Becoming a Play-to-Earn “Landlord”.

A few weeks ago, I overviewed an AI-powered NFT project, Altered State Machine (ASM). Its main idea is to integrate AI-powered NFTs, called “brains,” in other NFT and gaming projects and make them autonomously perform various tasks.

In the future, well-trained brains could potentially make money by trading, coding, creating content, or participating in play-to-earn (P2E) games.

The genesis brain NFT collection price is up 40 times its drop price and 5X since I mentioned it on Dec. 23. The opportunity to buy early into these NFTs is behind us.

Still, there are ways to earn from the ecosystem by participating in the upcoming P2E soccer game, Artificial Intelligence Football Association (AIFA).

As I mentioned before, this is a long shot, especially since the project is in its early stages and involves experimental technology. However, I think getting in early in a project like ASM with a well-crafted supply structure and a looming P2E blockchain game is worth it.

Imagine you purchased some real estate a couple of years ago. Given the current prices, you’d be in a good position to buy early since more people can only afford rent instead of buying.

The same goes for good play-to-earn games: you can make a decent passive income like a metaverse landlord if you are early.

Genesis brains from ASM are NFTs created for a blockchain-based game, AIFA. They have AI capability and provide additional benefits, such as airdrops and sharing AI traits with following generations of brains.

Importantly, people who will mint subsequent brain collections will have to spend time training their NFTs, which gives genesis collection owners an advantage because they won’t have to input time to get more value out of new NFTs.

On top of that, the ASM team managed to generate considerable hype by partnering with well-known NFT projects like Fluff World and Party Bear NFTs.

That’s why the initial demand pushed up the floor price for the genesis brains to 4 ETH (~worth $13,000).

The team signaled that it’s gearing towards launching a utility token ASTO, which will be the in-game currency of the AIFA game and enable the minting of new brains. Genesis collection owners will likely get an airdrop.

However, because of the recent price surge of the genesis brains, there is considerable risk in investing in them. If you purchase them now, you could still benefit from the ASTO airdrop, but the price of NFTs could drop below current levels soon after the airdrop, nullifying gains.

Suppose you missed the genesis collection, like me. In that case, upcoming second-generation brains and AIFA All-Star NFTs may give you a second chance at benefiting from the ASM ecosystem.

To get a sense of the price range for future generations, we can refer to The Metakey project, where older editions are more expensive than the new ones. The first collection of 500 Genesis NFTs cost 5.5 ETH (~17,800), while the latest Metakey: Edition 4 of 7,500 NFTs is going for 0.37 ETH ($1,200).

Becoming ASM “Landlord”

Let’s take a look at the different types of assets of the ASM metaverse and see how the supply structure works.

The project began with a drop of 10,000 genesis boxes, where each included one genesis brain and four AIFA All-Star characters, which will be playable in AIFA.

The total supply of All-Stars Characters, but right now there are only 22,576 (~55%) available, as some people did not open their genesis boxes.

Each All-Star character requires a brain to play. Thus, there should be at least 12,576 Gen. 2 brains for all the remaining players with opened boxes, or 30,000 more brains for a total of 40,000 genesis players.

As the supply increases, Gen 2. brains will probably go for lower prices than genesis brains; obtaining them will be much easier now. Moreover, since Gen. 2 NFTs have a similar ability to earn ASTO tokens from the P2E game, it could be worthwhile to buy them early.

As I mentioned earlier, users can mine Gen. 2 brains by staking ASTO tokens. The amount required to mint them is not announced yet.

Each brain requires one AIFA All-Star NFT to participate in the game. The AIFA All-Stars also help earn ASTO tokens in the game, and there will be breeding. Breeding is particularly interesting because it may generate demand from new users like Axie Infinity characters.

The average price of AIFA players has doubled since launch. Currently, the floor price of these NFTs is 0.11 ETH. Four of these would cost around 0.44 ETH (~$1,700) plus at least another $400 in gas fees.

AIFA All-Star NFTs. Source: OpenSea

The project’s tokenomics is designed by Delphi Digital—the same team that helped develop and market Axie Infinity. Thus, you can expect the game to have lucrative ASTO rewards to attract new players. Don’t underestimate Delphi’s shilling power too.

Right now, there are only 1,400 owners of the 10,0000 genesis NFTs. There’ll likely be increased demand for brains and All-Stars in the future because there will always be people willing to trade their time for in-game rewards.

Axie Infinity reached close to 10 million users by the end of 2021 using Delphi’s P2E strategy, and it continues to churn income for players. To play Axie Infinity, a new player would need to buy or rent three NFTs, which at minimum cost around $350 today.

Since most players are from developing countries, they can’t afford to buy and rent from other platforms instead.

It’s a win-win situation for both the players and NFT owners because players get the difference between the rent cost and what they earn, while NFT holders earn passively.

If AIFA usage grows to at least 10% of Axie Infinity, there won’t be enough brains for everyone, and you, as an early adopter, would earn rent from early collections. That would put you in a position where you’d earn from play-to-earn like a real-estate owner!

At the same time, the AI capabilities of our NFTs would increase with AI program training within the game, enhancing its market value.

Although not yet confirmed, the game is expected to launch by the end of the first quarter. Thus, building your AIFA asset base now seems like a good idea.

Good Luck!