We thank Jeff for doing a great AMA session with us, although we experienced some technical problems at the beginning. We especially thank our Dapp.com and Axie Infinity community for giving us great questions. Almost everything was covered, from Jeff's best day of his Axie life to the future of blockchain games, from game design to the scale. We even covered Jeff’s favorite energy drink and his best furiend.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: Hey! thanks for having me :)
I got into the space because I was quite interested in the potential for non-financial dapps, particularly games, to return power to users.
CryptoKitties was the first blockchain game I played-- I made a lot of amazing friends and connections in that community that ultimately led me down a path where I had the opportunity to join the Axie team!
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: We have pretty strange sleep schedules :D Our players are always awake so it's hard to sleep sometimes.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: Double Espresso!
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: Hey Cecilia! Because the space is so new-- the infrastructure for facilitating seamless gaming experiences on the blockchain is still being built. I think the greatest challenge is balancing working on solutions that will make Axie Infinity a smooth experience while also developing fun gameplay features!
The best part of working in this space is interacting and bonding with our amazing community!
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: 5 years in the blockchain space is like 5 decades but I hope that in 5 years, the world of Axie Infinity (Lunacia) will be an immersive universe that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of players can enjoy together.
Building a large community is all about communicating with your players and empowering them to become evangelists themselves. A good community is a place where everyone feels comfortable speaking their mind, being themselves, and bonding over shared interests.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: In 2019, Blockchain games will more closely begin to resemble conventional games in their user experience— the key difference will be the increased agency that players in these universes possess— from being able to monetize their time spent playing through tokenized rewards programs or being able to trustlessly and permissionlessly exchange and sell their in-game assets.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: I purchased my first ETH in August of 2017.
I started to get more involved in the space through CryptoKitties where I was pretty active in the community and helped out with an early 2nd layer experience called KittyHats.
I decided to join the Axie team because Trung and Masamune, the Co-Founders, had an amazing unified vision regarding Blockchain games and adding utility to the ERC 721.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: I think any potential dapp developer needs to think really hard about how they can leverage blockchain to make something that wouldn't be possible with a centralized application.
For example, we believe that only certain types of games are fit for the blockchain and we are building Axie Infinity with this in mind.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: So I actually think ICOs can be ok, but I believe that adding a token is something that most teams should do later on in the development process when they already have a community and working product.
We were fortunate to have a really strong base of users that believed in us early last year and that's been key to funding our development so far.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: I like playing sports like basketball/squash. I also love to read, and when I'm in the states I love hanging out with my beagle/border collie :)
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: What city do you live in? Yes, we'll be attending some events related to Blockchain games and Non-fungible tokens!
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: I want to live a life I'll be proud to look back on when I'm older :)
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: I think I'd be working in the Blockchain space somehow-- backing a project that I really believe will return power and agency to users.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: I'm still really interested in Insects and Fossils-- I try and go collecting with my father a few times a year!
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: I like Reptile Axies! Gecko Eyes and Red Ear (turtle shell) are my 2 favorite parts :)
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: Hey Adrian! You can actually play Axie from a phone through a mobile web 3 wallet like Trust Wallet. That said, we're currently working on an Axie Infinity Mobile App!
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: Yes, we believe that sidechains will play a major part in helping Blockchain games scale while retaining secure ownership!
The Loom team is amazing-- their tech is quite far ahead of similar solutions.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: Axie Infinity really empowers its community to be true stakeholders in the game. Players can earn crypto alongside us, the developers, as the game spreads. Games like Pokemon are actually built around collecting, but a key component of any collectible is being able to freely trade it-- so we believe that blockchain adds the key component missing from other collectible creature games of the past.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: We'll start to see the quality of blockchain games increase and the game economies of these universes will become increasingly scrutinized.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: 1. How did you guys come up with the name Axie Infinity? And how do you name each of Axie?
So Axie is actually the name of a baby Axolotl-- a salamander that stays as a juvenile for life. Axie #1, puff resembles an Axolotl so that's where the name stems from. We only name exclusive Axies like our mascots-- our players can name their Axies whatever they want!
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: Yes, we already have a few custom Axies-- Axies based off real people could be something we consider in the future!
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: The team is amazing-- everyone is very high energy and committed to the product. I also think we have a lot of empathy for our players since we've all been gamers for most of our lives and a good percentage of the team have been involved with Blockchain games since the early days of the space.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: Although the ETH price has fallen, the Axie ecosystem remains vibrant and relatively unaffected. We try and not focus on price and prioritize improving our product and expanding our community!
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: We're currently looking at cross-chain solutions so that we can introduce Axie Infinity to dapp users regardless of their favorite protocol.
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: We're always looking for strong teams to work with. Loom Network, 0x Protocol, OpenSea are all projects that we'll be working with to move the space forward not to mention dapp discovery platforms like Dapp.com!
Jeff Jee Ho Zirlin: I think my favorite day so far was the day of the launch of our closed beta-- it was amazing to see people battling their Axies and having fun after so much hard work and anticipation!