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This article is written in response to chiliZ bounty post.
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Ever since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009, blockchain and crypto-solutions have really prospered. Hitherto, unforeseen areas too benefited from blockchain solutions. For example, the supply chain visibility was always an issue but because blockchain has an immutable ledger and decentralized operation, it allowed secure visibility across the chain. This helped a customer to track a product right up to the source. Not only this but solutions attempting to pool users’ computer storage and/or computer processing power also came to the fore, and blockchain enabled them quite eloquently.
Blockchain applications do not stop there and are breaching new frontiers every day. Many areas which just can’t work effectively under the traditional applications set up, puts up a fighting case under the blockchain set up. One such area is the Sports and eSports arena. Event hosts and game hosts have been trying hard for ages to engage users, followers and fans beyond the game or the event, itself. For example, a fan going all the way around the world to watch his favorite club can be engaged only during the run-up to the event and sparingly during the event. However, once the match is over the next phase of engagement is only before the next match. This disjointed engagement of the fans is what hosts are hoping to change for so many years with hardly any success. Fans engagement in truth remains a pipe dream!
Yet, this is an industry which cannot be ignored. When we talk of entertainment it is obvious to gravitate towards movies and music, but did you know that the gaming industry – esports and videogames combined – is larger than movies and music combined? The size of the gaming market is set to rise from nearly USD 109 billion in 2017 to USD 128.5 billion by 2020. There is just the traditional sports market which is larger than the gaming industry, and by far, the largest entertainment industry, globally. Even by 2011 it topped USD 620 billion and USD 90 billion in net revenue. In fact, just the net revenue of the sports market in 2011 is almost comparable with the total revenue of the gaming industry in 2017. It is not difficult to see that the gaming and traditional sports market is therefore huge! Which means that there is a large untapped market of fans and followers waiting to be engaged. This is what can be unlocked by the blockchain effectively!
Well, that’s a great thought, but has anyone seen this potential? Has anyone thought of a solution in that direction?
Turns out someone has!
Who’s that?
As discussed so far, chiliZ brings a blockchain solution to not only enable sports and the gaming industry to reach fans but also engage fans to participate in the decision making of sports clubs, gaming titles and events. A snapshot of the same is shown below.
The idea for the chiliZ platform emanates from the realization that, progressively, those leagues, games or events which not only attract the most audience but also find a way to activate and monetise them become the most successful. This would be radical fan engagement and chiliZ achieves that through Socios.com, a platform which it powers.
It is easier if we understand this through an example. There would be many players of the popular online game “Clash of Clans”, after all they claim one billion players and more. Now, as a player, let’s say, I want that the game should extend beyond the land realm and also cover the water realm (the sea water that we see near the village). Chances are that there would be many users who would be expecting the exact same thing, but there is no way of telling the Supercell team, the makers of Clash of Clans. However, if Supercell comes on the chiliZ platform then users like me can go online and vote for the game to extend the fighting matches over the water body. Supercell team then obliges and develops the game to be available over the water body. Isn’t that instant engagement of users of the game? Isn’t that also ownership of the game from the users’ perspective? Because they get what they want. And let’s look at this from Supercell’s perspective, they are able to develop exactly what the customer wants instead of guessing what the customer wants. In other words, development cost put to effective use. Isn’t this a win-win situation? You bet it is!
This is what the chiliZ platform achieves.
So sound is the solution that it won the ICO of the Year Award at the Malta Blockchain Summit in 2018. Take a look at the CEO, Alex Dreyfus, receiving the award.
But how is the concept enabled?
Let’s look at that.
Through Socios.com platform, chiliZ intends to turn 2.2+ billion gamers, 380+ million esports fans and more than a billion football fans from mere spectators to influencers and decision makers. While they are starting with football, they intend to cover more sports in the future. Cricket is one such sport which is visible on the horizon and many more.
True to their core, chiliZ will be providing a cryptocurrency and blockchain solution, from where a fan can use his tokens to cast his vote towards a decision. In their own words, chiliZ whitepaper talks about their motivation as follows:
Our motivation: To turn the world’s billions of sports, esports and gaming fans from spectators into influencers.
The power of decision making was quite centralized till now with the owners of teams (or game developers) and yet there was clear realization that it is the fans who really makes a team or game popular. As such, though team owners and game makers were ready to transfer some portion of decision making to fans, there was no robust system to enable this. This is where chiliZ helps by bringing the Socios.com platform and makes the delegation of decision making power to fans world-wide.
Let’s look at the platform closely.
We know that chiliZ powers the Socios.com platform deploying user tokenized voting rights which are executed through smart contracts. The idea is so interesting that it turns the team management exercise into an entertainment value for fans because of the gamifying of voting rights into a trading and re-trading experience. The platform can power existing and future sports and esports team.
