The Jiho

The Jiho is the public alias of Jeffrey Zirlin, co-founder and growth lead at Sky Mavis, the technology studio behind Axie Infinity and the Ronin chain. Of Korean-American origin with a History degree from Yale, he combines decades as a gamer and collector with a vision of digital economies where players are also owners of on-chain assets. He joined the Axie Infinity project in March 2018, when the team was still small, and has since led growth strategy, communication, community empowerment, and incentive design in the ecosystem. His NFT track record dates back to 2017 with the initial push of CryptoKitties — experience he applied to scale one of the references in blockchain gaming and the play-to-earn model. Under his influence, Sky Mavis developed not only the game but also Ronin infrastructure, designed to reduce gas friction and support mass player transactions. He has been a recognised voice in specialised media and appears on lists such as Fortune NFTy 50 (2021). On Bit2Me Experts he shared how Axie Infinity works, what it means to play with NFTs and the game’s own tokens, and the news from the Bit2Me and Axie ecosystem alliance at a time of peak sector visibility.

• Blockchain gaming
• Play-to-earn and in-game economies
• NFTs and digital collectibles
• Token and incentive design
• Community and growth in web3