In the past 6 months, the native governance token AXS of the blockchain game Axie Infinity has soared from US$3 to US$156. This amazing growth has brought Axie’s total market value to nearly 30 billion U.S. dollars, making it one of the most valuable gaming companies in the world.
Such numbers may be unbelievable, but what many people really want to ask is why, why is Axie so valuable? How does it attract so many players? Where do these economic activities come from?
Smooth Love Potion (SLP)
A basic element of the Axie Infinity economy is the game’s Smooth Love Potion (SLP) token.
In the Axie Infinity game, players can raise, breed, and trade a digital pet called Axie, which exists in the form of NFT (non-fungible token). Players can also get SLP token rewards by using their own Axies to fight against other players. Players need to consume SLP tokens when using their own Axies to breed new Axie pets. It is worth noting that when playing the Axie Infinity game for the first time, users need to go to the Axie market to buy at least 3 Axies pets before they can start playing this game.
- First of all, SLP can inspire players to play this game. This is because every time a player wins a battle with his Axie digital pet, he will be able to earn SLP rewards.
- The amount of SLP earned by a player depends on their ranking. Therefore, players with the highest skills and the best Axies pets can earn the most SLP rewards every day.
- Top Axie players can earn approximately 600 SLP per day. As of the time of writing, this is equivalent to earning about $50 a day. Of course, this is only the higher end of the revenue spectrum. An average player can get about 200-400 SLP every day.
Axies
When you know that you can make up to $50 a day by playing this game, you may be motivated to try it. But if you want to start playing Axie Infinity, you first need to get 3 Axies pets (because every 3 Axies form a battle team).
Axies are similar to the NFT version of Pokemon pets. These Aixes are also pets you use to fight other players. There are currently 9 different types of Axie pets: Bird, Plant, Beast, Aquatic, Reptile, Bug, Dusk , Mech, Dawn. As shown below:
Above: The types of Axie pets are: plants, dusk, and reptiles; birds, dawn, and aquatic; wild animals, mecha and insects.
Therefore, each type of Axie can have various skills. Since each Axie is different in strength, their cost usually ranges from 0.05 ETH to 0.3 ETH. In the Axie Infinity game, the cost of a combat team (including 3 Axies) is usually around 0.5 ETH.
Axie’s reproduction
In addition to collecting and fighting, Axie also provides another purpose: reproduction.
- Similar to Pokemon, Axies can mate with each other to breed new Axies. This means that, theoretically, an unlimited number of Axies pets can be bred.
- Therefore, the most profitable aspect of Axie Infinity is the breeding market for this NFT game.
- If users want to make Axies reproduce each other, they must consume AXS tokens and SLP tokens at the same time.
Each Axie pet can breed up to 7 times, and the number of SLP tokens that need to be consumed (destroyed) for each breeding will be more than the previous one (as shown in the figure below), which means that the profit generated by breeding will follow the breeding The increase in the number of times decreases. In addition, it should be remembered that each time it reproduces, it costs 1 AXS.
- The “eggs” that are born after each breeding can hatch after 5 days. The characteristic of the hatched Axie is a random combination of the genes of both parents. The probability varies according to whether the characteristics of the parents are dominant or recessive.
- As you can see, the breeding of Axie is a bit complicated, which is why breeders (players) choose which Axies to breed based on the supply and demand of Axies in the market. In any case, the profit potential of reproduction is huge and very profitable.
- Mid-to-high end breeders are expected to receive a fixed income of 0.2 ETH to 1 ETH every 5 days. What needs to be remembered is that reproduction can expand indefinitely, and it is very possible to earn a few ETH in a week. (Note: Newly bred Axie pets cannot be bred with their parents and siblings.)
- If you still doubt the viability of Axie’s business, you might as well take a look at the daily transaction volume of the Axie Marketplace market is about 5800 ETH (about 20 million US dollars). This makes it the second most liquid and active NFT market in the world, second only to OpenSea in daily trading volume.
Axie scholarship
For players, the most important condition for creating a good breeding farm is that in addition to the initial purchase of high-quality Axies as parents of breeding, SLP tokens are also needed to complete the breeding. In addition to being able to buy SLP tokens on the open market, SLP tokens can also be earned by playing this game (as mentioned above).
In addition, you can also obtain passive SLP benefits by lending your unused Axies to other players. This practice is called setting up an Axie scholarship.
- The scholarship can be created because the Axie game account is separate from the Axie wallet.
- This means that you can let other players use (rent) your Axies to play the game while preventing other players from selling your Axies (NFT tokens), and other players will not even be able to obtain the earned SLP tokens. currency.
- Normally, the distribution ratio of SLP proceeds between scholarship recipients (called “scholar”) and Axie lenders is between 75/25 and 50/50. For most people, in this way, it is not worth spending so much time every day and only earning 10-30 US dollars, but for people in underdeveloped countries, the opportunities provided by scholarships may be enough to change Their lives.