Axie Infinity Community Raises More Than 450,000 USD For Typhoon Relief Operations in The Philippines

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Kingdom of Lunacia Leads Typhoon Aid

The community behind the popular PlayToEarn blockchain game, Axie Infinity has transcended the metaverse and raised over 450,000 US Dollars in donation funds for victims of Typhoon Odette (Rai) in the Philippines.

The Axie Infinity community was one of the first to respond to the calamity, but it is not the only PlayToEarn blockchain Web 3.0 project to help our brothers and sisters in the Philippines. Outer Ring, Legends of Vernari, Aurory, Crazy Defense Heroes, and Sipher are among the GameFi projects that have donated through various channels to help with the relief efforts in the Philippines. YGG Pilipinas, the Philippine chapter of the popular PlayToEarn gaming guild, announced through twitter on December 21 that they’ve received donations from over 413 different kind hearted personalities.

“Our #OdettePH Ronin address has received 413 donations over the last 4 days. We are so immensely grateful for the support, cryptofam! wagmi Pilipinas!” YGG Pilipinas happily tweeted while attaching a link to their ronin transactions.

It’s not just GameFi projects looking to help the Philippines. Personalities across the blockchain and crypto community are doing their part to help. Facebook Gaming streamer, Extra Rai, used his channel to raise funds that he donated to the relief operations. NFT artist, CalvinxsArt, put up some of his Lucky Darumaxies NFTs for sale on opensea to fund donations for the typhoon victims. Esports team METAT8 partnered with OnChainMonkey to set up a charity Axie esports tournament to contribute to help Filipinos recover from the impact typhoon Odette has caused.

DeFi Direct reached out to representatives of the different initiatives to tell their story.

Yield Guilds Leading The Efforts

At the time of writing, the total funds that Yield Guild Games (YGG) have collected amounts to about 20.7M Pesos ($415,000) which you can track here for Metamask and here for Ronin. YGG was one of the first guilds that mobilized their resources to focus on relief operations once the typhoon entered the country. They contact distributors directly to get the most out of the donations they get and coordinate with volunteer medical missions, the Philippine Army, and even the Philippine Navy for the distribution of goods as early as 24 hours after the typhoon made landfall. YGG has also partnered with organizations like World Vision, Axie Alerts PH, World Food Programme Philippines to distribute aid to the devastated areas. You can monitor how the donations are being used through this google spreadsheet.

With most of the YGG core team in other parts of the country, John Sedano, YGG’s Global Community Marketing Manager, stepped up and led the field operations and coordination in Manila, the Philippine’s capital.

“The generosity is overwhelming. To date, we have secured over 20m pesos. It’s really heartwarming to see the support shown by the community and our partners.” John Sedano shared. “[It] just makes me even more proud of this movement. Blockchain projects, making [a] real world impact. Afterall, This is what it's all about.”

Avocado Guild and MetaGoonz are two more PlayToEarn guilds looking to provide some relief to typhoon victims. Avocado Guild, using their guild treasury, setup a shelter in Negros Occidental that provides food, water, and medicines to anyone in need. MetaGoonz has already raised around 1.5M Pesos ($30,000) to be used for rebuilding assistance and relief goods. 

Play For The Philippines

Though no donation is too small to help, some smaller guilds, managers, or players might feel intimidated to donate a small amount compared to more established members of the community. This is something that Nix Eniego, a high ranking veteran in Axie Infinity’s PvP Arena popularly known as Nixtape, hopes to address by starting the #PlayForPH movement, an avenue for anyone to help the relief efforts by grinding PlayToEarn games like Axie Infinity and donating the yield to the cause.

Nix partnered with CCF Tulong Tayo, a religious organization that provides immediate response and relief goods during calamities such as what Typhoon Odette did. A portion of the funds will be allocated to this organization while what’s left will be saved for efforts in areas that did not get much initial aid. The allocation of funds can be monitored via google sheets.

“I'm blown away by the response of the Axie Infinity community. We have scholars donating the last bit of their $SLP earned just to help our kababayans in need. We also have prayer warriors, retweeters, and a bunch of supporters who just want to help. This is bayanihan at its finest, and it wouldn't have been possible if not for Axie. I've never seen a movement like this before.” Nix explained to us.

#PlayForPH has accumulated over 200,000 Pesos ($4000) in the first four days of the movement, but got over a hundred pledges from different guilds, players, and scholars willing to give a helping hand. With Axie Infinity having a 2 week cooldown period on SLP withdrawals, the #PlayForPH movement will only grow in the coming days once players get their hard earned tokens.

“I am grateful to each and every donor and supporter of the #PlayForPH movement. We will do our best to help every Filipino get back on their feet.” He later added.

It’s All About Community

With some of her slayers (scholars) directly being impacted by the storm, Axie_Queen took it upon herself to find a way to help them directly. Taking a more grassroots approach, TQ, as she is fondly called in the Axie Community, together with her team aim to stabilize the situation of her slayers first so that those same slayers, who are also victims of the storm, can extend aid to their own barangay (community) as well. 

Axie_Queen’s efforts have already reached 6 different barangays and have pooled over 300 relief packs for the slayer’s neighbors. Each relief pack has a blanket, vitamins, canned goods, coffee and other supplies to help. She is also working with the Tanging Yaman Foundation, a non-profit Philippine organization, as well as some schools in Negros Occidental that have reached out to her for aid.

“I've never seen such a supportive community that can reach help thousands of miles apart, faster than our own governments can. This is the Lunacia I know, and the whole world can now witness what it means to have a Lunacian heart.” Axie_Queen emotionally said. “I want to show people how easy it is to help others. Anyone can do it from any part of the world.”

Her efforts have garnered around half a million pesos ($10,000) and counting from various generous hearts around the crypto space. 

Ways to Donate

If you’re looking to get involved with any initiative, you can donate through the following channels:

• YGG Pilipinas:

ETH - yggph.eth - 0x7a3cf7cf1c5f995e5849fc65f956ca31e9a6e677

Ronin Network - ronin:bf298227e40c55f5d5a85e5aecc61c622f4b20ac

• Axie_Queen: 

Ronin Network - ronin:45a521f37b26cfc00a7b9f61044d7ac93e6e70bd

Metamask - 0x86CdeE97a6a96533891dF29c77002f27E982400D

• Nixtape:

Ronin Network - ronin:5d772c0b8d1764a3e2d51f777cd638f592d7d9cf

Metamask - 0x1a76448128aD01c5044aeCdC9C03f05A5F980064

• MetaGoons:

Ronin Network - ronin:dd79cb28ead1f3da2b4d526f72d98fd132dcc539

GoFundMe - https://www.gofundme.com/f/metacares-typhoon-odette‍

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More channels will be added soon as we verify the addresses. Make sure to donate to verified channels only.‍

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