Axe Infinity is the crypto-backed Pokemon Clone in which cute little creatures that double as NFTs compete for fun and profit. It’s also a pyramid scheme that relies on cheap labor from countries like the Philippines to fuel its growth. Well, fictitious inflation combined with a historic crypto heist allegedly committed by North Korea, who overthrew it axis economy into chaos, and his high rollers are freaking out while those below bet on the scam.
As with all things crypto, the history of Axe Infinity is very complicated and incredibly simple at the same time. Developed by Sky Mavis, the game turns around collecting, breeding, and fighting cartoon characters called Axies, which are NFTs that exist on the Ethereum blockchain. Players can use their Axies to farm a currency called Smooth Love Potion (SLP), which is used to farm and create more Axies. Both Axies and SLP can be sold on the open market for real money.
When Vice reports, the result is a highly funded community fueled by the promise of future riches and based on a constant influx of new players. Many of these new players cannot afford to purchase Axies outright, so existing owners lend them out at a cut in future earnings. The Axie community charitably calls the bosses “managers”, the workers “scholars” and the overall arrangement a “guild”. Because many of the low-level players are poor workers from the Philippines and elsewhere, others call this arrangement digital colonialism.
The whole thing is reminiscent Old school gold farming in MMOs like World of Warcraft. When The edge mention, that, it has also been very profitable for Sky Mavis but relies on it to keep the dream of future growth alive as the game itself has little value. That dream recently began to unravel thanks to gameplay changes and SLP inflation, and then the game was hacked for over $600 million last month one of the biggest crypto heists in the history. Axe InfinitySince then, the fragile capitalist caste system has continued to take on a life of its own.
“Mentions of Axie Infinity developers are full of digital landlords being pissed that their ‘scholars’ (Filipino employees who are paid in tickets) are all leaving the game and not showing their weekly quotas,” YouTuber Dan Olson tweeted on April 12th. When noted by GamesRadara quick search for Twitter and Reddit shows players complaining about the state of the game and the lack of cheap labor to keep their investment going.
“Finally a hard day’s work [ends] and it’s nice to see $SLP going up slowly” wrote one. “But last week a couple of scholars resigned from me, so I think it’s time to start looking for new Axie scholars again.”
“I had a fish farm and a plant farm. And 10 scholars”, wrote Another. “They quit almost everyone. My Axies are worth 10% of what they cost me to grow. I learned a lot in Axie.”
Axe Infinity is a live-service game, among other things, and it turns out that even the Krypto brothers have just as much trouble balancing resource savings and character development as everyone else. The proliferation of Axies led to more SLP being bred, and as a result, the value of SLP began to decline. Currently the only thing that removes SLP from the game is farming Axies. To address this, Sky Mavis Removed SLP farming from adventure mode in February, but instead of delivering SLP contracting, it continued to improve. Players are now demanding new ways to “burn” SLP and stop runaway inflation.
The in-game implementation of player-owned land, also referred to as Project K, was another major sore point. Sky Mavis started selling packs years ago, but the gameplay mechanics are still under construction and the developer announced further delays in this week. Originally slated for an early 2020 launch, Project K was later pushed back to 2021 and now still only has a generic release window of 2022.
“People who bought land early basically locked their assets in a zero return situation, when they could have done many other things with that money, all because Sky Mavis kept telling us that Q4 2021 would be the release date and now they seem to be treating current landowners as an afterthought.” wrote one player on the subreddit.
other players discuss now whether to get off or hold on to see if Axe InfinityThe economy is recovering. “Let’s be honest for a second, we’re all here for the earning potential,” one player wrote. “And to discuss it otherwise is a waste of time. I hold all my axes. I don’t care if it hits zero, but I won’t be selling at these prices now.
Meanwhile, Sky Mavis is trying to patch the $600 million hole hackers left in his pocket. According to the FBI, North Korea-based Lazarus Group was responsible for the breach. The U.S. Treasury Department added the blockchain address where the funds were deposited to North Korea’s sanctions list on Thursday Bloomberg reports It could be years before the funds are recovered, if they are recovered at all. It’s okay though, a number of crypto and VC firms just announced they would Give Sky Mavis another $150 million Compensating players and discouraging them from looking for a new grip.
