Play to Earn Games with Miggy

Spotify Podcast Episode: Play to Earn Games with Miguel Celis

In episode 21 of Freedom with NFT’s, our guest Miguel Celis shares with us about play to earn gems.

Miguel Celis has over 10 years of experience in community building and management, market research, trading, buying and selling crypto currencies, and NFT creation and project management. He passionately focuses on education and access to web3 to strengthen our global communities.

[00:00:00] Lauren Turton: Miggy, welcome to freedom with NFTs. It’s an honor to have you on today’s episode. How are you this afternoon?

[00:00:07] Miguel Celis: I’m doing great. Thank you. I appreciate you having me. I’m super excited to be here.

[00:00:11] Lauren Turton: I’m excited to have you on as well. You are actually the first person to interview on freedom with NFTs who’s in the play to earn space, which we’ll get into in a little bit.

But before we go into that realm, I’m curious to know what is your background?

[00:00:27] Miguel Celis: So specific to NFTs, I’ve just been involved with the cryptocurrency space since 2011, I’ve bought and sold, traded Bitcoin and various all coins, basically been on every platform. You can imagine that buys and sells crypto.

I’ve spent time over the last 10 years, you know, being involved in various communities, helping educate and just, you know, trying to encourage more people to join in the space until, you know, recently I’ve been involved within NFTs. I got involved back in February. I had a friend of mine, introduced me to my first NFT and send it to me and ever since then, and just, you know, I got hook.

[00:01:03] Lauren Turton: What part of NFTs hooked you?

Why is it so interesting for you?

[00:01:08] Miguel Celis: For me, it’s just, you know, another development of what the blockchain has to offer. A lot of new people who are coming into this space right now are very centered on the NFT aspect of itself. But most of them don’t understand that the underlying technology that runs it is primarily the blockchain technology.

And for me, that’s always been the biggest appeal is what that technology offers as far as being able to create a level of transparency and autonomy and verifiability to, you know, implement that in different systems. So when NFTs came around, it was just, you know, another evolution of that. Because we have the cryptocurrency, you know, Bitcoin came out of the blockchain and then 10 years later we have NFTs.

And so it’s just making it easier for people to get involved, to really bridging that gap between, you know, being a non crypto holder to where now people can get involved with NFTS and get involved with cryptocurrency. Yeah, quite easily.

[00:02:04] Lauren Turton: Can you explain the difference for us in regards to cryptocurrency and NFT?

[00:02:11] Miguel Celis: Basically the way that I try to tell people and explain it, the easiest is just that essentially they’re the same run on the same technology, same script, the same language. But the biggest difference is that we can visualize our cryptocurrency. We’d have no way to actually see it, or interact with it other than, you know, sending, receiving, buying, and selling.

So, NFTs just really take that to the next level where you can attach things to your cryptocurrency now and give it either a visual, a buy a piece of art, a graphic, or you can attach an audio song, music, you know, or embedded with contracts, PDFs, files. So now we have a way than a means to actually visualize our cryptocurrency.

[00:02:51] Lauren Turton: Oh, thank you for that explanation. I love how simple it is. And to the point now, pre-recording you and I were dialing in the logistics of today’s session and something that we started talking about isplay to earn. So I would love for you to explain what play to earn.

[00:03:12] Miguel Celis: What we’re seeing with the NFT space is that a lot of people again are fixated on just the art aspect of it, which has been probably the biggest attention grabber, or we have the people sale happen is like March, April time period, where they sold the $69 million piece, one of the largest history sales in the world.

But what we’re discovering, you know, that has been develop in the background are these blockchain games, these games that run on the blockchain technology and now using NFTs, they’re becoming more engaging. So for the play to earn what essentially that is, is that it’s these blockchain games combined with cryptocurrency and NFTs, and they create an aspect of gaming that we didn’t really have before, before, well, currently, you know, you pay to play these games. We pay for skins, on fortnite. pay for upgrades, you know, pay for in game currency on our apps. You know, we spend a lot of money. We added this in general, as people spend a lot of money playing these games. So with blockchain games, it kind of changes that it takes that idea of spending a lot of time on games and using an in game currency, but elevates it to where now it’s a functional crypto.

