Play-to-Earn Will Make the Pie Bigger

You could think of Bitcoin as the original Play-to-Earn (P2E) blockchain game: A digital treasure hunt where players use computer power to solve complex puzzles and mine for coins. The more players participate, the harder it gets, and the reward increases. The coins you earn can be used to buy things or trade with other players.

Addictive as it is infuriating, Bitcoin is rule-based and competitive, it keeps score and it’s fun. The emergence of smart contracts made crypto look even more like a “real” video game, with builders adding new features to blockchain’s financial rails — like playable characters in the form of NFTs and peer-to-peer battles with immutable results.

These days, crypto games have leveled up again to include worldbuilding and lore, next-gen graphics, and immersive experiences. This has spurred a whole new category in crypto and in gaming, attracting funding, talent, and new users to both.

The crypto industry has struggled for years to onboard new users, so there was incredible excitement when millions of noobs flooded into Web3 via games like Axie Infinity, enticed by the prospect of earning magical internet monies just by playing a video game. Of course, anyone who even remotely followed the trend will know that it wasn’t that easy: the first iteration of Axie’s P2E model turned out to be flawed, and eventually, the economy buckled. Still, for a lot of people, the original idea of combining playtime with the ability to earn an income felt like a dream come true.

Those on the traditional gaming side were less enthused. Industry veterans were outraged by the idea of mixing finance and fun, chanting party lines like “make money at your job, spend money on your hobbies.” P2E advocates were accused of being soulless profit-seekers hellbent on pilfering virtual economies and sucking all intrinsic enjoyment out of games.

Personal preferences often fueled these detractors, like this guy admitting he didn’t understand P2E and that he just wants to be left alone to go buy a console and his two copies of Zelda. Lucky for him; he can do that whether P2E exists or not.

This never-ending conversation about “what a game should be” is pointless. Fun is a hugely abstract concept, and what’s fun for one person is not fun for the next. Today, the video game…