. It has strong value attributes and can be collected or encrypted on the chain. Trading on a decentralized trading platform (DEX). It is not only these NFT pets that can be traded, but also game resources and reward SLP, and the governance token AXS of the game ecology.

　　From the purchase of pets to the sale of pets and their derivative rewards, the entire link must rely on encrypted assets. The network Ethereum on which the game is built and its on-chain asset ETH are an indispensable part. Axie Infinity focuses on "Earning and Playing" and claims to be made into a "game designed to change the world and create economic freedom."

　　You may think that this is another coin circle bubble with strong investment (machine) attributes, but in fact, Axie Infinity has been in operation for 3 years. The outbreak of the new crown epidemic has given it an opportunity to show its value. Play this game It has unexpectedly become a way for low-income groups in the Philippines to maintain their livelihoods during the epidemic.

　　Whether Axie Infinity's popularity can continue or not needs to be handed over to time, but it truly demonstrates the potential social value of the blockchain economy.

　　The chain version of "Pokémon" became the NFT sales champion after 3 years

　　On July 7, the price of the token AXS reached a record high of $16.84. When Binance was launched in October last year, the initial opening price was only $0.1. The blockchain game Axie Infinity, which supports AXS, also officially won the NFT market transaction volume. The daily transaction volume of 20 million US dollars has attracted media reports in the industry.

　　Axie Infinity's daily trading volume exceeds 20 million U.S. dollars

　　Before this bright moment came, Axie Infinity had been in operation for 3 years.

　　After the last round of crypto asset bull market (February 2018), which raised 900 ETH (valued at US$720,000) from the initial sale of Axie, Vietnamese programmer Trung and Norwegian competitive game player Aleksander brought a group of small partners to start This "game about collecting and raising fantasy creatures named Axie" was implemented in Ho Chi Minh City, and the company was born.

　　"Although they belong to the same species, each Axie has its own unique appearance and attributes. Some Axies are similar to dogs, while others are more like cats, fish, birds or dragons. Interestingly, some Axies even look like mobile The tree.” Sky Mavis introduced the protagonist of the game in this way when the pre-sale news was announced on Medium.

　　In 2018, games like Axie Infinity are not eye-catching at all. Not to mention that its game logic comes from the handheld game "Pokemon", even if it is on the chain, it is not the first.

　　The originator of the pet development game, which was also born on the Ethereum chain, was Crypto Kitties. At the end of 2017, due to the high transaction volume and the blockade of Ethereum, it became a phenomenon-level event that went out of the circle. The Ethereum smart contract ERC-721 standard and the NFT assets generated based on this standard have therefore become an indispensable infrastructure for chain games.

　　In terms of innovation, the difference between Axie Infinity and CryptoKitties is that pets are not only used for training, but can also be used for combat. Pets are assets and rewards for combat. The latter can upgrade and increase the value of the former. Both can be in the chain. On the transaction.

　　But in 2018, in the DApp track that has been popular for a while due to gambling games, the truly entertaining chain games did not make much waves. An analysis of data in November of that year showed that Axie Infinity had only 132 daily activities, a 24-hour transaction volume of only 7.37 ETH, and a daily transaction volume of 644, ranking third in the development/leisure chain games.

　　If it is placed in the game category, Axie Infinity's data is not worth mentioning. Surprisingly, it did not appear to be a flash in the pan like a crypto cat, but survived, causing it to break the circle one after another.

　　Non-stop iteration ushered in the east wind of DeFi

　　Axie Infinity in the bear market did not sit still, but continued to evolve through the iterative evolution of functions, gameplay and even the underlying system to form a self-produced and self-sold ecological operation road.

　　By January 2019, this game has not only pet breeding and combat gameplay, but also expanded the land NFT of the game space, and once again raised 3200 ETH through the sale of land. At that time, ETH had fallen to $110, which was more than 90% shrinking from the peak of the bull market in 2018. This sales raised $352,000 for Axie Infinity.

　　With these funds, Sky Mavis continues to develop Axie Infinity, and intends to ecologicalize the game. In order to get rid of the slow speed of the Ethereum network restricting the development of games, Axie Infinity began to look for alternatives.

　　Initially, the NFT market of internal land and items in the game was moved to the two-layer network of Ethereum, Loom, so that users can trade NFT at a low cost. But for the part of the entertainment attribute, Loom still can't satisfy it better.

　　In November 2019, after completing the $1.465 million angel round of financing, the Sky Mavis team continued to develop new game features on the one hand, including unified land and Axie trading market, card battle games, and also began to brew the underlying chain. In the second half of 2020, Ronin, a side chain suitable for the continued expansion of the Axie Infinity ecosystem, was born.

