AI Summary
5 min readFrom Community Member to Co-Founder: How Axie Infinity Is Building a Digital Nation
Jiho, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of Axie Infinity, didn't set out to become a C-level executive at one of the largest play-to-earn games in the world. He started as a community member in a Discord server with roughly ten regular chatters. He bought three Axies on the day their art was revealed, asked what came next, and began helping — moderating the chat, writing, keeping the conversation flowing. That gradual contribution eventually led to a co-founder role. It is, as the hosts note, the Web3 equivalent of the Walmart CEO who started on the stockroom floor.
The Core Mechanism: Lowering the Rent
The fundamental shift Axie Infinity represents is structural. In traditional gaming, the developer, publisher, and app stores take close to 100% of the revenue generated by a game. Players pay for skins, loot boxes, or game copies, and the utility they receive is fun — nothing more. Axie flips that. The company takes roughly 4.25% as a fee on the marketplace, where players trade assets peer-to-peer. The rest of the value stays within the player-owned economy.
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of The Startup Ideas Podcast
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:07) **Nostalgia as a Crypto On-Ramp** - Jiho explains how Axie Infinity uses nostalgia for classic games to make crypto accessible to billions of gamers.
- 2 (03:10) **Defining "Learn to Earn"** - The hosts introduce and define the concept of earning tokens by learning about decentralized applications.
- 3 (05:20) **Learn to Earn: Mechanism and Potential** - Deep dive into how learn-to-earn works and its broader applications.
- 4 (11:28) **Jiho's Origin Story: From Community to C-Suite** - Jiho recounts discovering CryptoKitties and joining Axie Infinity as a community member.
- 5 (19:06) **Defining "Play to Earn" vs. Traditional Gaming** - Jiho explains the core economic difference between traditional free-to-play and the play-to-earn model.
- 6 (21:58) **Ingredients for a Great Play-to-Earn Game** - Jiho outlines the key components for a successful Web3 game.
- 7 (27:54) **Challenges: Volatility and the "Play to Earn" Narrative** - Jiho discusses the natural market cycles and the risk of the financial narrative overshadowing the game itself.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Today's guest shows the power of community by sharing a personal story of how Discord changed the trajectory of his life. Jiho (@Jihoz_Axie), the Co-Founder of Axie Infinity, tells the story of how he went from community manager to C-Level Executive at Axie Infinity. As the co-founder of one of the most successful play-to-earn games to date, Jiho has tons of knowledge about NFTs and video games. He joins us on the pod to discuss the player-owned economy, the new GDP, and the value of crypto money markets.
An important note: We recorded this episode before the Axie Infinity hack. So while we wish we could’ve brought it up with Jiho, it happened prior to the incident. However, we discussed takeaways on the Axie Infinity hack in our episode with Danny Trinh.
►► Want more community? Learn more here: http://trwih.com
THIS EPISODE
Jiho: https://twitter.com/Jihoz_Axie
Sahil Bloom: https://twitter.com/SahilBloom
Greg Isenberg: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg
Production & Marketing Team: https://penname.co/
FIND US ON SOCIAL
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_trwih
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_trwih
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@_trwih
Web: https://trwih.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6aB0v6amo3a8hgTCjlTlvh
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/where-it-happens/id1593424985
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
►► This episode is brought to you by ButcherBox. If you love high-quality meat and fish we can’t recommend them enough. We personally love their NY strips at the moment.
Right now they are offering free ground beef for life and $10 off your first order. But this offer only lasts until Saturday at 11:59 PM EST. Use the code ROOM at checkout and make sure to go to butcherbox.com/room to get the offer.
►► This episode is also brought to you by MarketerHire. MarketerHire provides on-demand access to pre-vetted, top-tier marketers who can freelance as much or as little as needed.
They’ve made it easy to hire great marketers. With pre-vetted talent and expert hand-matching, you can add a proven marketer to your team in less than a week.
Go to marketerhire.com t
More from this podcast
The Startup Ideas Podcast →