What is “Play to Earn” (P2E) - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 279 - by cryptohunt.it

What is “Play to Earn” (P2E)

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English.

Today, we’ll talk about a crypto concept that has it’s rapid ups and downs, called “Play to Earn”, or P2E in short.

Play to earn is exactly what it sounds like: Play a game and make money in return. Sounds too good to be true? We agree, so let’s take a deeper look together!

During the hight of the crypto craziness late last year and earlier this year, games like Axie Infinite made a lot of headlines. Seemingly out of nowhere, millions of players were making often valuable crypto incomes just by participating. People even quit their day jobs to go all in.

But with everything in life, you have to ask yourself: If someone is making money, who’s paying the bill? And that was the problem with all of these games: You had to buy into the games - so in reality it was more pay to play and then maybe earn. And as speculators piled more and more money into these games in hopes of all being able to generate returns, the undelying tokens shot up in value, making everyone richer on paper.

But that was just it – as soon as the trend reversed, and money got pulled out of crypto, these games collapsed. Suddenly everyone is losing money. There were 2.8 million people playing Axie Inifite in January, today there are only 700,000 left and the numbers keep dropping.

What makes things even more complicated is that virtually every crypto game is a horrible game, worse than the worst smartphone games. People weren’t playing for fun, they were participating to make money. And that right there is another big problem: If you don’t have an underlying product that people use because they want to, a monetary incentivize is guaranteed to be short-lived.

And Axie Infity? They have quietly changed the concept name from Play to Earn to Play AND Earn… A small, yet big difference.

This podcast is produced by Cryptohunt.it the easiest place to learn crypto. Copywriting is done by Arndt Voges, Social Media is done by Brett Holleman, Design is done by Carmen Rincon and my name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt and I am your host of this daily show.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.