Your NFT itself has value already as a digital asset. So now you combine that with gameplay. So instead of paying play these games now, essentially you’re getting paid to play by every minute you spend in the game, every asset that you invest in and you use for the game, the entities down to the cryptocurrency itself, there’s all types of things being created within this blockchain gaming space.

And the play to earn is really taking it to another level to where it’ll be something that people can get involved in. Because there’s a lot of people already playing games. These sports is huge, right now. Online gaming is huge, especially since the pandemic, you know, those numbers that have grown and all the participants and players.

So now with blockchain tech, we can actually put it on a system to where every engagement in the game is transacted on the blockchain and reported. But not only that it’s tied to some type of utility, like an NFT or cryptocurrency. So like, imagine you’re playing Fortnite and for every shot you make, you get a piece of crypto or a fraction, or, you know, you get a kill, you get more crypto, you get a, win, you get, you know, an NFT. So now there’s things that are coming out that with these play to earn games that now you’re earning an income. And so there are families in like the Philippines and Korea and stuff, really taking this to heart and playing these games on a professional level to where they’re teaming up, like entire villages are like working together to play these games and earn more income than they ever could work in for their government or for their city and stuff like that.

So the play to earn aspect is just a way to engage in these games, but you’re incentivized because you get to make actual money cryptocurrencies that are very liquid. And so it’s like, you know, having any other job except that your own boss, I guess, and the time you put into it, you know, equates to how much you really make.

[00:06:06] Lauren Turton: That’s incredible. Thank you for the in depth explanation. So if I wanted to get involved in play to earn what would be my first step?

[00:06:14] Miguel Celis: Really just kinda looking around at the different blockchains that are available right now, most of the games are running off of Ethereum or the wax blockchain. There’s others that are being developed like Tezos and Solana.

But, right now I primarily promote a wax blockchain gaming just because of the blockchain for me personally is a lot easier for people to use. It’s a great way to educate, finding something like that, to where it’s easy to get involved because with the Ethereum blockchain games, like it’s not necessarily hard, but figuring out the MetaMask wallet, and then having to deal with gas fees is definitely something that prevents a lot of people from joining.

So for anyone who’s new looking to get into the space, I would recommend going to the wax blockchain, checking out some of the games there, check out the NFTS they have, you know, check out their platforms and just see, you know, how you feel about it. There’s new games being developed. And so there’s still very few right now, finding a game that you like, you know, whether it’s a card game or a first-person game and just, you know, getting involved, checking out their website, checking out their white papers, their roadmaps, and then just kind of, you know, looking at their NFTs and seeing what you like.

But wax blockchain is definitely, I guess, the easiest way for new people to get involved for sure.

[00:07:24] Lauren Turton: Thank you for sharing that. Are there any games that are your favorite on the wax blockchain?

[00:07:29] Miguel Celis: Yeah. Right now I’m currently playing splinter lands, which just became like the number one game recently. They have just listed, I think, over a million users.

I just had an interview the other day with a team called Onessus. They created HodlGod, which is one of the first blockchain games and they have another game coming out called Veil, probably splinter lands on the wax blockchain. The HodlGod is, has been a really good one. Also there’s one called Uplift, that I’m definitely heavily involved in it’s based on the Minecraft server. It is a Minecraft game while on the server, but they run their server on the blockchain. So they basically monetize like land plots. You can build on there and everything you do, you can earn, you know, their cryptocurrency, plus, you know, the wax currency that comes on the blockchain. Then there’s also a really good one,

I manage a community called magic dust and they have a telegram game, very simple, very basic, but they’ve created a utility for their coin to where you can play this telegram game, you earn their cryptocurrency and then also by engaging in certain rooms that are staking for their coin. You can earn dust just by chatting.

So that’s a great utility that they’ve brought to the table that not a lot of people really know about that I hope to see more of that in the future with the other games, but those are definitely my top three, for sure.

