There is probably a law that says that utopias are always as bizarre as the time in which they arise. And since we are known to be in a rather strange epoch, to put it politely, our visions of the future were also more grounded. In any case, one of the latest goes like this: Soon we will all be earning money easily. Thanks to the blockchain, of course. And small pixel monsters are the greatest good in this economic system.
At the video game Axie Infinity is all about digital pets called Axies, which look something like a cross between a cat and a puffer, or a sheep and a snake. You can raise, breed and train them until you finally let the critters compete against each other in a contemporary version of a cockfight so that the stronger one wins. The principle is reminiscent of Pokemon or even the time-honored Tamagotchi. While playing, you earn a crypto currency called Small Love Potion by winning fights or selling the animals, which you can either hoard or exchange for analog money on appropriate trading platforms.
The game uses a technology called NFT, with which digital files can be uniquely assigned and identified. So each axie only exists once. In spring 2021 there was already a moderate boom for NFTs in the art world, and the principle is the same, only that it is not questionable digital outsider works of art at Christie’s or Sotheby’s that are sold for millions, but cute video game monsters.
The “Pay to win” business model is now followed by “Play to earn”
A whole series of fable figures: More than 600,000 players spend time on the platform every day, the total trading volume is over 150 million dollars, growth has exceeded all scales for months, and the most expensive pixel animal, a purple blob with a unicorn and an orange reptile tail, switched for more than 500,000 euros the owner. “You can imagine Axie as a nation with a real economic system,” says the Sky Mavis development studio. You probably don’t do it underneath these days. Even in the world of cryptocurrencies, which is not exactly poor in megalomania, one is not sure whether this is such a good idea.
What is truly new, above all, is the idea that the players actually create some kind of value themselves. After all, the cyber money generated in this way has more real value than the much hyped Bitcoin, which only exists for itself. So far, most game apps have always said “pay to win”. The common business model states that users have to pay hefty sums of money in order to have any chance of success. Now it’s “play to earn” – play to earn.
Perhaps in a world in which automation is increasingly destroying low-skilled jobs, this is the closest possible approximation to a universal basic income. One part of humanity breeds digital animals, which it then sells to the other part, which already has enough capital.
Rumor has it that a number of people in Southeast Asia are quitting their regular jobs in order to play the game full-time. It is said that a small four-digit amount can be earned so easily when an eight-hour day is gambled through. That may not seem like much by local standards. In countries like the Philippines or Vietnam, where Axie Infinity is particularly popular, it can be used to support a family.