Geoff White

Hi, I'm Jeff White. I'm an author and investigative journalist, and I cover organized crime and technology. Yeah, so Axie Infinity is not like the games that I used to play when I was a kid, where they sell you the video game and then you go away and you play it and that's it.

Hi, I'm Jeff White. I'm an author and investigative journalist, and I cover organized crime and technology. Yeah, so Axie Infinity is not like the games that I used to play when I was a kid, where they sell you the video game and then you go away and you play it and that's it.

Axie's an online game, as of course lots of them are, and you're playing against other people online, which of course lots of games are. But the thing that made Axie different and quite radical, I think, for some people was that it Everything in the game was basically for sale. It was a whole marketplace. So the way it worked was you have these axes, which are based on the axolotl salamander.

Axie's an online game, as of course lots of them are, and you're playing against other people online, which of course lots of games are. But the thing that made Axie different and quite radical, I think, for some people was that it Everything in the game was basically for sale. It was a whole marketplace. So the way it worked was you have these axes, which are based on the axolotl salamander.

You have a team of axes, three axes, and you basically wrestle them. You fight them against your opponent's team of axes. And if you win... you're rewarded with smooth love potion tokens, which you can use to breed your Axies together to get them to be better fighting machines. It's basically a bit like, do you remember those Tamagotchi keyring things? Yeah, I do.

You have a team of axes, three axes, and you basically wrestle them. You fight them against your opponent's team of axes. And if you win... you're rewarded with smooth love potion tokens, which you can use to breed your Axies together to get them to be better fighting machines. It's basically a bit like, do you remember those Tamagotchi keyring things? Yeah, I do.

Exactly that. It's like that mixed with WWF wrestling. So that's the idea, actually. This game is hugely, hugely popular.

Exactly that. It's like that mixed with WWF wrestling. So that's the idea, actually. This game is hugely, hugely popular.

You buy. You have to buy the team. And you can't, as far as I'm aware, get one. You have to buy a team of three, because three is the magic number. In order to do this, and this is where it gets interesting with the sort of cryptocurrency aspect to it,

You buy. You have to buy the team. And you can't, as far as I'm aware, get one. You have to buy a team of three, because three is the magic number. In order to do this, and this is where it gets interesting with the sort of cryptocurrency aspect to it,

If you have, I'm assuming it's dollars for you, Jack, you can swap your dollars into ETH, the currency on the Ethereum blockchain, the cryptocurrency. It's a bit like Bitcoin. Actually, it's number two, I think, to Bitcoin, ETH, I think I might say. You can then take that Ethereum money and you can put it into, transfer it into Axie Infinity.

If you have, I'm assuming it's dollars for you, Jack, you can swap your dollars into ETH, the currency on the Ethereum blockchain, the cryptocurrency. It's a bit like Bitcoin. Actually, it's number two, I think, to Bitcoin, ETH, I think I might say. You can then take that Ethereum money and you can put it into, transfer it into Axie Infinity.

And then you can use that in-game currency to buy your Axies, to buy Smooth Love Potion. You can buy land in the game. So it's all, the whole game is based on cryptocurrency. Yeah. And this is an internal blockchain within the game that tracks who owns what and who's sold what to whom.

And then you can use that in-game currency to buy your Axies, to buy Smooth Love Potion. You can buy land in the game. So it's all, the whole game is based on cryptocurrency. Yeah. And this is an internal blockchain within the game that tracks who owns what and who's sold what to whom.

Axie Infinity was created by a company called Sky Mavis, who are headquartered in Vietnam. I think the company's registered, though, in Singapore. And this was five guys who'd been part of the sort of esports scene, so they'd been around gaming for a very long time. And the idea of sort of crypto-based video games... It wasn't sort of radically new.

Axie Infinity was created by a company called Sky Mavis, who are headquartered in Vietnam. I think the company's registered, though, in Singapore. And this was five guys who'd been part of the sort of esports scene, so they'd been around gaming for a very long time. And the idea of sort of crypto-based video games... It wasn't sort of radically new.

I think CryptoKitties predates Axie Infinity from what I've read of it. But basically what they did was they built this game and released it. And in a way, they locked out because they obviously got the benefits of video game obsession. People became obsessed with this game and started playing it and battling their Axies together and so on.

I think CryptoKitties predates Axie Infinity from what I've read of it. But basically what they did was they built this game and released it. And in a way, they locked out because they obviously got the benefits of video game obsession. People became obsessed with this game and started playing it and battling their Axies together and so on.

They also got the benefit of a sort of cryptocurrency boom because this was sort of 2019, 2020, and crypto was starting to rise in value quite steeply at that point. So... people who were into video gaming got into Axie Infinity.

They also got the benefit of a sort of cryptocurrency boom because this was sort of 2019, 2020, and crypto was starting to rise in value quite steeply at that point. So... people who were into video gaming got into Axie Infinity.