Axie Infinity Is An Intriguing Chinese Blockchain-Based Game Unparalleled Tokens(NFT) Is Based On The Characters Of Pets.

Combining and developing ideas like its predecessors such as Pokémon and CryptoKitties, and using its unique economic model, this game has managed to open its place among gamers and enthusiasts of the digital world, and now to one of The most important achievements of the digital world or “metaverse” Has become.

This game can be considered as one of the cases that prove that Metavars has become a reality and is considered a serious matter in our world today.

Axie infinity currently generates more revenue than its own protocol, ethereum, And Bitcoin Created.

The game, which originated in East Asia and has fans from all over the world, has made huge profits for its users in recent months; To the extent that many Filipino workers have given up manual labor in rich countries and turned to make money from the game.

Based on this article Note, Instead of focusing on the technical and professional aspects of the game, we will define a simple account of the impact of Chinese blockchain games on the lives of ordinary people, especially Filipino migrant workers.

An overview of the Axie Infinity game

Axie Infinity’s fun and engaging gaming platform generated more than $ 30 million in revenue last week. Accordingly, the platform revenue of this popular game is now even higher than that of ethereum and Bitcoin.

New data show that Axie Infinity earns 10 out of total revenue. Decentralized application (Dapp) is the top of the Defi world, namely Uniswap (Uniswap), Pancake Swap (PancakeSwap), Aave, Compound, SushiSwap, QuickSwap, MetaMask, Lido Finance, MakerDAO, and Synthetix. Is.

Top decentralized apps and blockchain platforms, based on cumulative revenue in recent weeks
Click on the image to view the original size.

One of the most important attractions of this game is its business model; Because it is designed in such a way that the general public can benefit well from it. The project stakeholder community is not limited to the rich in digital currencies.

Ordinary people who are usually deprived of profit opportunities can easily participate in Axie Infinity, and there is no monopoly for large and rich investors.

The data show that Axie Infinity has seen tremendous growth in audience engagement.

At the end of July 2020 (August 99), the number of daily active users in Axie Infinity was less than 500. After a while, this video game designed in the form of Pokémon games opened its way to the world of technology, and now, with almost half a million daily active users (Daily Active User or DAU for short), about 60% of which are Filipino Have achieved a special place in the world of games.

Users must first pay to join and participate in this game. During the game, NFTs with the ability to buy and sell, and trade have been designed.

This product is designed according to the needs of a part of the global community, which has never been the main target and priority of technology companies in the traditional market.

Despite all these successes and achievements, Axie Infinity has serious critics on social media who try to get the token. SLP They consider it meaningless and useless. (As mentioned above, Axie Infinity is based on unparalleled tokens.

SLP is also the reward token of this game for winning battles).

But the question that arises here is how did Twitter critics come to such a conclusion? Of course, such statements are somewhat understandable; Because the mentality of many people and even some gamers are formed around traditional game models that only seek to exploit users; For this reason, it is natural that they do not yet have an understanding of decentralized games and how they differ from the traditional form of play.

Contrary to these opinions, some have found the value of the game and the real purpose of playing in this type of game and are no longer willing to play traditional games.

 Many gamers, after trying Axie Infinity, have put their full and full-time focus on this game.

According to them, the effort they made for their traditional jobs was much higher, and the income they received from them did not match this effort at all.

Axie Infinity’s income to these people is even more than the salary they received for their work! For this reason, they consider this game to be a great option for a profit.

The idea has become so serious that much research has been done on it. The results of some of these studies suggest that we may soon see an increase in the number of workers leaving their offline jobs and instead of looking for work in the Metaverse space.

Philippines; Country of migrant workers

The Philippines is generally known for its large “workforce,” especially its migrant workforce. In 2006, Richard C. Paddock published an article in the Los Angeles Times talking about the Philippines’ most successful exports, of which it’s the “people.” In this article, he says:

They (Filipino workers) care for patients in California, drive refueling trucks in Iraq, move cargo ships through the Panama Canal, and cruise ships cross the Gulf of Alaska. They serve alcoholic beverages to Japanese employees and care for the children of Saudi businessmen.

In 1970, when the Philippines was experiencing a political and economic crisis and widespread internal unemployment, then-President Ferdinand Marcos adopted a new labor export policy called “active and organized migration.” This policy was intended only as a temporary solution to the problems. Still, today, there are more than 10 million Filipinos worldwide, of which 2.2 million are ” Filipino Migrant Workers ” or Overseas Filipino Workers ( OFWs for short).

The money they send to their homeland and family accounts for about 10% of GDP, making the Philippines one of the top four recipients of remittances worldwide.

The top three countries in this field are India, China, and Mexico.

In the early 2020s, when the Coronavirus outbreak occurred and Filipino migrant workers were repeatedly fired or suspended, the World Bank expressed concern that remittances to low- and middle-income countries might be worth it.

