Recently, about 20 people crowded the second floor of Joniel Bon’s internet cafe in Quezon City, just 10 miles away from Manila. They sat in front of computers equipped with 34-inch curved monitors, playing games like “Heroes of Mavia” and “Nifty Island” while listening to music from Taylor Swift and Maroon 5.
Playing these games can be a full-time job, and some of Bon’s customers have settled in, eating pizza to replenish their energy. These games reward players with cryptocurrencies for completing daily challenges. Typically, players exchange their tokens for the country’s currency, the peso, earning about twice the minimum daily wage in the Philippines, which is $11.
Bon, who is 40 years old, has always dreamed of having a thriving business. However, two years ago, his hopes were shattered after the cryptocurrency market crashed. Now, Bon’s new internet cafe shows signs of a resurgence of cryptocurrencies in the Philippines, which has long been a hub for cryptocurrency activities. This month, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high, ending the recovery from the 2022 market crash and driving the recovery of other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum.
New billboards from cryptocurrency companies have appeared all over Manila. People have started earning virtual crops from a cryptocurrency farming game called Pixels as a new source of income. Filipinos working overseas are also returning home to earn cryptocurrencies through the metaverse.
According to Chainalysis data, cryptocurrency trading volume in the Philippines increased by 70% in November and December, reaching $7.3 billion. Game developer Pixels reported that the number of Filipino players skyrocketed from 80,000 in November to over 830,000 in March. It is estimated that around 30% of global cryptocurrency gamers are from the Philippines.
The resurgence of these activities has raised concerns among some Filipino officials. Kelvin Lee, a former commissioner of the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission, expressed the government’s efforts to regulate this technology as cryptocurrencies regain popularity. In the past, cryptocurrencies were at the center of fraud. The tokens issued by cryptocurrency games are more volatile than Bitcoin and Ethereum, which means that this prosperity could collapse again.
“We want to have a safe operating space,” said Lee, acknowledging that a robust cryptocurrency industry can help the Philippines, which heavily relies on outsourcing customer service and IT jobs. “If the industry space itself looks disorderly, chaotic, and illegal, how can you operate properly?”
Lee declined interview requests after leaving the commission this month. Last month, the Philippine central bank told local media that it plans to launch its own digital currency in the next two years. During the pandemic lockdown, cryptocurrencies gained popularity in the Philippines. Although over 40% of the population does not have a bank account, most Filipino households have internet access, allowing cryptocurrencies to spread to rural areas. During the lockdown, people started playing PlaytoEarn games like Axie Infinity, developed by Vietnamese company Sky Mavis. In this game, players battle with Pokémon-like characters to earn a token called Smooth Love Potion.
During the peak of Axie Infinity in 2021, Smooth Love Potion was accepted as a payment token by Filipino landlords, gas stations, and some restaurants. However, when the cryptocurrency market crashed a year later, thousands of Filipinos lost their savings in Smooth Love Potion. The characters in the game were once traded for thousands of dollars, making them extremely valuable, to the point that some Filipinos even took out loans to buy them. However, when the cryptocurrency market crashed, these characters became worthless. “When everyone is getting into the game, it’s working really well,” said Ian Dela Cruz, a 30-year-old farmer and former Axie player. “But when everyone tries to cash out, the game stalls.”
Some Filipinos who have successfully earned their first bucket of gold through Axie have become entrepreneurs, establishing their own companies and gaming collectives called “guilds” that are still growing today. Teresa Pia, 27, a former Axie player, quit her job as a kindergarten teacher in 2021 to run a gaming guild called Real Deal, which has 54,000 members on the social media platform Discord. Pia sees her Discord channel as a “new classroom” where she teaches many Filipino women working overseas how to trade and invest in cryptocurrencies. With the resurgence of cryptocurrencies, many women have now earned enough money to reunite with their families.
“The money they receive may seem small, but when converted to pesos, it’s a significant amount for them,” said Pia. Dela Cruz stayed in the cryptocurrency industry and became a game streamer on Twitch, a streaming platform owned by Amazon. He is now the captain of one of the largest esports teams in the Philippines. He said many farmers have started playing Pixels and harvesting virtual crops to earn cryptocurrencies as extra income. Luke Barwikowski, the American founder of the game, said Filipino farmers have provided suggestions on how to make Pixels more realistic. “Some users would directly provide us with their crop schedules or watering habits.”
Despite the opportunities that cryptocurrencies bring to many Filipinos, some say that if the industry crashes again, they can turn to other opportunities. Dela Cruz dreams of managing more farms with his brothers without relying on cryptocurrencies for income. “You can’t find the fresh air, the sound of chickens online.”
Tags:
Axie Infinity
NFT
Blockchain
Source link:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/DXac1_ooryI7jppHvjHE3A
