Exploring Passive Income Streams For DeFi Gaming Enthusiasts

The rapid growth of the crypto market over the past decade has seen this yet nascent space give birth to a whole host of technological niches, many of which allow users to earn passive income with crypto seamlessly. For example, in recent months, a growing forum of individuals have gravitated towards the use of game-centric decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols — referred to collectively as ‘GameFi’ — that reward players for partaking in various traditional gaming activities.

To put things into perspective, a research study released by the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) showed that over the course of Q3 2021 alone, blockchain-based gaming titles were able to generate a total revenue of over $2.3 billion. Not only that, the rise of these offerings have seen a 24x explosion in their associated wallet activity, with the number of users actively playing these games increasing from 29.5k to over 750k between Q1-Q3, 2021. 

Play-to-Earn (P2E) is redefining the gaming landscape

As stated above, the growth of the GameFi market has largely been driven by the advent of an operational model referred to as ‘Play-to-Earn’ (P2E), which as the name suggests, allows users to generate tangible income streams for themselves in lieu of playing video games. This setup lies in direct opposition to how most centralized gaming ecosystems work, wherein players have to facilitate numerous microtransactions in order to unlock every little aspect of a particular title.

Again, in terms of real-life numbers, several news articles released over the last couple of years clearly show that GameFi offerings have already started making a tangible difference in the life of many, with gamers across the Philippines reportedly being able to earn an above minimum wage salary by simply playing the highly popular blockchain-based fantasy title ‘Axie Infinity’. Another study revealed that some high caliber players living across lesser developed nations have been able to accrue upto $50 per day — which is well above their daily income median — and have thus been able to convert their passion for gaming into a full time job.

Also with the continued growth of the metaverse, the rise of blockchain-based gaming titles seems to be a foregone conclusion, especially as more and more firms — ranging from Coca Cola, McDonalds, Adidas — continue to make their way into the burgeoning Web3 ecosystem. In this regard, studies suggest that the top blockchain games in the market today have already surpassed a total value cap of over $14 billion with the industry all set to disrupt the $175 billion global video games market greatly over the coming decade.

Prominent GameFi titles worth checking out

Axie Infinity

One of the most prominent play-to-earn crypto games in the market today, Axie Infinity boasts of an active user base of more than 2 million players. The title’s core design entails users deploying various NFT-based characters — referred to as ‘Axies’ — for different in-game purposes ranging from battles, collection, breeding and trading.

From a rewards standpoint, AXS (Axie Infinity Shard) tokens, which are an integral part of the game, can be earned in lieu of certain activities such as breeding, PVP battles, etc. They can also be employed for staking purposes and can help provide users with an annual yield percentage of around 75%. Lastly, Axies are viewed by many NFT enthusiasts as being tangible stores of value (SOV), as is reflected by the fact that the most expensive Axie (referred to as ‘Angel’) sold for a whopping 300 ETH with many other similar offerings trading for 200+ ETH over the past year. 

Attack Wagon

One of the fastest growing GameFi titles in the market today, Attack Wagon offers its players with a unique passive income opportunity wherein users can purchase land plots within the game’s ecosystem. These land plots act as automated ‘fee generation devices’ for investors to earn a portion of the system’s internal fee pool. 

That said, what sets the title apart from its contemporaries is the fact that users don’t just stand to gain fees/incentives from a single game but also from every Attack Wagon game that makes its way into the market in the future. In all, the project features three digital land offerings, i.e. Common Plots, Grand Plots and Iconic Plots of which there are 6975, 1000, 30 units available respectively.

Each of these plots offer unique incentive benefits. For example, Common Plots and Grand Plots allow users to split 40% of the overall fees collected from the marketplace while Iconic Plots allow users to accrue 20% of the overall market place fees while affording owners benefits such as voting rights, custom in-game NFTs, etc.

Splinterlands

The last entry on our list is Splinterlands, an NFT-based tactical trading card game which is available to users for free. When compared to Axie Infinity, the barrier to entry for this title is extremely low (i.e. around $10). Once within the game, users are provided with DEC (Dark Energy Crystal) tokens for participating in various in-game activities. The rate of accrual is directly dependent on the league a player is operating within as well as other factors such as the amount of players battling at a given point, the number of wins accumulated by an individual, etc.

Much like Axies, NFTs available within the Splinterland ecosystem can be sold across prominent marketplaces including OpenSea, Rarible, etc. In fact, the most valuable Splinterlands NFT — Poseidon — is currently valued at a staggering 1,000 ETH.