Play-to-earn

Play-to-earn is a model of blockchain game in which players earn tokens or NFTs through gameplay, own them in their wallets and can sell them, so rewards can carry real market value. Axie Infinity's whitepaper describes a player-owned economy in which players can buy, sell and trade their digital assets like physical trading cards, and earn resources that can have real monetary value because of demand from other players, a model it calls Play-and-Earn. It lists battles for leaderboard prizes and Smooth Love Potions (SLP), and breeding new Axies, among the ways to earn.

The label is applied widely. In its 12 September 2024 notice, Binance called Hamster Kombat a P2E game built on the Telegram mini-app platform; see tap-to-earn for that style. Most airdrops listed on AirdropStop are 2024 Web3 gaming campaigns. What players earn depends on other players' demand, and Axie's own disclaimer describes unfinished, risky and highly experimental technology and says nothing in the whitepaper is financial advice.