A few months ago I bought an Axie from the Axie Infinity Marketplace that turned out to be unique. Out of love we call him “The Legendary”. Then from a reproduction we got another unique Axie that we called “Ninja Bird”. Both copies are in the hands of competitive Axie Infinity players. However, this story did nothing more than arouse curiosity about what these characters represent, their characteristics and their qualities beyond the game.
Let’s remember that Axies are NFT digital assets that have properties. Each of them is unique on the blockchain, but there may be two or more that have equal parts or properties.
There is a very important difference between what an Axie represents as an NFT asset and what it represents as a combat tool in an animated game., which is the graphic representation of a collectible card game. They are different worlds intertwined.
So what is Axie Infinity? The game
Axie Infinity is an application that graphically animates the representation of a strategic and competitive collectible card game. The cards are represented by the combination of parts that an Axie possesses; that is, to include that set of cards in your deck, you must have an Axie that has them, and said Axie, you can get it as an NFT on the blockchain.
Figure 1- Axie Infinity Gameplay
And what is an NFT?
Many will have read about NFTs, which They are basically multimedia files, for example, a PNG image, which represents an artistic creation, which we can all save on our hard drive, but only one person can have it in their cryptocurrency wallet, granting them ownership of it. This work is hosted on the blockchain.
For a lot this is something very trite and that generates a lot of speculation. Nevertheless, there are endless NFT collections with values ranging from a few dollars to millions representing digital assets of this type, for example CryptoPunks, LazyLionsNFT, BoredApeYC, CyberKongz, Supducks, etc, and also marketplaces such as, Rarible, Opensea, Treasureland, TokenTrove and many others, for the exchange of the same.
Source: Bored Ape
It happens a lot in the world of NFTs, that beyond the true collectible value of the asset, we face a bubble driven by marketing campaigns, hired influencers or artificial market strategies. For example, recently there was a sale of an NFT for more than 500 million dollars, but it was discovered that it was a self-purchase (or something similar), to inflate its value. Typical even in the physical art market.
NFTs with utility
The NFT With useful value, they already begin to make more sense. That can be used in an App or a Game. That they are part of an ecosystem, economy or metaverse: whatever you want to call it. May they have and generate value! Characters, Lands, Items, Crafting Parts, Cosmetics, Weapons, etc.
Not necessarily everything that is called NFT and has utility will have value and will be collectible in time. For example, we have the resounding failure in the value of the token and its NFTs in crypto games such as PlantVsUndead, Cryptoblades, BlockFarmClub, Overlord and stop counting.
Beyond clicking, playing and obtaining a digital currency, the economy must be supported by available actions that generate recirculation of assets and the currencies that support the ecosystem. Also, you need a road map that allows you to absorb the massive entry of players without the current economy exploding.
Axie Infinity Ecosystem
In Axie Infinity, beyond the game, it is a crypto-financial platform where various production units coexist, among which we can mention:
- Buy / Sell Axies.
- Breeding Circles or Axies Farms.
- I play at a competitive level.
- I play as a source of income (Academies and Scholarships).
- Axies collections as a store of value.
- Stake platform.
- Decentralized Exchange.
On the road map, comes the inclusion of new game modes: Battles V2 and Axie Origins, where another type of Axie Infinity collectible NFTs will be put to use, the Lands, whose value in less than a year has increased 10x.
Figure 3- Axie Infinity Lands
Other games are slowly following this path, seeking to create metaverses with scarce and useful digital assets. Among the main exponents are The Sandbox, Star Atlas, Ember Sword.
Do I need a Unique or Collectible Axie?
Going back with the Axies, not necessarily an Axie for being unique has properties that make him good at the game. They are different things. We usually see as Pro players of AxieInfinity they generate content with their teams, and similar Axies immediately go up in value on the marketplace. Yes, another business model, but it makes a lot of sense when the digital asset is useful.
Axie Infinity allows many things to be done within the economy of its ecosystem and we must not underestimate their collectible value: there are secrets and unique collections in which we can support our personal brand or putting a long-term hodl on a piece that could increase its value over time.
As of today, there are Axies recorded sales for hundreds of thousands of dollars and some valuations in the millions. Yes, for a virtual stuffed animal.
Various types of:
- Earth: Savannah, Forest, Artic, Mystic.
- Items: Common, Rare, Epic, Mystic
- Axies: Origin, MEO, Japan, Christmas, Mystic
Which we will be discovering in the next article of this series.