It can reduce by 20% or more. They feared that this would create many problems for vulnerable families and pressure governments to address them.

However, such problems do not seem to have happened, and it can say that the opposite has happened. A recent report by the Bank of the Philippines shows that remittances have exceeded the pre-Corona epidemic level, reaching $ 11 billion in the first quarter of 2021.

Of course, this is not necessarily good news for the citizens of this country.

As of March 2020, some 400,000 migrant workers have been displaced by the lack of job opportunities in the world due to the corona epidemic.

This means that all funds transferred from abroad are sent by a limited number of migrant workers who have not yet lost their jobs. In other words, during this period, additional pressure has been imposed on these workers to send money to their country.

In fact, we only see statistics that show the amount of money sent to countries; But these statistics do not specify how and how this money was received and sent. These workers may have used their savings.

Some of those who have been repatriated may even have brought savings of several months or even years with them, thus inadvertently causing an artificial increase in individuals’ income. These are all possibilities that may be true.

Axyie infinity in the Philippines

Workers who lose their jobs and return to their home countries face a very uncertain job future after returning home; They are forced to compete for jobs in a country that did not have enough jobs and a decent income even before entering their worst recession.

This is a big problem for migrant workers and their families who depend on this money to make a living!

For this reason, the Philippine government’s greatest need right now is to create jobs for returned migrant workers and to provide methods to encourage them to re-learn and learn skills. Migrant workers have to spend time learning new skills to support themselves and their families.

But where will these jobs be provided?

Unemployment is particularly acute for low-skilled workers who have worked in the service sector. How should those who have been active in jobs such as cleaning, babysitting, driving, and overseas service acquire a new skill from scratch and turn it into a source of income?

The same is true for citizens who have previously worked in local industries (including tourism, hospitality, retail, transportation, and manufacturing) and lost their jobs due to the corona epidemic.

Not surprisingly, many of these unemployed and job-seekers are looking for a source of income. What these job seekers have achieved recently is metaverse.

In short, Metavars means the digital world; Where anything we can imagine can exist. The word is actually a combination of the two words “meta” meaning beyond, and “universe,” meaning world. The day will come when we will be constantly connected to Metavars; Our senses of sight, hearing, and touch will function beyond what they are; We will combine digital elements with the physical world or be completely immersed in three-dimensional environments whenever we want. This family of technologies is collectively known as eXtended Reality or XR.

Luis Buenaventura is the co-founder of a digital currency exchange licensed by the central bank BloomX, allowing direct trading of the Philippine Peso and SLP. He writes on his news site Cryptoday:

A typical gamer can earn $ 4,500 worth of SLP tokens a month. So if we assume that about one-third of Filipino gamers have acceptable skills, they can earn a total of $ 222,750,000 SLP tokens per month. Let’s see how many pesos each SLP dollar is worth. This week, each SLP dollar is worth more than 9 pesos, which means that these people can earn a total of about 2 billion pesos a month. To better understand the above figures, consider this short report: The average amount of money that all migrant workers in Hong Kong send home to the Philippines on a monthly basis is 2 billion pesos.

Lewis, who also happens to be a friend of mine, published this report on July 9th. Due to the strange growth rate of the Axie Infinity game, these numbers have also changed, and their size has increased. In this regard, I spoke with Lewis to examine how long it takes for the value of SLPs entering the Philippines to match that of the Philippines’s largest source of international income, the United States.

Currently, $ 10 billion a year is transferred from the United States to the Philippines.

In the most conservative case, we assume that a gamer with average time and skill in Axie Infinity earns about 150 SLPs a day.

If SLP is traded for $ 0.2 and one million active Filipino users are active in this game daily, the annual revenue of the users of this country from the Axie Infinity game will reach 10.8 billion dollars.

Axie Infinity game environment and collected SLP tokens

The Philippines has a population of 111 million. The assumption that Axie Infinity has 1 million daily active users in the country means that less than 1% of the population will turn to the game. Such a presupposition is perfectly reasonable and achievable. For this reason, it is reasonable to expect the game’s annual revenue in the Philippines to reach $ 10.8 billion.

On the other hand, it should not forget that Axie Infinity is only one of the games in the world of decentralized applications, and this amount is only a part of the total income that can obtain from these games.

The field of decentralized games, especially NFT games, is growing rapidly in the tech world.

After this unparalleled welcome, developers now look to the Philippines as a great hub and marketplace for decentralized games.

Thus, the idea of becoming a ” Filipino workers Mtavrs ‘ or the Metaverse Filipino Worker (abbreviated MFW can be against migrant workers Filipino or OFW) can be a much better option than to migrate abroad for work. Metaverse is an attractive business destination that people can reach just by using a smartphone and internet connection and to reach it, and you do not need to use buses, boats, trains, and planes (to migrate).

Filipino workers can now work from home and be their own boss!

Even if they do not have the initial capital to buy the initial NFTs and start the game, they can temporarily rent out other NFT tokens.

