The crypto video-game that makes you money (Axie Infinity)
As a financial blogger, I’m always interested in learning about new ways to make money.
UPDATE: To read about another play-to-earn game and hear my thoughts on Axie Infinity two weeks later, check out my post on Splinterlands
If you’re looking for a side hustle to make some extra cash, you might have considered getting a second, part-time job waitressing or delivering pizzas. Maybe you’ve even considered joining the gig economy through apps like DoorDash or Uber (you can read about how much I earned DoorDashing on a holiday weekend here).
But what if you just want to hang out at home and play video games?
Well, I’m here to tell you… you can make money doing that, too!
Crypto & Gaming
I’m sure by now you’ve heard about crypto - I’ve been investing since 2017 and have been part of the 2018 crash as well as the most recent May 2021 crash, in which I lost almost 50% of my portfolio.
Things have been rebounding and, despite the loss, I believe in the long-term potential of certain projects and keep an eye out for promising new crypto ventures, investing casually on Coinbase (check out my portfolio details here).
Cue….. AXS being listed on Coinbase! AXS stands for Axie Infinity Shards, which is a governance token for the game Axie Infinity.
You may be wondering…
What the heck is a governance token? Think… government, making rules, setting guidelines. When you own a lot of stock in a company, you can sometimes vote and make decisions related to that company’s future. Well, a governance token is like that. If you own AXS, the governance token for the game Axie Infinity, you own the right to vote on decisions affecting the future of the game.
Now, I already own MANA, which is an Ethereum token for the game Decentraland. But I must confess…
I’ve never played Decentraland.
As I considered whether to buy AXS on Coinbase and almost hit “Buy now” on the purchase, I thought - why should I buy this if I can find a way to earn it by playing the game? Why should I buy rights to govern a game I know nothing about? Shouldn’t I play Axie Infinity first?
As a gamer and investor, I decided to not buy AXS on Coinbase and to instead make my first Ethereum purchase ever and actually play the game.
Axie Infinity & NFTs
Axie Infinity is an NFT-based video game that you can play on your desktop or phone.
Okay, before we dive deeper into the game itself, what the heck is an NFT?
NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token - which, according to the New York Times, is “a digital file created using blockchain computer code”. You buys these unique files using cryptocurrencies like Ether (the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network) instead of USD.
CryptoKitties are NFTs you can buy
Still not clear, right? Basically, it’s a file of computer code that represents some digital thing you own. An example is an Axie from the game Axie Infinity, a crypto kitty, or some of the artwork that Grimes is selling for millions of dollars.
Before you start thinking this is some crypto-scam and wonder how people can suddenly spend so much on digital items… just remember this is nothing new in a world where Candy Crush makes over $600,000 a day in in-app purchases.
My first team of Axies on Axie Infinity
To play Axie Infinity, you have to buy three Axies (NFTs) from the marketplace to form a team to fight with. Eleven months ago, one Axie cost a little over $20 - today, they’re listed for over $200, making the price to get started in the game very high. I spent as much as $290 on a single Axie.
Don’t worry if you don’t have $800+ to spend on Axies, you can still apply for a “scholarship” to play the game using someone else’s Axies, earning SLP for the owner of the Axies and taking a cut for yourself.
At this point you’re thinking…
Wait…
I thought this article was to tell me I could make money from this video-game…
but you’re telling me I have to spend $800+ to even play it?! DISLIKE, UNSUB.
But this where Axie Infinity is shaping the future of gaming as a play-to-earn game!
Axie Infinity & Play-to Earn Gaming
Many think, myself included, that play-to-earn is the future of the gaming industry.
In World of Warcraft, for example, players have to pay monthly or annual subscriptions to play the game. We’d put time into professions to put items on an in-game marketplace to earn in-game currency. But what if we could put the in-game items on the market for real life currency?
In reality, this was (and is) already happening - there were “underground” markets for accounts with powerful characters and items in which people traded real money for prized digital assets or even whole accounts that would help them excel in-game (which was against the game’s rules and could risk your account being banned).
Axies for sale on the marketplace (August 15, 2021)
In play-to-earn gaming, power is put back in the players’ hands where they can make money for their time, dedication, and skill in the game by selling their earned items or characters on exchanges for real money (or for cryptocurrency like Ether which they can exchange back to USD).
