Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Philippines, plenty of people have lost their jobs and livelihood, forced to stay at home not being able to earn anything. Having nothing to do, Filipinos have found endless things to do during the persistence of the lockdown in the Philippines. Ranging from online jobs, online shopping, and selling to trying to be a YouTuber/streamer on various social media platforms, which all have been in the trends throughout the Philippines. These are just some of the ways Filipinos have thought to maximize their time and take advantage of the disadvantage that they are in.
During the timeline when people are seeking supplemental courses of actions to sustain their livelihood, and with more households stuck on their diurnal home lifestyle only cleansing smudges from every corner of their homes, contemplating life, employing themselves to just their gadgets and social media, or still trying to gain popularity in streaming, there is one which is most remarkable and gave way to further means of earning money without people leaving their homes; non-fungible token (NFT) games have taken the Filipino community by a storm.
NFT Games in the Philippines
With the rise of NFT games in the Philippines, numerous games greeted the Filipinos with its capability to provide earnings more than what one invested in as rewards for playing and grinding the game. NFTs are basically digital ownership or signature of someone or organization that is added to a digital file.
One of the most notable NFT games that gave rise to other NFT games in the Philippines is the Axie Infinity. The game originated in Vietnam, was developed by Sky Mavis, and was released in 2018. Axie Infinity is a crypto-based game using blockchain technology where they took gaming with an enticing twist, a Play-to-Earn (P2E) feature, which lets players earn in-game digital currency, which they can use to trade for the player’s preferred real-world currency. It is also a Pokemon-inspired game, taking into account the popularity of Pokemon games and the aesthetically pleasing design of the monsters, Axie Infinity took this concept in to reel in lots of players, too. Players can use the in-game currencies; Axie Infinity Shard (AXS) and Smooth Love Potion (SLP) to breed Axies, buy and farm lands in the world of Lunacia.
NFT Tokens
Now, this is where the concept of NFT tokens comes in. NFTs can be an image, meme, video, gif, or even digital art. These can be bought digitally, the buyer paying for the ownership of that certain NFT. An example would be the popular Nyan Cat gif, a simple short clip of a cat sandwiched with rainbow contrails that has been sold for about $580,000. Another would be one of the all-time favorite youtube videos, “Charlie bit my finger,” which has been sold for $760,999. These are just some of the examples of NFTs.
Axies as NFTs
Axies are the NFTs of Axie Infinity; every Axie is unique and has its own digital signatures. Players buy and trade for the ownership of these Axies. The worth of every Axie will depend upon the price placed by the owner or the rarity of the Axies being sold. This is also one of the reasons why Axie became in-demand in the Philippines, the advantage of trading, buying, and selling game assets like any other real-world online shop, would make the game’s economy running continuously.
The Continuous Development of Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is advertised to most Philippine platforms as P2E game wherein you invest money inside the game, and play it to earn in-game currencies which can be traded for real money. This feature of the game has brought tremendous popularity to Axie Infinity all over the Filipino community. Considering that the Philippines has one of the highest numbers of social media usage in Southeast Asia, garnering approximately 67% as of January 2020, trends can easily reach every device in the country, with enough advertising and social media presence, anything can become a trend in the Philippines.
In a development update of Axie Infinity last September 9, 2021, in the past 30 days, Axie has been the most profitable cryptocurrency application generating over 300 M USD in earnings. This is just one of the pieces of evidence of how popularity in the Philippines can influence different fabs, which can be the catalyst for the longevity of such trends.
Axie Infinity is one of the few NFT games that Yield Guild Games (YGG) invested in. Founded by Gabriel Dizon, Beryl C. Li, and by someone who goes by the pseudonym Owl of Moistness. Guilds in the crypto-world invest in these NFT games to buy ownership of certain game assets and create a community wherein they take players to earn money from playing. Investing more than $4 million in NFT games,
YGG has taken a big step into introducing NFT to the Filipino community and from the upsurge of Axie Infinity’s popularity, this has led to a great number of Filipinos joining, too, in the P2E movement of cryptocurrency. Axie Infinity has led plentiful Filipinos into thinking more financially. Albeit the fact that the game has been in circulation for three years, Axie Infinity in the Philippines did not let this be a bother since, for many Filipinos, this is an opportunity not worth passing by.
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