Primer: What can you do if you want exposure to the yields in the play-to-earn space but neither have the time nor expertise to research the meta of the game or to manage your own scholars? Enter Ready Player DAO, a play-to-earn gaming investment fund. Read on to find out how they are structured.
Background
Has a tech background
Used to work at Red Hat as a solutions architect
Is a fan of Mark Cuban and Alexis Ohanian. Saw them investing in Axie Infinity
Was drawn into NFTs through Axie Infinity
His Time At Red Hat
Involved in helping the government to improve their tech stack
Government agencies differ in their tech stack. Some are still using CDs to download/upload updates while others are hosting the world’s largest supercomputer
A solutions architect is responsible for putting together the blueprints of an application together — from the languages used for the frontend to the connections to its backend
Specifically, he focuses on pre and post-sales. He would educate and train engineers on how to use the newer technologies
Initial Entry Into Crypto
Have been going in and out from the space
His original purchase of Bitcoin was in 2013. Was in college at that time. Traded it for beer money for the weekends
When crypto blew up in 2017, that’s when Ethereum made a lot of sense to him
Have been stuck with Ethereum ever since that realization
Axie Infinity
Learning About Axie Infinity
Saw a video talking about people in the Philippines being able to earn a wage from playing Axie Infinity
Alexis Ohanian and Mark Cuban had invested in the game. As a fan of both of them, he went to check it out
Axie Infinity drew him in
How Did He Get Started?
Did research and bought a beast egg, bird egg, and a plant egg. Had to wait 5 days for the eggs to hatch
His first team was not any good and he had to get another team
Joined their Discord and was in the Arena chat everyday, trying to understand the meta of the game
Chatted with Indes, one of the top few Axie players
Why is Indes so successful:
Deep knowledge of the Axie parts and cards
Good at energy management
Keeps track of the cards his opponents have used
Team composition
“He [Indes] keeps track of the cards that they used. You know, with a deck shuffle, you can only get two of the same card until the entire deck has gone through. So he does a very good job of like counting those cards.”
- Rich Cabrera
Describing Axie Infinity To His Friends
Described it as being similar to Pokemon card game on the blockchain
Axies have different parts with different traits on them
Popularity Of Axie Infinity
Financial incentives of play-to-earn contributed to its popularity
There’s also a social element to it. Being part of a large guild means that there’s always going to be someone online to chat and hang out with you
“My scholars are posting pictures of them hanging out in real life after meeting through being part of our guild. And you know, this is actually building a lot of really close friendships.”
- Rich Cabrera
What Are The Ways People Can Do To Generate Yield From Axie Infinity?
Earning SLP from winning battles in the Arena and, to a smaller extent, against bots in Adventure mode
Being at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the season and receiving AXS rewards
Breeding new Axies and selling them on the marketplace
Being a guild manager and running scholarship programs
Creating art and building on top of the Axie brand
Expecting that there will be Axie Infinity merchandise in the future
Axie Infinity Scholarship
An idea that was thought up by the community
AK, an Axie community member, had a large wallet full of Axies
Thought of allowing people who could not afford their own Axies to borrow his Axies until they earned enough SLP to afford their own Axies
While earning with someone else’s Axies, the owner gets a cut of it
Ready Player DAO gives 70% to their scholars and takes the remaining 30%
Ready Player DAO
A play-to-earn gaming investment fund
Was running his own scholarship before realizing that there are opportunities for expansion by helping others invest into Axie Infinity
Regular investors may not have time to manage scholars or know what Axies are viable in battle, but would like exposure to the returns in Axie Infinity
He put out on Twitter that he is willing to handle the investment of others and that he currently runs a guild and a scholarship program. It eventually turned into Ready Player DAO
They don’t solely focus on scholarships. They are looking for other ways to improve the space in any way they can:
Providing guidance on doing taxes
Fixing on-ramp issues
Improving payout to scholars
DAO Operations
DAO is split into different working groups
Has a fast team that is able to vote on smaller denomination plays (e.g. to react to something that’s coming up, a drop, etc.)
Has Aaron Wright from OpenLaw in the DAO. Aaron is building their DApp and smart contracts which will be ready by the end of this week
How Do They Generate Yield?
80% scholarship, 20% long-term bets/investments
Heavily leaning into scholarships
Staking AXS and other tokens
Investing in other games
What Is Their Edge Over Other Guilds?
They are a brain trust and have extremely diverse members
Has automation in place to scale their scholarships
Will be investing in members that provide value to the community (e.g. moderators, Esports teams, artists, newsletter writers, etc.)
Have the expertise of other large DAOs. Members from Flamingo DAO and The LAO are members of Ready Player DAO
Ready Scholar School
The scholar management arm of Ready Player DAO
A place for scholars to hang out and learn from one another
Uses automation to manage scholars:
Data is uploaded to a database
A script will pay scholars every 2 weeks
Working on breeding automation and account creation automation
Potentially, this could be a SaaS product for other guilds as well and be used to generate yield
Responding To Changes In The Meta
Have a coaching channel on their Discord
The coach will review the scholar’s team and do a walkthrough of gameplay and help them figure out how to use their cards
If the coach decides that the team is still not performing well, they will reach out to a Ready Player DAO member and switch the Axies
They don’t chase any top metas. They have a very diverse set of teams that would protect them in case there are any card rebalances
Managing Platform Risk
They have long-term assets and are hedged in other areas
Trying to build SaaS products and Web3 tooling
Are Guilds Going To Specialize In The Future?
There are two major approaches:
Guilds going heavy into the top 5/top 10 games
Guilds having some scholars in every game
His Thoughts On The Sustainability Of The Axie Infinity Economy
Seen a lot of criticism around how it works
People have called it a ponzi but it does not make sense since there’s inherent value and people actually playing the game
The burn/mint chart for SLP is stabilizing after the recent changes
“I think one of the major problems is there's a lot of instant gratification in this space. And people fail to look at the long term and are very focused on the short term, which is where a lot of the criticism comes.”
- Rich Cabrera
The Axie Infinity team knows what they are doing. They have economists and are always talking to teams and other experts in this area to ensure that they have stability
What Sectors In Crypto Is He Most Excited About?
Very excited about blockchain and smart contracts in general
If He Had 1 Billion Dollars, What Would He Do?
Improve on-ramp issues
Lobbying and getting political support for crypto
Grand 5-10 Year Vision
Grow the Ready Player DAO brand
Investing in the success of future play-to-earn gaming
“We have a member in our DAO that was born and raised in Venezuela. He has family in this remote fishing village that doesn't have internet. So if that's something that we could do, like go in and build a community center or cafe where people can come and have access to the internet, and potentially also play these games for like, two to three hours and make some money. Like that could be life-changing.”
- Rich Cabrera
Single Favourite NFT
Individually
Owns a Cool Cat
Has an attribute called Rich, where the face has a slick fancy monocle
“I'll say alright, I gotta have this cat if it's going to be named after me.”
- Rich Cabrera
Owned By Ready Player DAO
A mystic Axie named Poseidon
Has the Candy Babylonia mystic part
Most mystic Axies look good but they are not competitive in battle. Poseidon is an exception and is competitive in the arena
Most Controversial Thought On NFTs
Play-to-earn gaming will eclipse profile picture NFTs
1% of profile picture NFTs will last through a crypto winter. This controversial thought made him miss out on a lot of profile picture NFT projects that have done pretty well
If He Could Improve Something In The Space
Gas fees on ETH
Poor user experience from bridging from Ethereum to layer 2s
NFT Ecosystem In 3 Years
Think that it will grow massively
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.