Playing for keeps: Digital labor and blockchain precarity in play-to-earn gaming

Abstract

A recent economic phenomenon has emerged where gamers can earn money by playing blockchain-based games and accumulating cryptocurrency rewards. Known as “play-to-earn” (P2E), this gaming model has drawn a large following of economically struggling players during the pandemic, many of whom are in the Global South. This paper positions P2E gaming as an emerging form of digital labor where work and play are blurred. Using the highly popular P2E game Axie Infinity as a case study, this paper traces the everyday realities of players as workers through document analysis of the grey literature and textual analysis of Reddit user comments. The results reveal a form of blockchain-based precarity that is manifested in volatile earnings, insecure contractual “employment” and onerous working conditions among player-workers. Such precarity is driven by P2E's embeddedness within broader cryptocurrency markets and the platformed blockchain ecosystem, the reworking of capital-labor relationships that are distinguished by ownership of productive virtual assets, and by ongoing code-enabled changes to P2E's platform governance mechanisms. Examining P2E through a precarity lens reflects the ongoing financialization of labor that is enabled by blockchain.