[00:08:39] Lauren Turton: Thank you for sharing that. I think that’ll be really helpful for those that are listening and are interested in getting involved with play to earns.

So now they have a landing point, something that they can check out. I’m curious to know what NFT projects are you really excited about right now?

[00:08:56] Miguel Celis: Right now, biggest go to is the NFT the movie project, something that I recently just kind of got involved with, met a great group of people out in July at an event that my team hosted in Miami.

And we found this group of people that were filming for a documentary and it’s called NFT the movie. They went around different states. They started in Texas and they went to Utah, Florida, California, and Puerto Rico. And they interviewed different people involved with different projects, all NFT base.

And I’ve been brought on to their advisory board to kind of help consult what they’re doing with their NFTs and how they could do stuff with NFTs. But I’m really excited about it because what they’ve done with this documentary, which was just submitted to Sundance film festival recently, they’ve been able to really bring light to the space in a way that nobody has yet. I mean, as you know, everything we see or even that we hear in interviews, or we see on media or on Facebook, on Twitter, like everybody’s so focused in on just the art that’s being sold and you know, all the money that’s being made at this piece, you know, sold for millions of dollars.

This guy sold his for millions, or there’s a scam here, a scam there, you know, very small focal points in the space. It’s great to hear about all the money being made but a lot of that art doesn’t really have any utility and it doesn’t really do anything. You know, people are making money, which is great.

You know, it’s a great thing to encourage people to get into the space. But what NFT the movie did was really highly, the real lives behind NFTs, you know, and people that are involved because for most of us that are doing this, like it’s not just a piece of art that we’re selling to get rich off of.

You know, we’re really trying to use the functionality of the blockchain to improve systems. We’re all involved with as a whole, you know, in our current society. There’s things that being tied to the blockchain and NFTs can really make things better. So, NFT the movie was able to, you know, go around and talk to different people and just kind of bring them to the world and be like, Hey, there’s more than just this one sale.

There’s more than just this one scam. Here’s real people doing real things in their lives. And they’re working on either getting involved with NFTs or they already are. So I was very fortunate to get to be one of the people interviewed because I was the head organizer for that event in Miami. And it was just cool getting to see everybody who’s involved in getting to know everybody.

And like I said, once this comes out, it’ll kind of give everybody a view on like, Hey, here’s NFTs but, you know, here’s real life. We’re not here to just make money. You know, we’re here to change lives. Like we’re here to change other people’s lives, but we’re here to change our own as well.

And so to see, you know, the kind of background development of these projects that are taking place and these people who are getting involved, you know, it’s really cool. So I’m excited to have that come out into the world and get to be a part.

[00:11:34] Lauren Turton: That’s amazing. Is there a timeframe you can share with us?

[00:11:37] Miguel Celis: Well, we just submitted to the Sundance film festival, so we’re waiting to get a roof. I would think we have two or three more weeks before the final approval, but once that does take place, as long as it’s taken in, then we’ll be going to the film festival in January. That’s when they’ll actually be premiering it. After that, yeah, I don’t really have any other timelines. Cause after that, I’ll actually get a list of like dates and times for like, Hey, we’re going to be going here, premier, the movie, or we’ll be going to do a panel here. Talk here, do there. But January is where we’re going to be looking forward to come out at the Sundance film festival in park city.

[00:12:11] Lauren Turton: Amazing amazing. I can’t wait to watch this movie. And my biggest takeaway from you sharing how that timeline and story went down of you becoming involved in this movie is how quickly things happen in this space. You help organize an event and because you are organizing event, this led to being in an NFT movie, which is now being submitted to Sundance.

That’s absolutely incredible. And I think that’s something for people who are entering the NFT space to realize is how connected this community is and how time exists in a very unique way here. And that things happen very, very quickly. And one thing leads to another in such a rapid rate. And so the takeaway from that is to get involved.

[00:12:58] Miguel Celis: Right.

[00:12:58] Lauren Turton: Get involved, go to events, get in Twitter space.

