Coins.ph CEO at AxieCon Declares the Philippines will Lead the World in Web3
Zhou sees the Philippines as a huge game changer for Web3 because of its potential to produce play-to-earn centered content creators.
Editing by Nathaniel Cajuday
In his keynote address during the first-ever Axie Conference (AxieCon), the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Coins.ph, Wei Zhou, shared that he sees the Philippines as a huge game changer for Web3, emphasizing the potential of the Philippines to produce content creators for Web3, specifically for the play-to-earn genre.
The AxieCon was held in Barcelona, Spain last September 7-10, which was attended by an international crowd of Axie Infinity gamers and enthusiasts. This was held to appreciate its community of thinkers, builders, and gamers and to share with them the future plans for the community. Thus, coining the event, “AxieCon is a gathering of the greatest thinkers, builders, and battlers in the Axie ecosystem.”
At one of the sessions entitled “Coins.ph on Axie in the Philippines,” Wei shared that Coins will host a watch party in the Philippines for the Filipino enthusiasts who will be able to join them on the last day of the event to watch the finals of both Axie Infinity tournaments, Classic and Origin. This event was held in Draper Starter House Manila. (BitPinas attended the watch party and will publish an article soon.)
“Axie is [a] really good proof of concept of how you can actually have creators in the metaverse. I think you’re going to see world-class content creators in the metaverse coming out of the Philippines. Axie’s unexpected levels of popularity in the Philippines, and the ability of Filipino fans to create large volumes of Axie-related content, both illustrate that the Southeast Asian country has a huge opportunity to be a global leader in Web3. The Philippines’ population of more than 100 million people and the status of English as an official language in the country are both key factors in the market’s Web3 leadership. The language of Web3 is going to be English, and that just puts the Philippines at a massive advantage compared to the rest of Asia,” the CEO added.
Zhou also expressed his commitment to continue with his mission of returning the platform to its crypto roots, explaining that “it has been really interesting trying to catch up in a lot of ways in terms of bringing more players onto Axie through our wallet.”
Coins.ph, in addition, is continuously working to ensure that Filipino Axie gamers can benefit from playing Axie Infinity in the real economy, according to Wei. “Once you have earnings, assets, and wealth in the digital world, how do you get that out of the digital world? We really want to make that easier for our users. I think what we want to do is actually make it really easy for non-coiners, non-NFTers and non-Web3 natives to actually come into the ecosystem. And I think the wallet is the entry point of that, especially for our traditional fiat wallet users.”
Wei Zhou became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Coins.ph last April 2022. Zhou was previously the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at global crypto exchange Binance before becoming CEO of Coins. This is to ensure that the company takes the exchange back to its crypto native roots, rebuilds the platform from the ground up, supports more blockchains, and makes it the nation’s crypto company. (For more details, read [Exclusive] Ex-Binance CFO Wei Zhou Is Now CEO of Coins.ph, Prepares to Take Back the Exchange to its Crypto Roots)
Coins.ph is regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and is the only blockchain-based company in Asia to hold both Virtual Currency and Electronic Money Issuer licenses from a central bank. Coins.ph has currently 16 million users. Through the user-friendly mobile app, its users can trade a variety of cryptocurrencies and access a wide range of financial services.
Coins added Smooth Love Potion (SLP) and Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) to their list of virtual assets last December 2021. In April 2022, the app was given access to the Ronin Bridge where Axie players and managers can transfer their SLP and AXS from the network with ease and lower fees. This is to help Axie enthusiasts have the financial freedom to trade their earnings to other cryptocurrencies, pay their bills, top up their mobile services, or convert them into Philippine Pesos.
“Owning land, even in digital form, gives people a certain association that owning ‘toys’ doesn’t, and I think that really drives the concept of Web3 as the ownership economy. That’s where I think the real opportunity is coming, and I’m really excited for Coins to be partnering with Axie, and I look forward to more happy users,” the Coins.ph chief concluded, welcoming the planned introduction of tokenized land gameplay into the Axie ecosystem.
Recently, the mobile wallet has added a new feature to its app where its users can link their Google Play accounts to their Coins.ph. This encourages mobile game players to use Coins.ph to purchase their in-game assets and provides a way to bridge Web2 and Web3 gaming and onboard them into the Space. Coins has also partnered with Japan-based OK Remit to help Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) easily send their remittances to their families in the Philippines. (Read You Can Now Pay Google Play Store Purchases Using Coins.ph and Coins.ph Taps OK Remit to Enable Low-Cost Remittances via RippleNet)
This article is published on BitPinas: AxieCon 2022: Coins.ph CEO Wei Zhou Tells Attendees the Philippines will Lead the World in Web3
Disclaimer: BitPinas articles and its external content are not financial advice. The team serves to deliver independent, unbiased news to provide information for Philippine-crypto and beyond.