　　As time goes by, the development of Axie Infinity has become at the right time again. The in-game asset SLP, which is used to cultivate Axie pet resources and pet battle rewards, gradually has a more open trading market because of chains like Uniswap. On the DEX began to be discovered with the popularity of DeFi, players began to establish exchange pools for SLP, these assets can be quickly exchanged for ETH, USDT and other valuable crypto assets.

　　This has also promoted Axie Infinity's brand and traffic to a new level, and also brought new opportunities to its ecology. "Play while earning" has gradually become the eye-catching concept of this game.

　　Then, Binance came, and the governance token AXS issued by Axie Infinity became the listed asset of Binance Launchpad, which was listed on a centralized exchange at a price of $0.1. Binance's blessing once again spread the exposure of this game.

　　On May 21 this year, Axie Infinity completed another $7.5 million in Series A financing. Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks team of the NBA, appeared among the employers. He is one of the well-known admirers of the NFT and once sold his own creations. Encrypted artwork. Obviously, this game has become popular.

　　Continuous upgrading and evolution are the important cores for the Axie Infinity game ecological boat to be able to operate today. Even his co-founder Aleksander said that every time the game launches new features, it will reactivate old players. And the DeFi and NFT that broke out in the second half of 2020 have blown a lot of wind for this flat boat, and finally made Axie, the "fantasy creature" born on the chain, become the most fully prepared pig for the wind.

　　``Play while earning'' to relieve the difficulties of low-income Philippine people during the epidemic

　　If the story ends here, the sales crown Axie Infinity becoming the darling of capital is just a model for the commercialization of blockchain games, and it is no different from the capital routines of online games and mobile games.

　　In fact, the value of the chain game Axie Infinity to users is far from entertainment. Or, do you think that the game on the chain is just a carrier that adds value to the props because of the existence of the Token. Is there really just another "crypto cat" that can be hyped in the world?

　　The emergence of the new crown epidemic has provided the outside world with another perspective on Axie Infinity.

　　Last year, in Cabanatu, a small town north of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, locals made a living by playing Axie Infinity in response to the economic blow caused by the epidemic. In May of this year, an 18-minute interview video was released on YouTube, presenting the situation in an intuitive way.

　　Art Art, 28, was one of the first people who discovered that Axie Infinity could "make money while playing." "In the beginning, I didn't believe that this game can really make money while playing, but I plan to try it first." He recalled in the video, he bought three Axies for four or five dollars, and made some money in the game. SLP tokens, and then Swap (exchange) into ETH. These ETHs were really exchanged into pesos (local fiat currency) through a local crypto asset wallet in the Philippines. This was the first time he withdrew through crypto assets.

　　Art Art said in the video that he played for 15 days and earned 1,000 pesos, equivalent to 20 U.S. dollars. Soon, this way of making money became popular in his neighborhood, and more than 100 people started to play Axie. "Those who can play can teach those who can't. Because of the epidemic, there is no other way to make money." He said, this is right. This is why Axie Infinity became popular in Cabanatu.

　　The Kabbanatu in the epidemic is under closed management, and the economy has stagnated as a result. Those who are most affected are those who have to go out every day to make money and livelihood. Although low-income groups receive government subsidies, they are not enough to make ends meet. Video reports show that during the epidemic, people in the local area played this game day and night and could make 300 to 400 US dollars, which is more than the money made by a local Filipino in a month.

　　Local old couple in Cabanatu play Axie to make money and pay for medicine

　　Elderly couples who run small shops in the local area, mothers of children who are unemployed due to the epidemic, and drivers who run three-wheeled passenger motorcycles have all become players earning income through Axie Infinity. When the price of Axie pets is getting hot at any time in the market, local young people even organize a rental channel to rent the Axie they cultivated to people who can't afford it, and help them get an income.

　　Jeffrey Zirlin, chief growth officer of Axie Infinity, noticed the growth of users from the Philippines, which even became the number one market for the game at one time. “It’s fun, cute and profitable. This is why this game really took off. This model has caused this The resonance of a generation, they are trying to find some ways to make money online, and digital asset income has become a new method." He believes that the new crown epidemic may permanently destroy most of the original methods of making money through manual labor, and the team has also begun to realize To, "What we are doing will fundamentally change people's understanding of work."

　　This may only be an unexpected result brought by Axie Infinity in a special period, and it is also the biggest difference between it and traditional Internet games-even if it is playing games, the time and labor paid are also assets, and it is still personal wealth, and it can be connected through the chain. The infrastructure under the chain inputs value into real life, and it is not just the platform that provides services.

　　Enlarging this perspective, the blockchain economy may not just be speculation. When the value condensed on labor flows through the chain, the production relationship may be redefined.