<aside> 🚀 In a three part series I want to share with you some of my learnings from my sightseeing, investments and creations in the metaverse and web3. I hope that these insights can provide you some inspiration and hopefully help you avoid the mistakes I made.
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TL:DR To make an NFT project the first step is to understand what NFTs are about. This article will explain the different areas that comprise the current NFT industry, how you buy and sell NFTs and what risks are out there. We also touch upon what is needed from deciding on the art or artist for the NFT, community and utility for your NFT project.
“Have you heard about Axies?” my friend from Manila asked me.
“Like the Axies of Evil?” I told him, eager to soon show off my WWII knowledge.
I never got to share, but learned that my friend was an Axie Infinity whale and had multiple scholars working for him farming thousands of dollars worth of Sweet Love Potions. These were the early days of Axies Infinity and the GameFi space.
Confused about what you just read? Yeah, me too. I had no clue of what he was talking about. As a long term crypto collector I was surprised because I thought I was up to date when it came to the newest trends. However, with NFTs I had to learn a new language.
Here is some background information to what my friend was talking about.
Axie Infinity is an online crypto game that revolves around Pokémon-like creatures known as Axies. Players can collect Axies as virtual pets with aspirations to battle, breed, collect, raise, and build kingdoms for their Axies. This is facilitated by a multi-million dollar GameFi economy wherein you earn Sweet Love Potions (SLPs) for the activity you conduct in the game.
GameFi is simply a fusion of the words “game” and “finance” which operates on a “play-to-earn” model. ****It combines cryptocurrency, blockchain, NFTs, and game mechanics to create a virtual environment where players participate and earn money in the process.
Axies is a game where the ability to earn is determined by the players holding and activity of in-game NFTs, this is where whales come into play. A whale is someone who in a NFT collection owns so many NFTs that their activity can shift the floor value (the lowest price point) of the collection. It is basically a majority investor, the only difference is that a whale has more influence than just shares of the voting rights, they also own part of the operating assets.
Now as a whale you can both choose to sell your holdings for profits should the demand of your NFT collection go up. On the other hand you can also choose to instead lend out your NFTs to other players who can then play-and-earn, providing you a commission for having leased the NFT off the whale. This business model is called scholarships and the people doing this are called scholars.
<aside> 📈 While this might sound crazy it proved to be a game changer in low-income countries with high online presence such as the Philippines.
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Check out this video for a better understanding of Play-To-Earn in the Philippines
Check out this video for a better understanding of Play-To-Earn in the Philippines