Hello, fellow Lunacian,
How are you feeling this Friday? It is rainy here and dark. I guess this is why we are also completely missing every deadline on our schedule and plan for this week. As we mentioned in the previous edition of Axie News, we are supposed to have two podcasts recorded for this week. This will not happen. You probably noticed we are shameless in our inconsistency. But I guess this is what happens when you have a million things going on at the same time. Pretty much like Sky Mavis with all of their updates. Except they actually deliver what they promise.
There were a lot of updates this week in Lunacia, as it should be. Since there is so much to cover in terms of developer updates, we will be skipping the eSports section this week as there is not much happening right now. Also, some other sections might be a little shorter than before. Ok, let’s get into it.
🕹 Axie Infinity Updates
Since the release of the staking and AXS drop for the early community, Sky Mavis had a lot of other updates to share with the community. The first order of business was the Axie Developers Chat AMA they hosted on Twitch. It was a lovely conversation between Zyori, Jihoz, and Psycheout. They were answering dome of the pressing questions asked on Reddit. They touched on many different topics, but the most important takeaway was that they will have to update their timeline now as some things have changed. The DEX is coming first as far as I understood, but they did not want to give any release dates. I believe it will come by the end of this year. Somehow I have this feeling.
It will be a huge upgrade to the whole Axie Infinity ecosystem and Ronin. SLP and AXS tokens will have more liquidity and the possibility to swap them amongst each other and with other cryptos like ETH. With no fees and no transfers. Because DEX will remove a ton of friction for new players to join in the release of DEX will have an enormous effect on Axie Infinity and we might see huge growth of users. Which is great.
While DEX is the first to come on the timeline, other things might get shuffled around a bit. They will definitely have to move some things such as Land gameplay more down the line. We might not see this before the end of Q1 2022 or even Q2. One worrying thing for me was the mention of gated land play. To me, this sounded as landowners were thought of as the only ones to be able to play the Land and now they are thinking about how to include all of the players. I never thought this would even be an option, and Land play will be available for everyone. Just the landlords will be able to passively collect resources from other players as a fee for playing on their land. A lot of speculation here, but let us think positively. I am sure Sky Mavis will do the right thing. I would hate to miss out on Land and most likely will not be able to afford a plot.
As someone said this might feel like “beating a dead horse”, considering every single podcaster/streamer went over this so many times. But I just have to mention it here as well. Two things, first Psycheout was blamed for colluding with YGG guild and this was addressed in the Dev Chat. The second thing was the fact that some employees like Jihoz received a substantial amount of AXS tokens now worth a lot of money. He was playing the game at the time of the snapshot so he is considered as one of the early players, but as a co-founder of Sky Mavis was it ethical to receive that airdrop?
There is a lot to unpack here. As with everything including morality we have a lot of divided opinions. I have no problem with them receiving Airdrop, they have deserved it. Also, it is the whole community at that time that received the airdrop, and it was announced all the way back then when they took that snapshot when AXS was worth 20 cents.
My only concern was that Psycheout’s explanation for working as an advisor on the board of YGG was not as honest as they claim to be. Did he really advise YGG with Sky Mavis inside information? We will never know. This is where I will leave it. After all, when we end this endless debate, we will move on with our lives and continue to play this amazing game and be part of the community. So why do we even care?
I must say, Zyori handled this stream amazingly, as always. To be honest, he should be the one managing their PR. In every interview and every stream or podcast where you can hear him talk and answer questions, he is calm and to the point. Always explaining things in a proper manner and in a trusting tone. Well done.
Second BIG update this week. We can now purchase all of the Axie Infinity assets with FIAT on Ramp. This is incredible. Some countries are not yet supported but Ramp is adding more of them shortly. This is one step closer to the DEX as this removes some part of the friction and we can easily purchase all we need for the game.
Then Sky Mavis announced they raised 152 M USD in their series b round. This will allow them to accelerate the development and growth of Axie Infinity. They also used this announcement to show their recruitment board. Sky Mavis is now hiring more people for the development of the game. Here is the quote from Sky Mavis:
Relentlessness is a part of our DNA and we will continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible. We aren’t slowing down and this funding round will help us speed up the development of our roadmap.
Axie Infinity: Origin, our upgraded battle system, is getting better every day. It will feature upgraded art, animations, mechanics, and allow people to try Axie for free before buying their own team.
The release of Ronin DEX, a decentralized exchange for trading of in-game tokens (like AXS, SLP) directly on Ronin.
Continued development on Project K, our land-based game that will allow you to harvest resources, build structures, and battle for territory in Lunacia.
Each Axie is a ticket to an ever-expanding collection of experiences. One of our North Stars is to transform Axie into an ecosystem where the majority of the experiences are built by external game studios and our passionate community developers.
Wow, this was a lot for an updates section. Let me know if you want to debate on anything, and find me on Twitter so we can do it. - Mr.Kepolas
💰 State of the Economy
We still feel the effect of AXS staking on the economy. In a good way of course. While the price craziness somewhat settled down, and AXS is looking for that sweet spot to land and stay there for a while, I love to see how SLP slowly started to grow in price! We are all so happy about that, but somehow it feels weird. Why? Well, a lot of AXS is staked and not used for breeding. Then SLP mint to burn ratio is still very high. There are no reasons for SLP to grow. I am not an economic expert, so everything I say here might be flawed. So, if you have any opinions, let me know by answering this email. Let’s hope that in the coming weeks SLP will not tank harder than ever. I have a feeling it might happen, even though, Jihoz mentioned in AxieChat they will have to again adjust the price of breeding because AXS is high in price. - Mr.Kepolas
👨🏽🤝👨🏽 Community Spotlight
Without a doubt, the person who deserved the community spotlight this week is Aur. He goes by Twitter tag @axieaur. I follow him for a while now, but still can’t figure out who this person is. All I know is that since apparently, gone full-time Axie he tweets like a mad man. One thing that blew my mind was his LIVE coverage of Dev Chat on Twitter. He was listening to the stream and almost instantly typed and posted the most important quotes from the conversation as it went on. Insane. Then he even had time to answer the comments below. Oh, and on another note, it is impossible to keep up with the number of posts he does during the day. There is a lot of stuff, some not so good, some thought-provoking but overall, I am enjoying his presence on Twitter and the way he responds to things. Go and check him out. - Mr.Kepolas
🎨 Lunacian Art Scene
There is a new guy on the Axie Fan Art scene. A digital artist that goes by the name John Loise Pechon. He started October by making one Axie Infinity-related fan art every day under the hashtag #axietober. I see a lot of artists who love to play Axie Infinity joining in this movement. It is similar to the ever-popular #inktober movement but with the Axie theme. Personally, I love the commitment of the artist, as well as the art produced. Johns's work is amazing in many regards. I specifically like his style as well as the fact there is always some sort of story that goes along with the art. The story is short but sweet and to the point. Exactly as it should be. Go and check his art everyone and then show him some love over at Twitter you can find him under the @jloise24 handle. - Mr.Kepolas
❓ Question of the Week
Since the newsletter is already very long this week and we decided to skip eSports, we also decided to skip Question of the Week. Still, we would like to do something different this time. Instead of looking for questions on Reddit and Twitter, we decided to let you ask us something related to Axie. So if you want to join in the newsletter please send us your questions in response to this email or over at Twitter @marwonacademy. And we will feature the best one next week. - Mr.Kepolas
OK, I guess this is it for this week. A long email but I hope you will enjoy it. As always, please send us your feedback. What can we improve, what to add or remove? We are happy to hear your thoughts.
Until next time,
Cheers!