Play To Earn – Earn Money While Playing?

Since the revival of NFT, many Web3 users have been wondering how they can make money with NFT. NFT games offer a possible answer. They present the players u. a. financial rewards for playing the game.

What Precisely Is Play To Acquire, And How Can It Work?

Play to Earn, P2E for short, describes a concept that enables players of NFT games to earn money with video games. After the players have registered, they can play the respective game. While registration is free, most of the time, playing the game requires an initial purchase of game content in the form of NFT. The principle behind Play to Earn is then easy to understand.

In many cases, NFT games aim to find, create or buy objects or creatures that are as valuable as possible. Since the game items are NFT, they can also be sold again. As in any market, supply and demand play a decisive role here: The more game ends a game has, the more popular rare items become in the game. These can therefore be bought and sold at different rates. This is one of the reasons why the profit that can be generated with P2E varies greatly.

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What Are NFT Games?

The first associations that the term NFT evokes in most people have nothing to do with gaming. The most popular NFT can be assigned to the NFT Art area, so it is no wonder that non-fungible tokens are often equated with digital works of art. In the meantime, however, the scope of NFT has also extended to  ​​gaming: Individual tickets are the ideal representative of rare in-game items that gamers can find or buy.

However, NFTs are no longer only used for collecting rare game items but form the basis for the so-called NFT games. These games are played entirely on the blockchain and mostly work according to the play-to-earn principle. The most popular blockchain for NFT games is Ethereum.

Criticism Of Gaming On The Blockchain

Despite the hype surrounding NFT games, the games and the Play to Earn principle have come under criticism. A frequently raised criticism of the blockchain and, thus, of NFT gaming is the environmental impact of the blockchain itself. That all transactions with non-fungible tokens, such as the creation and sale of NFT or bidding on passes, require calculations on the respective blockchain and thus consume large amounts of electricity cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Currently, most NFT games run on the Ethereum blockchain. The blockchain of the popular altcoin is currently still running with the resource-intensive Proof-of-Work algorithm but is scheduled to be switched to the Proof-of-Stake algorithm in 2022. This significantly reduces energy consumption, making NFT games more environmentally friendly.

Furthermore, the gameplay of Play to Earn itself is often criticized. While you pay a fixed sum for traditional computer games and can then have fun with the game, registration for NFT games is usually free. However, to play the game to its full extent, at least initial investments are often necessary. Since both the game market and the cryptocurrencies are subject to strong fluctuations, investments in NFT games are speculative and, therefore, risky.

The Three Most Popular NFL Games At A Glance

Despite the criticisms, the blockchain gaming market is growing in popularity. Several different NFT games implement the play-to-earn concept. We present three of the most popular blockchain games.

CryptoKitties

CryptoKitties is an NFL game on the Ethereum blockchain. In the game, players can acquire various virtual cats as non-fungible tokens and breed them together to breed new and more valuable cats. To do this, players must first buy the cats that are to be mated with ETH. The mating of the NFT cats itself is also paid for with ether.

The game aims to obtain the rarest and most valuable cats possible through skilful breeding. The bred cats are also NFTs that can be sold. This is where the play-to-earn aspect comes into play: players who have produced scarce specimens may be able to sell them to other CryptoKitties players for a profit.

Ax Infinity

The NFT game Axie Infinity, also based on the Ethereum blockchain, follows a similar game principle to Crypto Kitties.

The game’s main content is the so-called Axis, which the players acquire as NFT. These must then be raised and can be paired during the game. The game mechanics are reminiscent of traditional Pokémon games. Consequently, users can also compete against each other with their Axis. Each Axie is unique. Similar to CryptoKitties, players can earn money by breeding rare and powerful Axis by selling them.

Sorare

Football fans will get their money’s worth at the NFT game Sorare. Playing on the Ethereum blockchain allows players to make a name for themselves as their own football team managers. This team consists of five soccer players represented by NFT trading cards. The contingent of players includes NFTs that are modeled on real football players. The players can then take part in tournaments with the assembled teams. Not only more trading cards beckon as a prize, but also ether.