Starting on March 29, the leading play-to-earn game Axie Infinity will reduce the number of free transactions available to players as the introduction period of the RON token comes to an end. Free transactions ensured a smooth introduction to RON. However, as the ecosystem grows, the team wants to reduce players’ dependency on those freebies and ensure RON has utility on the Ronin Network.
RON is the native token of the Ronin blockchain, a custom blockchain built by the team behind Axie Infinity, Sky Mavis. Aided by Katana, a decentralized exchange dapp that runs on the network, players of Axie Infinity can swap in and out of tokens quickly and cheaply using Katana on Ronin. Moreover, the move was to help the game expand and get away from costly Ethereum gas fees.
Players will now receive free transactions based on how many Axies or land NFTs they own in the game. Therefore, the more a player owns, the more free transactions they get. This makes sense, given that those with more should represent the core community and be more active. Nonetheless, some community factions are unhappy and claim that the new structure lets more affluent Axie players get more benefits while new players suffer or may not be able to enter the game properly.
The number of total free transactions is now based on an average of the Axie assets owned and how many days a player has held them. For example, if you owned a Mystic Axie for one day in a 30-day month, the formula is 1 Mystic Axie * 1 Day / 30 = 0 as decimals are not included. Therefore a player would receive zero free transactions in this case, until they held the Mystic Axie for an entire month.
How did the Axie community react?
Looking at dapp activity on Ronin since the announcement, we see an increase across the board within the last 24 hours as players potentially rushed in to make the most of the free gas transactions, as well as purchase more land and Axies to keep earning before the changes arrive on March 29, 2022. At the same time, players could have misinterpreted the new structure and headed in to purchase land and other Axies to boost their allocation of free transactions. This is not the case, and players would have to wait at least a month to accrue any free transactions on any newly purchased assets.
The number of wallets connecting to Katana, the ecosystem’s DEX, has shot up almost 15%, while the Axie Marketplace saw a nearly 5% lift. The most significant impact can be seen in the play-to-earn game itself as unique active wallets flew up more than 15%, surpassing 20,000 on-chain users in the last 24 hours.
The community has since been giving Sky Mavis a hard time for allowing more affluent players to benefit from a higher number of free transactions. It was arguably harsh as the team applied a fit to get the core community or those with the most assets in the game more accustomed to using it for transactions and driving more activity.
In one way, there is a point here that more affluent players will get to play almost for free while new players will have the burden of fees. However, if successful, the changes will increase the utility of RON and, in turn, push up the trading volume of the network’s native token and potentially, in the long run, increase the price, which has been grinding along the $2 line since the start of 2022.
As the leading play-to-earn game, all eyes are on Axie Infinity as it tries to keep up the momentum and arguably provides a blueprint for projects following in their footsteps.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in various cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and RADAR.