Once you have made your initial investment of buying three Axies, you can start playing and earning right away.
Daily quest log with 25 SLP as a reward, you can tell I’m getting my butt kicked in Arena…
As you play in Adventure mode or Arena mode, you’ll earn SLP which stands for Smooth Love Potion. When you complete daily quests like in the picture above, you can claim a large amount of SLP as a reward. This can be transferred back out of the game, exchanged for Ethereum, and converted back to USD. You can even breed Axies and put them back on the marketplace, plus so much more!
Some people playing this game have quit their full-time jobs to play Axie Infinity full-time instead because they’re able to earn somewhere from $1,500 per month up to $450 per day.
$450 per day is $13,500 per month… all from playing a video game!
As someone just getting started, I can’t say that I’ve seen the same results. In my brief two hour gaming session, I only earned 19 SLP, which is worth a little over $3 USD. Once you subtract conversion fees and any other exchange fees, this is probably not even enough to make a single cent.
HOWEVER, I am hopeful that once my Axies are leveled up even more, I’ll be able to win more battles and thus make more SLP - making the game more profitable to play over time.
Regardless of the pace at which I can make money playing, it’s a fun card game with cute characters and the first time I’ve ever earned real money from a video-game in my life - I definitely don’t make money watching Netflix, so this is still an improvement over that leisure activity.
Getting Started
I’d love to do an article on everything I did to get started or tips and tricks that I’ve learned from playing the game one month from now that will help you make money, so if this sort of content is interesting to you, leave a comment down below and I’ll do that!
I’ll leave you with this article on How To Create An Axie Infinity Account that is extremely clear with photos of almost every step & that I personally used myself to get started. It took me under half an hour from start to finish (well, except for all the time I took debating which Axie’s I wanted to buy)!
I don’t recommend using Wyre or Transak - buy Ether on Coinbase and transfer to MetaMask!
I recommend using Coinbase to buy your Ethereum and transfer it over to MetaMask, as the other options MetaMask suggests (Wyre and Transak) have daily limits that might not be enough to buy a full-team of Axies ($1,000 and $500 USD daily limits respectively).
Wyre’s limit is high enough as of mid-August 2021, but I had issues with the purchase of Ethereum not completing for some reason, which is why I ended up going through Coinbase.
You may also want to wait until Ether is cheaper to buy, which in turn would make your Axies cheaper to buy. Of course, Ether could go to the moon and this could be the best price for the rest of all time. Who knows…
There will be fees along the way to buy Ether on Coinbase and to send from your MetaMask wallet to the in-game Ronin wallet, so DON’T just transfer the bare minimum needed based on Axie price.
Keep in mind that if you cheap out on the Axies you buy or don’t buy ones with good stats and abilities, they’ll be unlikely to win battles, making it harder to earn money.
Adventure mode gameplay on Axie Infinity
There are plenty of videos on YouTube and articles online explaining good Axie builds to get started with, so don’t skip out on doing your research or you’ll be frustrated when you start playing and can’t win a single match! I have one Axie out of my three that I regret, but don’t want to spend the $250-$290 to replace it, so I’m saying this from personal experience!
For now, I plan on playing almost daily and seeing what I can earn & learn in a month on top of my full-time software engineering job. I look forward to finding more blockchain games to play and getting in earlier on these cool projects!
Know any play-to-earn blockchain games I should check out? Do you agree that play-to-earn is the future of the gaming industry? Let me know in the comments below!
More articles & videos to help you get started:
10 things I wish i knew before buying my FIRST axies by nosebleed gaming (YouTube video)
Popular axie builds (axie.zone article)
How to earn money on Axie Infinity by CAGYJAN (YouTube video)
Play and earn on Axie Infinity for free through a scholarship (leveldash.com article)
Leave a comment down below if you want a follow-up a month or more from now on how much I’ve made playing Axie Infinity and if I regret spending $850+ on my axies!
Oh and since this is a finance blog after all…
If you REALLY want to get the most money out of gaming… why not stream it on Twitch or put a video up on YouTube to double earn while you play?
Good luck & happy gaming!
UPDATE: To read about another play-to-earn game and hear my thoughts on Axie Infinity two weeks later, check out my post on Splinterlands
Looking for other side hustles besides gaming?
Check out…
How much I made DoorDashing on a holiday weekend