Axie Infinity: Gaming NFT Revolution Or Ponzi Scheme?

Jeff Zirlin runs the largest NFT project ever created. His blockchain game Axie Infinity has 1 million users and $2.1 billion in revenue — and it costs about $1000 just to buy the monsters needed to play.

Axie Infinity — Photo by Carl Raw on Unsplash, edited by the author

Recently, the online game Axie Infinity has become the most valuable NFT collection in the world. Primarily because users can earn money with the game. Is this a sustainable business model or just a tricky pyramid scheme?

The Game

Axie Infinity is a turn-based online card game that resembles the idea of Pokémon. More than one million users are active on the platform every day. They buy land and equipment, feed, breed, and train their “Axies”, let them compete against each other in battle, or sell them. And earn crypto-money in the process.

Axie Infinity — Screenshot

Play To Earn

Axie Infinity combines the Ethereum blockchain technology with a play-to-earn game model in a new way. Each monster and piece of equipment in the game represents a non-fungible token and can therefore be attributed to specific owners. If you win a battle against other users with your Axie, you receive coins from the…