Transcript
Introduction
Patrick
Our guest today is Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games, or YGG. In 2020, Gabby and his co-founders built YGG around the growing play-to-earn economy within blockchain-based games. Based in the Philippines, YGG effectively backs players who might not otherwise be able to afford to play in exchange for a share of their profits. Today YGG is paying out over $1 million a week to players within its community, largely concentrated in their home country of the Philippines. The play-to-earn model has seen its most rapid growth in the popular NFT-based game, Axie Infinity. Players earn tokens within the game which can be exchanged into local currencies or be used to purchase more digital assets.
For a sense of how this market has expanded, Axie Infinity has already reported over $1.5 billion in sales over its history and nearly $900 million over the last 30 days. The speed at which these games and ecosystems around them are growing is remarkable. In our conversation, Gabby explains YGG's decentralized structure, the unit economics of their business model, and how he deals with the volatility of crypto assets when trying to build a durable long-term business. We also discuss the broader metaverse landscape, how it might evolve, what might derail it, and the technicalities of building a token-based as opposed to equity-based business. I hope you enjoy this wild conversation with Gabby Dizon.