Why did you start playing Splinterlands?
I saw an article on Motley Fool and it made me curious. I like online games, but sometimes I feel a little guilty about not being most productive with my time. A game that offers an opportunity to earn money was intriguing.
What else attracted you to the game?
There are two areas where I want to learn more. I like investing and finance. My typical investing is in traditional avenues. NFTs and crypto are something of a mystery to me. I wanted a way to learn about NFTs and crypto and enjoy the process.
And how does Splinterlands help you learn about NFTs and crypto?
First NFTs, or non fungible tokens, are digital assets that are created by someone. The NFT may be one single digital image or it could be numbered copies of the same image. In Splinterlands, NFTs are the playing cards, so they are numbered copies. Each card has a unique ID and the number of cards is limited. Scarcity of an item increases the value of the item, or at least the perception of value. Since cards are limited, and no new cards of the same monster are printed, the cards can appreciate in value. At least in theory. The number of players wanting cards has to increase, and the scarcity of the card has to remain constant. When you buy or win a card in Splinterlands, you own the card. Since you know the circulation of the card, a market can be created between buyers and sellers.
And how is Splinterlands helping you learn abou crypto?
This one is a steeper learning curve for me. Crypto is a digital currency. The whole concept takes a while for me to grasp. Because crypto is exploding. There are lots of digital currencies. In fact, I think of the different types of currency in Splinterlands as types of crypto. There is DEC, SPS, Credits. You can use regular US dollars and established crypto to buy some of the Splinterlands currencies, but not all of them. And then Splinterlands ties into Hive and there’s Resource Credits. And the next layer is exchanging the more established crypto like Bitcoin into crypto that can be used in the game. What happens is almost a maze of how to finance and invest in the game. Each interaction requires knowledge of another part of the Hive or crypto.
That’s a lot to unpack. Do you have a handle on it?
Not yet. I am a month into playing Splinterlands. The jump from tangible asset investing, like real estate, to digital asset investing, is a hard concept for me. So I am taking it slow. I had to create a rule for myself: Suspend your reality. My reality has been real estate and publicly traded companies and hard cash and gold. The good thing is that Splinterlands is a fun way to explore a lot of new ideas about crypto at once.
You mentioned Hive and card markets. How does that interact with Splinterlands?
I can’t explain it well at this time. Hive is like the parent company of Splinterlands. You can play Splinterlands as a fantasy card game. But Hive is the back end creator. And so, pretty soon, you need to interact with Hive. You establish a keychain to access the game and other parts of Hive. You have a wallet to store game assets and game crypto. And you need to be part of the Hive community to build resource credits that help you do more in the game and in Hive. And you need those resource credits to buy and sell cards in a card market. You can sell cards directly in Splinterlands, but the third party market is really set up to handle transactions. I use PeakMonsters. And this is when you start to see monster cards as investing. You can track how many cards are in circulation, how many are for sale, and you can determine when your cards go up in value.
So are you making money in Splinterlands?
Not yet. I hope to. That’s my goal as well as to have fun. Maybe we can revisit that question in a couple of months. So far, I have spent around $200 and my card value as of today is $137.
Ok. I know you like to keep the interviews short, but I have lots more questions. Can we explore those in the future?
Absolutely. We're adding videos on 3Speak as well about our journey.
Final note, any advice for those that want to start in Splinterlands?
Yes. First, we offer a referral code. Join and use our code and we will send you a free monster card. Second, decide why you want to play. Focus on achieving the goal of the game that brings you the most joy. And finally, don’t let anything consume you. Whatever you are doing in life, it should feed you, not eat you.