Follow people on Twitter, read the articles they’re posting, ask questions, get in discord groups and just get involved because your involvement will lead to your next journey in the NFT space. I’m curious, Miggy to know what projects are you involved in that light you up?

[00:13:23] Miguel Celis: Two specifically that I’m actively working on right now.

One is for a good friend of mine, his name’s Ken Bozek. He actually is a big time NFT seller, creator, influencer. And he’s been doing it since 2017 has just as much experience in this crypto space as I have. And his community was actually the first community that I got involved in February, is when I got my first NFT.

So I met him, got to know him and we just really hit it off. And so to the point where I met him in person in April. And then in July, I was running his event in Miami to where now I’m on his team, the team that’s been created to run his whole NFT project. We have a membership project being launched it’s on Brobrosforfourtwenty.com, which the bro bro thing is like his whole branding like it’s whole community. So he’s been selling entities for a long time. What we recently just done is there we’re in prelaunch for a coin of his called KenToken. We launched that on November. But we’re launching this membership program for him. We’re going to have 420 memberships available on November 1st. Each one will sell for $420.

So it’ll be a very exclusive group. Something that he is not done. Everything he’s done has been pretty public and open. So we’re going to make this a very exclusive thing, have content, NFTs and NFTs packs, giveaways, all sorts of things that we’re going to be just for these members, but we’ve created a lot of utility and we created the KenToken.

Which we participating in a few different defy platforms on our core, that’ll be involved in a few different liquidity pools. So we have a store Ken store where you’ll be able to purchase physical swag or NFTs, lower doing a lot of things with this program to kind of give back to his community. Like I said, his community was the first one that I got involved with and it’s what really drove me to get more involved, to create my own community.

And just participate in these events to meet people like him. So what we’re doing with this is providing a way for, you know, all his old supporters and any new supporters to have something really substantial, you know, something that has a little bit of longevity that, hey, by continuing to support and supporting in this program, hey, you know, we’re incentivizing a lot of that by giving back to the community. So this project specifically is aimed towards giving back to ensure that everybody that participate, everybody that invests, like no matter what they’re going to gain from it. And, you know, being on this team with the people that he’s put together as exciting, because I know personally, like I’ll make sure that, that happens, you know, and I’m just one of the team members and I know the others are like that as well. So very cool to be involved in a project where I can, you know, definitely for sure say like, Hey, we’re going to do whatever it takes to bring value to the community because that’s the biggest thing about all this NFT stuff is, is the community, you know, none of this works without it.

Everything about the blockchain is very communal. And so we’re trying to continue those ideals and help them flourish in this space. Currently, as more people are being brought in. And then the other project, probably just the ones that we’re doing with the blockchain gaming, my team, that I’ve been a part of recently.

We created the first e-sports team dedicated to blockchain games. We’re also in works with the e-sports stadium in Arlington, which is the largest e-sports stadium dedicated to the space that currently exists and it’s an Ireland in Texas. Yeah. There was no other e-sports stadium that’s dedicated.

It’s bigger than that. So we’re working with them on creating this three-day event December 17th -19th. We’re in the process of creating all our social media accounts, all our promotional marketing material. This is all being done by scratch and nothing has been done like this before. Yeah. As of now, no, we haven’t seen anything happen.

So we’re creating this three-day event. It’s going to be centered around blockchain gaming. And for those who don’t really know, basically blockchain gaming encompasses everything within the crypto space. Runs on blockchain technology. Now it uses cryptocurrencies and NFTs. And then a lot of these have a decentralized finance brought into it.

So basically anything you want to learn about the blockchain or NFTs you can do. So by participating in this type of event. So we’re getting ready to do that. We’re bringing in all sorts of devs are bringing in games and just going to highlight, you know, everything within that space. And it’s exciting because again, it’s not something that’s been done yet.

Nobody has done this and for sure nobody has done this at the type of venue that we have. So we’re working hard on securing these dates, which right now it’s a firm December 17th through the 19th, but we’re trying to make sure we lock that down and it will be in Arlington, Texas. We’ll be having the event, both in-person and virtual as well.

