DEV Community: Christian Johansen

This week... Let's talk Axie and Play-to-Earn

Christian Johansen — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 13:57:21 +0000

This week we are taking a look at Axie Infinity and the Play-to-Earn model

But first... let's first discuss gaming. As the gaming industry grew with popularity and technology we started to see a shift in game development that allowed studios to pull every possible penny from their players.

When I was a kid you could go down to the local Blockbuster (RIP) pick out the latest game and rent it for a weekend, heck you could even rent Playstation and N64 consoles back then too. Renting a game was great because you didn't need to spend 50-60 dollars to buy a game that you could beat in 3 days. Obviously this one time purchase or even rental of a game that took years to create didn't make the most sense for the studio selling the game.

As technology advanced we started to get in-game items like weapons, outfits, skins, tools, additional features, loot-boxes, etc. The studios found the best to increase their profits was to offer many of these items for purchase inside the game itself. It would now cost you real world money for in-game items that you don't really own.

Now, if they want to stop supporting the game and take down all the servers all your "gear" and "loot" is now gone and rendered worthless. This need to pay in order to just play the game has become known as the Pay-to-Play model, and we hate it!

Enter blockchain

With the advent of NFTs and true ownership of digital items we have now unlocked a new way to develop games which Axie Infinity is taking full advantage of. These in-game items that once we're nothing more than something new to look at is now capable of being truly owned by the individual playing the game. This means that the owner can trade, gift, and even sell items for real world money. Enter Play-to-Earn.

So what is Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity has become one of the most popular Play-to-Earn games out on the internet today. It recently announced that it has surpassed one million daily active users and has reported over one billion in transactions.

The game itself is similar to Pokemon. You are able to own creatures, Axies, which then can be breed (similar to CryptoKitties) and also battle. When they battle you are able to earn in-game items that are used for various tasks such as breeding.

How Axie Infinity became more than a game

As the Covid-19 pandemic swept around the world, millions of people found themselves stuck at home unable to make a livable wage to support themselves or their family. In the Philippines some locals discovered this new game called Axie Infinity and started to play, realizing that they could make a few dollars a day by playing the game and selling off some of their items earned. As the news of this new way to make money during the pandemic spread more and more people started to play and the popularity of Axie Infinity rose and like a stock getting a lot of attention so did the value of in-game items. One journalist noticed this and created an incredible documentary short film: PLAY-TO-EARN | NFT Gaming in the Philippines.

So now people are able to make livable wages by playing a game for the working hours of their day, kind of gives me flashes of the IOI war room from Ready Player One. The thing that really amazed me about this story and the future of play-to-earn gaming is that it has created an entire ecosystem around the game. In the documentary you will meet young entrepreneurs who played the game and realized its potential for change. These young men created the Axie University where they teach people how to play the game so they can make a career change from areas of work that got hit hardest during the pandemic. They even offer scholarships for those who may not be able to afford the (now) steep entry fee to start playing.

In conclusion...

There has been a lot of talk about blockchain and especially cryptocurrency in the general news the past few weeks. I get that this technology and confusing and even scary at times but the purpose of this blog is to help separate the good from the bad and really highlight what some creative people are able to achieve in hopes of bringing more equality to the world. Axie Infinity is a perfect example of this. Its designers created an entirely new gaming model that allows for people to find new purpose and opportunity in life and created the endless possibilities for others to create businesses of their own.

This project

Thanks for reading along this week. Next week we will dive into another blockchain project that is directly affecting the betterment of our fellow humans.

Wanna chat blockchain? Feel free to reach out -
cjohansen11@me.com

Dapper Labs - Part of the 'Changing the world with Blockchain' series

Christian Johansen — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:14:08 +0000

This week we are going to focus on Dapper Labs.

Now, if you remember, this blog series is focused on how blockchain can change the world. So you may ask me why are you focusing on a for profit company that is, arguably, the most successful NFT company out there right now... And you're right, this isn't a company that is out to make change in the world, but what they are doing is vital, in my opinion, to making the coming change possible.

So who is Dapper Labs?

To lay the groundwork we need to start from the beginning...

During the first blockchain craze of 2017, Dapper Labs released CryptoKitties. CryptoKitties is a blockchain based game where you are able to collect, and have true ownership of, virtual kitties. Each kitty has unique traits that allow for rarity levels within the game. In addition to rarity levels, if you own two or more cats you have the option of 'breeding' them. Once you breed two kitties together that will give birth to a completely new, completely unique, kitty that has traits based from their parents. As the game progressed, Dapper introduced hidden traits that could appear in newly born kitties if their parents had the required traits. This again led to even more rarity and desire to own a large selection of kitties.

