《仓鼠快打》空投让数千名用户感到悲伤，但这种情况并不新鲜

Web3 游戏的出现引起了人们对通过相当简单的操作赚取加密货币的巨大兴趣。 Play-to-earn（P2E）游戏成为一种新类型，用户可以通过活动赚取加密货币和 NFT。

People have always dreamed of getting rich quick by playing games, exercising, or tapping a screen, but these schemes often end in disappointment.

人们一直梦想着通过玩游戏、锻炼身体、敲击屏幕来快速致富，但这些计划往往以失望告终。

The Hamster Kombat airdrop left thousands, if not millions, of users feeling cheated. However, this scenario is not new in the crypto community. Several mechanics that supposedly allow users to earn money for simple actions have risen and fallen rapidly. What lessons can we learn from these experiences?

《仓鼠快打》空投让数千甚至数百万用户感到被欺骗了。然而，这种情况在加密社区并不新鲜。一些据称允许用户通过简单操作赚钱的机制已经迅速兴起和衰落。我们可以从这些经验中吸取什么教训？

The emergence of web3 games sparked massive interest in earning cryptocurrency through simple actions. Play-to-earn (P2E) games became a new genre where users could earn cryptocurrency and NFTs by performing activities within the game.

Web3 游戏的出现引发了人们对通过简单操作赚取加密货币的巨大兴趣。 Play-to-earn (P2E) 游戏成为一种新类型，用户可以通过在游戏中进行活动来赚取加密货币和 NFT。

Axie Infinity was a pioneer in this space. To start the game, users needed initial capital to purchase Axie, a virtual NFT pet. By completing tasks, engaging in battles with other players, and advancing through levels in the game, users could earn tokens. These tokens could then be exchanged for other digital or fiat currencies, while items could be sold on crypto exchanges and NFT marketplaces.

Axie Infinity 是该领域的先驱。要开始游戏，用户需要初始资金来购买虚拟 NFT 宠物 Axie。通过完成任务、与其他玩家进行战斗以及在游戏中晋级，用户可以获得代币。然后，这些代币可以兑换成其他数字或法定货币，而物品可以在加密货币交易所和 NFT 市场上出售。

And being a pioneer, the game was—no joke—considered an option for real earnings for a long time. It became especially popular in the Philippines. In 2020, as the world grappled with a pandemic, borders closed, and people lost their jobs, enterprising Filipino crypto enthusiasts began forming guilds, offering ordinary users the chance to earn money on P2E games.

作为先驱，这款游戏（不是开玩笑）很长一段时间都被认为是获得实际收入的选择。它在菲律宾特别受欢迎。 2020 年，当世界陷入新冠疫情、边境关闭、人们失业之际，富有进取心的菲律宾加密货币爱好者开始组建公会，为普通用户提供通过 P2E 游戏赚钱的机会。

However, Axie Infinity was plagued by in-game inflation. As a result of its constant growth, the price of its utility token, Smooth Love Potion (SLP), began to decline. To maintain high demand for SLP and AXS (the governance token), an infinite number of new registrations, including players who have neither one nor the other, are needed.

然而，《Axie Infinity》受到游戏内通货膨胀的困扰。由于其持续增长，其实用代币 Smooth Love Potion (SLP) 的价格开始下降。为了维持对 SLP 和 AXS（治理代币）的高需求，需要无限数量的新注册，包括既没有其中一种也没有另一种的玩家。

If the number of monthly active users (MAU) was more than 2.7 million at the peak, then in July 2024, this number was just over 310,000. The decline in Axie Infinity indicators occurred during the correction period of the entire digital asset market after Bitcoin (BTC) reached its previous all-time high (ATH) on Nov. 10, 2021.

