Zima Red ep 66 - Bryce

Axie Gamer, Creator and Community Builder

Primer: Bryce is a gamer who fell into the rabbit hole of Axie Infinity. Learn from him as he shares his passion for Axie Infinity, his community, and why we have to pay attention to Axie Infinity in this episode of Zima Red.

Origins

• Majored in political science and was planning to get into law school for the money

• Decided to do something that he loves and would also make him money: Coding

• Picked up coding and became successful

• Worked in Enterprise Architecture while building his start-up. Experienced burnt out

• Listened to the Market Meditations podcast where Andrew was the guest. Learned about Andrew's NFT hedge fund and Axie Infinity

• Started trying out Axie Infinity, streaming the game, and creating content

His Start-Up

• His start-up is called Graduate

• Uses AI to match people to job opportunities based on information that goes beyond their resume

• 3 years in but haven't raised any money. Could not seem to get investors on board

"And then I was planning on deciding on coming back to the startup and trying again, but I didn't get to live life as a normal person for long because Axie came in and kind of swept me off my feet, and in my opinion, completely changed my life." - Bryce

• Took a step back, found Axie and moved on from there

Interest In Gaming

• Grew up as a big sports gamer. Dad got him into the EA Sports Madden series

• Took part in Madden competitions. Defeated his dad in the game so quickly until his dad encouraged him to get serious in gaming

• Would play for 12-14 hours a day

• Moved on to competitive FPS shooters such as Call of Duty and CS:GO

• CS:GO has an economy where players can buy, sell, trade, and gamble expensive skins. Subsequently realized the importance of the NFT markets through this experience

"But that CS:GO gambling and kind of gaming market was my first like unknowing taste into what the importance of NFTs would become. Because I look back at those moments. And I'm like, all of these rare items and skins, they were essentially NFTs but we didn't own them, the game owned them at any, you know, point in time. They could ban them, they could take them away, they could do whatever they wanted with them." - Bryce

Streaming And YouTube

• Had given YouTube a couple of tries. Had some success

• Once he found Axie Infinity, he realized that this was a niche market that do not have much coverage

• Just grinded his way through it. Getting 1500-2000 people every time he stream live on Twitch

Favourite Streamer/YouTuber

• Valkyrae

• Nadeshot

• Myth

What Attracted You To Crypto/NFTs

• First heard about bitcoin when he was ~10 years old. Did not know what to do so missed out on it

• Got more information about crypto during the time of Ethereum

"So, for me, it was the true freedom that crypto kind of gave the entire world." - Bryce

What Is Axie And Why Is It Exciting

• A play-to-earn crypto game that is inspired by Pokemon

• It allows people across the world to earn a living playing a video game within a decentralized economic structure

• Creating a team of 3 Axies to battle against other players or the bots in adventure mode. Players earn SLP from playing the game

Getting Started With Axie Infinity

• Join the Axie Infinity discord and get to know the amazing people there

• Head to the Axie Infinity marketplace to get your 3 starter Axies

• Jump right into adventure mode and start playing against the bots

Main Objective Of Axie Infinity

• There can be multiple objectives

  • Playing to earn SLPs

  • Climbing the arena leaderboards to earn AXS

  • Create a breeding farm to breed Axies

Thoughts On Axie Infinity Taking Off

• Games having a cycle

  • Early adopters grinding for the past 2-3 years and turning into millionaires as they have a ton of Axie assets

  • Game reaching a major breakthrough. This is the stage where we are currently in. This is the middle/early middle part of the cycle

  • Late stage is when the mainstream media or news gets their hands on Axie

"And once that new cycle comes around, I truly think that, you know, we could see Axie doing, you know, insanely great numbers beyond what it currently does." - Bryce

Making Money With Axie Infinity

• Through a scholarship program

• Actively playing the game

• Having a breeding farm

• Buy and hold rare Axies

"To give you an example of this, I bought a mystic Axie, back in May for around 5.4 ETH, which was $16,000 at the time, based on where the current cycle of that mystic is, my mystic's, probably worth around 70 grand." - Bryce

Memes And Narrative On Community Growth

• Makes it easier for people to understand the architecture that you are creating

• He coined "watch to earn" on his Twitch streams. People could potentially earn and redeem an Axie scholarship from watching his stream

"And the same thing with my Twitch channel, I don't think I'd be anywhere as far along as I am, if I hadn't coined the term "watch to earn" because it's so impactful, it's so understandable, and easily digestible." - Bryce

What Do You Like About Creating Content?

• Content empowers us to be whoever we want

• Changed from being a conservative guy to reaching different creative heights (e.g. dancing on TikTok)

"I think that content is something that you can keep doing and keep trying and keep like reinventing yourself over and over again until you get it right there is no like one size fits all approach." - Bryce

• The key is to continue trying. Failed at YouTube 5 or 6 times. Failed at blogging and vlogging on Medium

"I love having a podcast cause I feel like it's like a, it's almost like a cheat code where I like, reach out to people and say Hey, can I pick your brain for like an hour and just learn from you. And that's a super valuable experience for myself." - Andrew Steinwold

Content Strategy

• Majority of content is on Twitter. Strategy is to honestly interact with as many people as possible. Create a community of individuals who are creative and want to grow within the space

• Do not shill content/products that he does not believe in

• It is always about how he can give back

Future Plans

• Double down and focus on Axie Infinity

• Also working with Zesty NFT and helping them grow from a business development standpoint. Zesty NFT is bringing advertising to content creators, all through decentralized finance and NFTs and giving business valuations based on decentralized advertisements

Anything Else To Share?

• Axie Infinity shared on their roadmap that they will be adding a Ronin DEX. It would serve as a swapping platform for SLP, wETH, AXS token, etc

• Releasing NFTs within the next 2 weeks. Consists of 15 individual works of art

• Ownership of the NFT entitles the holder to profit sharing for anything his brand makes

• They would also become his board of advisors, having direct input in terms of where his content goes in the future

Where Do You Want To Be in 5-10 Years' Time?

• Truly want to give back to the community in 5-10 years' time

• Help Axie Infinity reach the point where they are taken as a serious unicorn

Single Favourite NFT

• Mystic Axie #714 named Auraya

• Took out a $16,000 loan to buy her

• Made quadruple the monthly loan amount on Twitch

Most Controversial Thought On NFTs

"If the NFT doesn't have utility, I think it's kind of a worthless buy." - Bryce

If You Could Change One Thing In The NFT Space

• Having true valuations around NFTs

World Of NFTs In 3 Years

• NFTs will be a major player in art, creativity, finance, building companies and communities

All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Summaries are prepared by The Reading Ape. While reasonable efforts are made to provide accurate content, any errors in interpreting and summarizing the source material are ours alone. We disclaim any liability associated with the use of our content.