In addition, the jobs available in Metavars are such that they provide opportunities for those who show great talent and skill to progress and advance. Many talented gamers can move quickly to leadership positions in the game. This has led to the popularity of these games in smaller and more remote areas; Because these games have created a way for members of these communities to participate effectively in the global economic cycle that did not exist before.

Real examples of people working on the Axie Infinity platform

In this section, we will look at real-life examples of people working on the Axie Infinity platform and examine the life and experiences of Ijon Inton, a Filipino migrant worker.

Jon was active in NFT games during the nationwide quarantine; But as soon as Corona border restrictions were eased and international flights resumed, he returned to his previous job in Japan to do an internship at a butcher. At the time, I asked him if he had ever considered staying home and playing.

He replied that being a high-income full-time gamer is like a dream for him, But his main and ultimate goal is to provide for his children.

So Egon chose the more sensible option; He said goodbye to the Philippines and his family and returned to work as a migrant worker. Can you imagine how difficult it was for him to make such a decision and be away from his family again?

But just one year after leaving home and starting work as an immigrant worker, he decided to leave his job in Japan; Because he concluded that in three months, he was making more money than he thought by playing Axie Infinity and renting his NFTs to other players and trading tokens.

He even realized that his income from playing in three months could be more than the income he could earn with three years of full-time work as an immigrant worker.

Egon was now returning home to his family.

It is interesting to know that Ejon’s employer, after receiving his resignation letter, happily agreed to it and sent him to the Philippines on his first flight. During a conversation with me, Ejon said that at that time, he felt that the company wanted to get him out as soon as possible; Because they were worried that he would persuade other workers to resign and join Oxy.

 He had previously helped at least 20 of his colleagues earn money with Oxy; So his employer’s concern has not been unreasonable.

The fact is that Metaverse jobs will gain serious legitimacy in the future, and those who still laugh at the concept of “earning money while playing” will only deprive themselves of this opportunity.

The examples of people who look at digital games as a source of income are not limited to Dijon. I have heard other stories about Filipino migrant workers in Kuwait who play oxytocin during their unemployment and earn even more than their daily jobs.

The last ones I want to give you as an example are Lola and Lolo, an elderly couple who recently appeared in the documentary Play-to-Earn.

They have given up working as an immigrant worker altogether and, through play, have been able to provide financial support for their immigrant daughter, who recently lost her job in Canada, in addition to meeting all their financial needs.

Lulu and Lola Silverio; The oldest Axie Infinity gamers

Statistics show that millions of Filipino children are growing up in the country without their parents; But even then, they have enough money to buy all kinds of computer games. Now imagine that the new generation of these computer games can bring their parents home and with them forever!

The fact is that the growing number of Filipinos staying in their home country with their families is increasing the local workforce. For most people, working full-time at Metavars is still a dream.

Even those who call themselves full-time gamers and earn money this way usually have one or two other jobs alongside it.

One of the strengths of this is that it is quite possible to balance NFT games with other occupations because the games’ timing is completely flexible, and there are no specific hours or rules.

Playing and working in parallel is an attractive proposition for Filipinos; Because Filipinos live in a way that is not just a matter of trying to make ends meet; They also want to save money for the future of their family and their children’s education.

The ideal situation for them is to have a face-to-face and, usually, fixed-job that provides the basic needs with the income and then start a job as a second job in Metavars that becomes a financial aid for them.

Obviously, when the citizens of a country earn more money, more working income will generate in society.

This strengthens domestic demand for services and turns the wheel of the economy.

Perhaps at the time, these wealthy gamers were NFT players hiring cleaners, babysitters, drivers, and workers in their own country.

They will probably pay more to their compatriots than employers in other countries. Even if we leave out the sense of patriotism, citizens know that if they can earn more in Metavars, they do not need to accept service jobs. So the amount that employers pay should be enough to encourage workers to do service work.

Concluding remarks

The Philippines has long been recognized as one of the world’s leading suppliers of labor. Still, much of the income generated by Filipino migrant workers over the past decades has been volatile.

There is no denying that remittances from other countries are a great economic aid to developing countries. Still, unfortunately, the same money reduces the local labor force and creates a culture of dependence in these countries. In addition, those who have to leave their families to achieve a better future pay a high emotional price.

Add to all this the fundamental changes that we will face in the post-Corona period.

It is a fact that digital developments will gradually reduce the need for a workforce in the world and eliminate some jobs.

It is already clear that the nature of many occupations changed during the Corona, and it is predicted that even after the end of the epidemic, these occupations would not return to their former state.

We have to accept that the world is changing, and this change is mainly towards digitalization. We are still in the early days of the fame and popularity of the idea of ​​Metavars in the world, but what is true is that these concepts will sooner or later cover all aspects of our lives. Metaverse is a world without borders, so why shouldn’t the life and business of the people of the world be without borders?