But those two for me are basically the big highlights because those are going to be the big ones that will stick around for quite some time.

[00:18:02] Lauren Turton: Amazing. What I took away from that is again, how quickly things happen in this space. You’re speaking about planning a three day event, massive events, and it’s never been done before.

We are at an opportunity in life to be involved in a technology and an industry where things have never been done before. That’s massive. That’s mind blowing when you truly think about it, these two projects sound incredible. Thank you so much for sharing them with me and the audience for freedom with NFTs.

Before we wrap this interview up, I’m curious to know, are there any final thoughts that you’d like to leave with our audience?

[00:18:50] Miguel Celis: I think I’ll just touch up on kind of what we spoke about, you know, just the whole community aspect and what you said about getting involved. Because one big thing that I do right now is I bringing in new people to the space all the time, calls every day, which is people curious, you know, how to get in and a lot of them are nervous or a little tentative, because they don’t understand the technology.

Personally, I’m no programmer. I’m not a coder, you know, I don’t have a college degree. I’m just as normal as they come. But I got involved, you know, I got involved 10 years ago, which is, you know, a long time of non-support, but now we’re in a time period where anybody that wants to get involved should. You should find people like myself, like Ken Bozek, you know, like you who are interested enough in this space to bring attention to it, ask questions, like you said, join the communities.

One biggest thing, especially for artists getting involved in this space is that a lot of them just want to produce art and sell it. But what they fail to realize that in the beginning, what you’re doing is you’re selling yourself and with things like this, which are very community-based, the community wants to get to know you.

So being involved, getting a telegram, getting a discord, join a space to start a space, share your art. Don’t just sell it. Share it. Talk about it. Talk about why you enjoy doing and talk about who you are. Letting people get to know you is huge. Being involved in the community is a big aspect of longevity. Like if you want to be an entity seller, creator, investor, whatever.

Get involved, get involved and get to know people attend these events because these are where the connections happen. If it weren’t for me going to that first event in April, I mean, I would not have done this and I’m a big motivator for that was my nephew passing away. The week I got my first NFT, like three days later after I got involved, like he passed, he was 18.

So I needed something to focus on and gear towards. And so being involved in the community is what I did. And I had no thoughts to ever really doing what I’m doing now. I just wanted to be involved, you know, and so now get my involvement has brought me to the point where I’m working on a lot of projects, even several that I haven’t even spoken about, that a lot of people don’t even know.

There’s a lot more to come. You know, this is just the first six months. And so if you’re wanting to get involved, if you want to learn, just find people, find anybody that, you know, seems trustworthy, that you find likable and follow them and ask them questions and just get involved in any way possible.

[00:21:17] Lauren Turton: Thank you so much for that. That is the perfect way to wrap this up, is hammering it home with getting involved. Miggy, it’s been an honor to have you on freedom with NFTs today. How can my audience get ahold of you?

[00:21:32] Miguel Celis: So I am super active on all sort, but Twitter’s probably the best way my Twitter handle is crypto33miggy

and then it’ll say Miggycrypto33, right at the very top. That’s probably the best way I know for a lot of people, that’s the easiest way, but I’m also on telegram as well. And my telegram handle is Miggycrypto33 spelling same way.

[00:21:59] Lauren Turton: Okay.

[00:21:59] Miguel Celis: Yeah But hit me up on Twitter for sure.

[00:22:01] Lauren Turton: Thank you so much. We’ll make sure to link that in the show notes.

That is all for today’s episode on freedom with NFTs new episodes drop every Wednesday at 5:00 AM Eastern standard time. Make sure to subscribe, download, like, and rate this podcast. To gather we can take the word of NFTs to the masses and I appreciate your support. That’s all for now. This is your host, Lauren Turton. See you on the next one.

Connect with Miguel Celis:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/crypto33miggy

Telegram: https://t.me/krypticcrypto

Connect with your host, Lauren Turton:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurenTurton_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelaurenturton

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenturton/

Website: https://freedomwithnfts.com/