How Do NFT Games Work? 'Axie Infinity' Inner Workings Explained

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 05 August 2021, 03:08 pm

NFT games are all the rage these days. People have been playing a lot of titles such as "Axie Infinity" and are earning good money from it. Now, everybody knows you can make an income by playing games, but the more conventional methods take time. However, in an NFT game, these people reportedly earn as much as $100 a day. So what gives?

(Photo : Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
BRAZIL - 2021/06/16: In this photo illustration, a NFT (Non-fungible token) logo seen displayed on a smartphone.

In this guide, you will learn how NFT games such as "Axie Infinity" work and how exactly people earn money from playing them.

NFT Basics

Before you go to NFT games like "Axie Infinity," you need first to understand what an NFT is. It is an acronym for Non-Fungible Token. According to Forbes, an NFT is a digital representation of any real-world object. Most of the time, it's art, music, videos, and sometimes valuable items or loots in popular video games.

People buy and sell NFTs online, often using cryptocurrencies to trade. This brings you to one thing you should know about non-fungible tokens: they're not a type of crypto, despite what many people say. That's because, unlike crypto, such as bitcoin, you cannot exchange an NFT for something else like, say, another NFT. It's also why the name says "non-fungible." It means you can't trade it, writes The Verge.

How Does An NFT Game Make People Money?

If you've been following the tech space recently, you should've heard the stories by now of people making a good amount of money playing NFT games. Some are even quitting their jobs and focusing solely on playing these games to earn a living.

So, how do these games work, really? If you understood the definition at the beginning of this article, you already have a basic idea. NFT games such as "Axie Infinity" and "NBA Top Shot" let people earn money by grooming and selling animal characters called Axies, which players treat as digital pets.

To get started with "Axie Infinity," for instance, any newcomer would have to buy at least three Axies to join the game. They will then groom these Axies, team up with their friends and make Axies do battle like Pokemon, and build so-called "virtual kingdoms." But the money-making aspect lies in the items and tools that players equip their Axies, which they can now sell as an NFT to other players, writes Capital.com. Every single Axie is a non-fungible token.

Because of this "play-to-earn" model, people are now encouraged to build Axies with the most desirable in-game equipment and then sell them to others for a considerable profit. And much of the money that these folks earn by selling Axies is tied up to crypto. The amount of money you will get depends on how much the cryptocurrency is currently trading for. Right now, NFT games mostly use the Ethereum blockchain.

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Ethereum cryptocurrency coin and a graph are pictured in Kyiv on 08 July, 2021.

More and more new NFT games are coming out every day, eager to get a cut of "Axie Infinity's" slice of the pie.

Should You Go Try Out NFT Games?

Nothing points to these games being illegal, so why not? It can be a good enough source of extra income if you put enough time and effort into it. But since this is a relatively new type of tech, the safest bet is to do something rash, like quitting your job and playing NFT games. Treat them more as a hobby that earns you a bit of extra change.

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Written by RJ Pierce