CryptoKitties was so successful during the height of 2017 that the game itself caused massive congestion on the Ethereum network and at one point accounted for ~25% of all network traffic. The popularity of the game has led the resale value of kitties to sky rocket. At the time of this post the most expensive kitty ever sold topped at 600 ETH (which at current market is over 1 million US dollars).

The success of CryptoKitties led Dapper Labs to one of the biggest partnerships in the NFT world by pairing up with the NBA to create NBA TopShot. TopShot is a user friendly NFT collectable website that offers fans, collectors, entrepreneurs and everyone in between the opportunity to own virtual trading card moments from top plays during the NBA season. The popularity of NBA TopShot continues to grow and be at the top of all NFT sales of any given week CryptoSlam.

Okay, so why this matters (IMO)

When people talk about blockchain it is often in terms of cryptocurrency; bitcoin, ether, doge (unfortunately), or any of the many other coins out there today. This is all fine and good, but most people when they hear about crypto it is due to crazy price swings, ransom attacks requesting crypto as payment, and a slew of other negative news. People who aren't aware of how blockchain technology works or what it is, often see blockchain / cryptocurrency as a negative thing. Which I can't blame them for thinking that, we as a community are not doing enough educational outreach.

This is where the importance of Dapper Labs comes in, and in this writers opinion, to play a key role in the adoption of blockchain technology by the masses.

Trading cards are one of the oldest sport traditions. For example, baseball cards have a rich history dating back to the 1800's and to this day some of the most prized cards will often sell for millions of dollars. In addition to value of these collectables, a lot of people will have fond memories of collecting these cards from their youth. For me, I still remember the joy of going down to the local card shop to pick up basketball packs (and then eventually Pokemon packs) in search of cards with my favorite players or ones with shiny backgrounds (the rare ones). The moment you rip into a pack and discover what treasures it contains is a powerful feeling that is emulated in modern video games through things like loot-boxes and now with NFTs with TopShot's packs.

Now, in conclusion

What Dapper Labs has achieved is the ability to tap into a timeless tradition fused with modern technology. The importance here is that a collectable such as a TopShot moment can be used as a teaching tool to the general public who have no tech background. We can use these collectables to teach what blockchain technology is about on its most fundamental level and change those negative impressions to ones of positivity and remind people of the feeling from their youth when they rip into a pack see which moments they got.

As I said in the beginning, Dapper Labs is not directly changing the world. While they may be in it for the success, what they are doing at a fundamental level, whether consciously or not, is a vital step in normalizing blockchain to allow for mass adoption so real change can occur.

This project

Thanks for reading along this week. Next week we will dive into another blockchain project that is directly affecting the betterment of our fellow humans.

Wanna chat blockchain? Feel free to reach out -
cjohansen11@me.com

Changing the world with Blockchain

Christian Johansen — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 10:35:44 +0000

I recently came across an article by a retired executive titled 'Introduction to NFTs - How they are Going to Change the World...' and I said cool, I've gotta read this.

I'm a new full stack developer with a passion towards blockchain technologies. I had known about cryptocurrency since the early days of Bitcoin, but no I'm not some genius who bought in for 20 dollars to now be a millionaire. While the joy of waking up one day to your alt coin being up 2,000% sounds great I find the real excitement to be in the technology behind these currencies.

This brings me back to that 'article' (if I could use air quotes I would). Like I said, I was excited to see what this high level executive had to say about NFTs and their potential to change the world, you know, because I believe this technology can be used to change the world. Instead I read three paragraphs that NFTs are ways to display various forms of art and that Beeple (love his work) sold an NFT for 69 million dollars... WHAT?!?! How is that going to change the world? Welcome to the world of art, people will pay tons of money for the ownership of famous art. Yes, with these tokens being controlled by smart contracts an artist will be able to receive royalties of any subsequent sale, which I fully support, but we're not changing the world here.

Sorry for the rant but all that to say I was annoyed and while I'm clearly not the strongest writer I decided to start this blog, welcome, to highlight blockchain projects and use cases where this technology can be, and is being, used to change the world.

I'll be exploring blockchain projects and companies such as Cardano, Reserve, Civic, Dapper Labs, Decentraland as well as use cases that range from medical record access, to ending blood diamonds, to people able to make a living in the 'metaverse'.

Each week I will post a new article about some blockchain idea that can actually change the world. So follow along while we learn the bigger picture of blockchain technology and send along any projects you may be working on or have heard about so I can share them here!

--Christian

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