Axie Infinity is a decentralized game inspired by the idea of Pokémon and Tamagotchi games. It is based on the Ethereum platform introducing players to the fantasy creatures known as Axie, which possess powerful potential but are very adorable. The game allows players to breed, raise, battle, and trade them in the marketplace.
Axie focuses a lot on its gameplay, providing an exciting twist while understanding the weakness of other existing blockchain games. In an interview with Financial Fox’s Stefania Barbaglio, Axie’s COO Aleksander Leonard Larsen spoke about the future of Axie, intending at being available for mobile platforms as that’s where the market for global users is.
Axie Is Running Successfully Since Inception
Axie has generated over $4.5 million in revenue since they started and sees over $20 million in transactions on their marketplace. Axies are also NFTs but provide potential to players instead of art or music NFTs that can only be sold or kept as is. Axie aims at taking the user experience to the next level.
In Axie, you have ownership of the character and can use it for gameplay by earning tokens. These tokens can be used to trade on Uniswap, or you can collateralize this NFT on other exchanges to get other tokens.
The game has over 24,000 active users playing every day, with 30,000 playing weekly. Larsen believes that this sets them apart from other platforms on Ethereum. The platform’s high gas fees and transaction time are not discouraging users from playing the game, showing that Axie has a strong product-market and community following. The artwork of the characters and yield-farming avenues helps the game retain its followers.
Axie Aims To Grow Its Community On Priority
Larsen stated that while it is challenging to make a sustainable game or network that functions over time, decentralizing and involving community members in decision-making will help them reach that sustainability.
Axie can also achieve massive viral growth by opening the network to other players, which is the company’s primary focus. Larsen gave the example of Ready Player One, where people can come and find keys to participate in a mega treasure hunt for a specific period.
“We’re going to be doing the same thing in Axie, where we are going to be delivering our own governance tokens to people who are actually playing the game in a massive kind of treasure hunt and we think that can drive a tremendous amount of attention and viral growth into our game universe.“
By distributing the tokens to many players, they can get varied opinions on operations and build the foundation for a sustainable system. He further added that one of the goals Axie has is to make the game available for everybody to play without crypto, maybe a free demo version to introduce the game to those who don’t use blockchain technology.
Larsen Talks About Axie’s Vision And Future Goals
While the game functions on Axie’s server, minting tokens requires players to interact with Ethereum-based smart contracts. Axie’s side chain, Ronin, was built to solve the long-standing issues of the Ethereum platform. Ronin helps in trading, claiming rewards, and facilitating in-built game exchanges without the excessive gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain.
Barbaglio asked Larsen about what he expects from the version of Ethereum. Larsen said that for the next version, Ethereum would win layer 1 of Web 3, and transactions on the main Ethereum will become so popular that it won’t matter how Ethereum 2 is. More applications will prefer it for the security it offers.
Axie is offering a slightly less secure platform, but that’s a conscious design choice made by Axie to provide players with the best user experience they can give. This will help them scale to millions of users; something Axie wants to achieve.
When asked about large game studios’ integration with blockchain technology, Larsen believes that currently, there is no incentive for large studios to use it for their games. The revenue gained in blockchain technology is shared with its users, making it less profitable for large studios. However, the future of gaming is what players demand, and a decentralized ecosystem might be it.
He stated that people have a right to own their personal data and do what they want to with it, saying,
“No matter what you do online, it should be yours, and that’s what I’m working towards.“
Larsen also mentioned a massive upgrade to the new battle system that will be on the market soon, along with activating staking for their native tokens so people can earn rewards. The whitepaper for the same is available on the website.
Larsen’s NFT Collection
Alex likes to find up-and-coming NFT artists whose art needs the support he can leverage, helping them become more successful. This way, he can join them on their journey. The support aspect is crucial, helping build a community around it, and NFT is all about community.
With the recent NFT craze, he believes many artists want to create NFT but don’t realize what NFT is all about, making it lose its value.
He states that NFT is like minting a part of your identity onto the chain and letting people speculate on it. While having early NFTs from potential artists provides collectors and the community value, creators need to understand that NFT is not about money as much as creating something they care about for the blockchain community.
Larsen’s personal favorite artists are Sylvio Silvio Vieira, Josie, Goldweard, among others. When asked about Beeple, he said that Beeple is excellent, and while he’s not his taste, he considers him an incredible marketeer. He further said that it makes sense to support artists who need it or can recognize the value Larsen can bring rather than owning something that everyone else has.
Larsen Believes That NFT Is Here To Stay
Larsen stated that currently, NFT is in a bubble with sky-high prices, but NFTs are here to stay for good. Artists who can build over time, maintaining a market strategy, and having the grit to keep sustaining in a volatile market are the ones who can succeed. Building a reputation in this manner, just as it is in the traditional art world, is essential.
The valuation of NFT in the next couple of years will be interesting.
“Everything that we imagine will happen in the game universes first because they are digital by default, and then things will happen in the real-life after that because it’s already been proven, at least that is my belief.“
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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