如果说峰值时的月活跃用户数 (MAU) 超过 270 万，那么到 2024 年 7 月，这个数字刚刚超过 31 万。 Axie Infinity 指标的下跌发生在比特币（BTC）于 2021 年 11 月 10 日触及历史新高（ATH）后整个数字资产市场的调整期间。

The large-scale hacking of the game in March 2022 played an essential role in its decline in popularity. The outflow and lack of new users led to the fact that existing users could no longer earn money. The stories of some platform users turned out to be even sadder. In an attempt to make money on investments in the game, some players got into debt. They failed to make money on the project.

2022年3月该游戏的大规模黑客攻击对其人气下降起到了至关重要的作用。新用户的流出和缺乏导致现有用户无法再赚钱。一些平台用户的故事甚至更令人悲伤。为了通过游戏投资赚钱，一些玩家负债累累。他们没能在这个项目上赚钱。

With the P2E games era fading, a new type of earnings with the move-to-earn mechanics entered the web3 arena. The most famous example of such a game is STEPN.

随着 P2E 游戏时代的消逝，一种采用移动赚钱机制的新型盈利方式进入了 web3 领域。此类游戏最著名的例子是STEPN。

However, its profitability fell significantly due to an influx of users, and some experts found signs of a financial pyramid in the STEPN mechanics themselves.

然而，由于用户涌入，其盈利能力大幅下降，一些专家在STEPN机制本身中发现了金融金字塔的迹象。

At the same time, suspicions about the project do not change the fact that the platform’s early players actually managed to make good money. Users could recoup their investments, while the losses significantly exceeded the earnings for those who joined at the hype stage.

与此同时，对该项目的怀疑并没有改变该平台的早期参与者实际上赚了很多钱的事实。用户可以收回投资，而损失则大大超过那些在炒作阶段加入的人的收入。

Why did a game aimed at instilling healthy habits fail? The cost maintenance mechanisms laid down by the project’s team did not justify themselves. STEPN was ruined by its popularity: instead of using in-game tokens, Green Satoshi Token (GST), users actively converted them to tradable tokens, Green Metaverse Token (GMT), in the hope of further growth, especially after the rally in the spring of 2022, when the token reached an ATH of $4.11.

为什么一款旨在灌输健康习惯的游戏会失败？项目团队制定的成本维持机制并不能证明其合理性。 STEPN 因其受欢迎程度而被毁：用户不再使用游戏内代币 Green Satoshi Token (GST)，而是主动将其转换为可交易代币 Green Metaverse Token (GMT)，以期进一步增长，尤其是在股市反弹之后。 2022 年春季，代币价格达到 4.11 美元。

According to Dune, the project also had a significant decrease in MAU — in May 2022, this figure was more than 705,000, then in September 2024, it was already less than 19,000.

据 Dune 称，该项目的 MAU 也大幅下降——2022 年 5 月，这一数字超过 705,000，而到 2024 年 9 月，该数字已不足 19,000。

The project’s creators on the official website state that the play-to-earn format can be seen as an element of a Ponzi scheme, but STEPN has nothing in common with it. According to them, the developers have built strong tokenomics into the platform, ensuring the project’s coin value stability.

该项目的创建者在官方网站上表示，边玩边赚的模式可以被视为庞氏骗局的一个要素，但 STEPN 与之没有任何共同之处。据他们称，开发商已在平台中构建了强大的代币经济学，确保了项目的币值稳定性。

However, in essence, STEPN had no real economy and lived off the money of new users who bought virtual objects for thousands of dollars in the hope of getting their investment back in a couple of months while doing imaginary, useless work.

然而，从本质上讲，STEPN 没有实体经济，靠新用户的钱生活，这些新用户花费数千美元购买虚拟物品，希望在几个月内收回投资，同时做一些虚构的、无用的工作。

To maintain the necessary audience activity, a steady influx of new players who would buy game currency and NFT artifacts from old players is required. With a massive influx of new participants, such projects are possible. However, the principle of profit distribution in do-to-earn

为了维持必要的受众活跃度，需要有稳定的新玩家涌入，他们会从老玩家那里购买游戏币和 NFT 文物。随着大量新参与者的涌入，此类项目成为可能。然而，干到赚的利润分配原则