The Covid-19 outbreak is a series of events the won’t that will surely take some time to vacate our collective memory, especially the negative economic impact of the lockdowns that came in its wake. During these difficult times, the people of the Philippines found a creative way to earn a living while keeping their boredom at bay – The blockchain based game, Axie Infinity.
Well before the governments of the world started implementing lockdowns in an attempt to curb the spread of CoronaVirus, many in the cryptocurrency space had started to proclaim Bitcoin’s potential as a hedge against inflation and economic instability – even calling it digital gold. However, as unique and versatile as the blockchain and digital assets arena is, very few might have expected a video game – built on the same technology – to do what BTC was supposed to do.
When the government of the Philippines imposed lockdowns, the people of Cabanatuan city didn’t rely on the standard, buy and hodl Bitcoin strategy. Instead, they turned to SkyMavis’ Axie Infinity – a game where players are easily able to capitalise on the growing Non-Fungible Tokens economy.
The Axie Infinity economics, in particular, are built around the gameplay where players breed, trade and engage in battles with tokenized digital pets known as Axies. Using the verifiable scarcity of NFTs, the value of each Axie may increase – resulting in profits for the owner. While the game is available to anyone who has a smartphone and an Internet connection, it’s made its biggest impact on players based in the Philippines.
A newly released documentary about this phenomenon titled – “Play-to-Earn“, shows that a wide variety of Cabanatuan’s citizens have taken to playing Axie Infinity. – from cab drivers, to college graduates and even an elderly couple.
While the country’s GDP plummeted 9.6% during 2020, Axie Infinity began rapidly expanding its user base to the roughly 60000 it boasts today. This, according to the documentary, was further fueled by an article published by Coindesk.
As the lockdowns continued to adversely affect approximately 26 million people across the country, A 75 year old Lolo – one half of an elderly couple that enjoy the game – says he benefits from more than just the earnings, he just loves to play.
“While I am in the store, I’m playing, even when I’m losing, I’ll just play.”
