NFT Game Allows Rural Filipino Community to Survive Unemployment By Rewarding Players With Cryptocurrency
7.3 million people in the country are currently unemployed.
An NFT game named Axie Infinity is allowing a rural Filipino community to survive unemployment during the coronavirus pandemic by rewarding players with cryptocurrency.
The story originates from an 18-minute documentary called Play-to-earn: NFT Gaming in the Philippines. The video follows a group of residents living in the rural province of Nueva Ecija, near Cabanatuan City north of Manila, the country’s capital. With a population of 111 million people in the nation, a staggering 7.3 million people became unemployed due to the ongoing pandemic and quarantine rules.
In hopes to survive these tough times, many Filipino residents discovered Axie Infinity, a PC and mobile game which uses NFTs to identify various digital items in-game, rewarding players with a virtual currency called Smooth Love Potion. This “Potion” can then be converted into cryptocurrency, which in turn can be traded for actual money, creating a way for these rural communities to earn a living. A 25-year-old by the name of Art Art managed to earn $20 USD over the first 15 days of playing, while an elderly couple named Lola Vergie and Lolo Severio prayed that the game will never go away since they channeled earnings from it to pay for their medication. In fact, even at age 75, Severio plays up to 100 rounds of the game every single day.
Check out the full documentary above.
Elsewhere in related news, Bitcoin’s value has dipped after yet another tweet from Elon Musk.
