Jiho Zirlin or Jeffrey Jiho Zirlin is the co-founder of Sky Mavis and the creator of Axie Infinity. He is the Growth Lead of Sky Mavis, the company behind the non-fungible token game, Axie Infinity where he focuses on community empowerment and experiments to support the Axie environment. It happens to be the highest-grossing NFT game to date with over $2 billion USD in sales and two million daily active users.
He had a keen interest in playing video games and catching insects ever since childhood and his academic interests include military history and monetary policy. Jeff studied Military and Economics history in college, where he learned about Blockchain. Also, he is one of Fortune’s NFTy 50 in 2021 and was featured in CNBC, KrAsia, Nikkei Asia, Wall Street Journal, Coindesk, and VentureBeat.
Jiho Zirlin and cryptocurrency
Jiho Zirlin found out about Bitcoin in 2011 and tried to buy it but had to give up because it was complicated back then. In 2013, he was invited to join a crypto fund but he didn’t. Later in 2016/2017, he found out about Ethereum (ETH) and started following it. He also learned about the NFTs and CryptoKitties when they launched as it uses the Ethereum blockchain.
Since Jiho Zirlin likes to inspire and lead people, instead of climbing the corporate ladder in traditional finance, he started his own fund even though it was very small. He believes he has a good sense of judgment and trusts his instincts. When he learned about CryptoKitties and NFTs, he had the lightbulb moment and became interested in them.
He found the CryptoKitties game fun to play even though it was a basic game with very simple steps. After CryproKitties, Jiho Zirlin was looking for the next thing and found the Axie Infinity project. It was only a month after Axie Infinity launched their initial sale. Jiho Zirlin became impressed with its art and its potential.
Contributions of Jiho Zirlin
Major projects of Jiho Zirlin include Axie Infinity, Sky Mavis, and Ronin. Jiho Zirlin started working for Axie Infinity in March 2018 and moved to Vietnam. He was the fifth person to join the team and was one of the co-workers and the first non-Vietnames person on the team. He is now working on the growth side and handles communication, fundraising, partnerships, user empowerment, and some design and abstract things. Also, Jiho Zirlin does all the writing for Sky Mavis while acting as a bridge between the community and the product team. Here are the contributions of Jiho Zirlin:
1. Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is a blockchain-based game where players collect, breed, and battle digital creators known as ‘Axies’. The game features more like Pokémon-inspired pets and the game lets players earn cryptocurrency by playing it, making it more like a ‘play-to-earn’ model.
2. Sky Mavis
Jiho Zirlin is the founder of Sky Mavis and his love for collecting bugs and insects is what drew him to Axie Infinity in the first place. Sky Mavis is a company that builds virtual worlds and blockchain games, including Axie Infinity. It builds nostalgic and practical games while creating virtual worlds with player-owned economies.
3. Ronin
Jiho Zirlin is also the founder of Ronin, a blockchain and cryptocurrency that includes the Ronon wallet, DEX Katana, and other tools for developers and gamers. It includes tools to build and play games with player-owned economies. RON is the native cryptocurrency of the Ronin blockchain and it is used to pay for gas fees and participate in staking to earn rewards.
Challenges faced by Jiho Zirlin
Jiho Zirlin faced challenges from hackers as his two personal crypto wallets got compromised, allowing the hacker to walk away with $9.7 million worth of Ether. Also, in 2022, hackers stole over $600 million from the Ronin blockchain, which powers Axie Infinity. This theft immediately became one of the largest in the history of the burgeoning world of cryptocurrencies and decentralized online gaming, both of which had skyrocketed in popularity in recent years.
It is important to note that there was a decline in the popularity of play-to-earn games, which impacted Sky Mavis. Apart from this, the value of NFTs, including Axies has plummeted. There were regulatory issues faced by Sky Mavis as it developed its blockchain technology.