Here’s an overview of the Socios.com Platform.
The token itself is an Ethereum based ERC-20 token. The choice of Ethereum is quite easy to understand from the standpoint of robustness, practicality, and stability of the platform. A general study of all of the ICOs of 2017 shows that most of the solutions had been built on the Ethereum platform as it was future proof. chiliZ too is an Ethereum based token, therefore. The way the token will function for both users and partners is as follows:
To be the currency to be used on the Socios.com platform to act as a decision-making engine for the fans and allowing them to effectively influence their favorite team with complete integrity.
To create and share revenue generated via the Socios.com platform in a fair and transparent manner.
There are other checks and balances thought-through too. For example, to ensure integrity, a permissioned instance of the Ethereum blockchain is run by Socios. This is where every team, game, league and their crowd-voting mechanism is hosted. The side chain will also reduce the transaction cost, as it will be run on Proof of Authority consensus mechanism as opposed to the Proof of Work mechanism on the main chain. The sidechain is publicly auditable thus remaining scalable and yet maintaining the integrity of operations.
Take a look at the platform architecture:
But will this concept of fans influenced teams work? Yes, it will. The concept itself has existed for some time but could not scale up because of the lack of a dependable and robust underlying platform. Talking about Europe, teams like FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, FC Porto, and SL Benfica were partly owned and managed by fans to vote and elect their respective team’s board members and leaders. This kept the monopolistic voting rights in check and everybody had a hand in choosing the top management. Such a concept was also seen in North America, where the Green Bay Packers were the only NFL team to be owned by more than 360 thousand stakeholders. Also, no single stakeholder could own more than 4% of the team’s share at any point.
So, the concept works but Socios.com will scale it to a level hitherto unseen.
Here are the features and benefits which makes chiliZ and Socios.com a unique platform.
This is the main feature of the platform. The extent of decision making being shared with the fans can be decided by the teams or leagues and the same is made open to voting on the platform. This can range from Jersey design to team expansion. Here is a snapshot.
The platform provides flexibility to the teams and partners alike. Not only these two major arms (users and partners) but also other partners who would like to use the platform to promote their brands and events.
A world where most of the life of a user has migrated to his or her mobile, it is only prudent for any solution to be mobile friendly. Socios.com is future ready by being both mobile ready and real-time. What’s more it can integrate with other existing popular platforms making the gamers, esports or sports experience as real as possible.
Here is an example:
A user having one or more fan tokens may decide to sell of his tokens on Socios.com and this is enabled by the Socios.com marketplace. The selling price can be decided by the seller, however, much like in any marketplace the lowest price attracts more attention. The platform is designed to make the lowest price visible and only when that token is bought will the next lowest price be made visible. A user selling such a fan token will get chiliZ token in return and that can be used by him or her to diversify and invest in other fan tokens of interest.
The chiliZ token will be emitted on the main Ethereum blockchain while partner specific fan tokens on the permissioned sidechain. Socios.com platform is, therefore, the only means for exchanging chiliZ tokens with fan tokens. Socios.com thus becomes the oracle of all transactions which are stored on a public ledger. This ledger is open for audit by any party wanting to know of the transactions on the chain.
The micro-fee charged for transactions occurring through the Socios.com platform will be shared with the partners. Once a partner decides to be associated with the platform, the monetary influx due to the tokens being bought by the fans is almost fully passed on to the partner. This ensures that the partner makes money on the platform while effectively engaging the fans!
This, in a nutshell, is what chiliZ brings to the table for both fans and partners.
chiliZ Blockchain Campus is chiliZ’s attempt to connect major industry stakeholders across Asia and Europe with other leading blockchain solutions and entrepreneurs.
Set up in Malta, the blockchain island, the chiliZ office is a sprawling 2000 sqm with the sole purpose of serving and supporting its members. The payment for services can be done in chiliZ tokens ($CHZ). Since adoption of regulatory framework is a given in Malta, it also provides an opportunity to operate within the permissible guidelines laid down by competent authorities. As such the chiliZ Blockchain Campus is at the forefront of regulation at one end while bringing together entrepreneurs and stakeholders at the other end.
Here are the details of the amenities provided by chiliZ Blockchain Campus.
Here’s a video of the CEO explaining a bit about the Blockchain Campus:
chiliZ is without a doubt an exciting blockchain solution powering the Socios.com platform. The very thought of being able to influence the team that we follow is ‘out of the world’. Just to give an example, being an F1 fan, I wished if I could have met my inspiration, Michael Schumacher, during his racing days. Only if F1 was on chiliZ platform then and if fans like me could have voted for such a meeting with Michael, wouldn’t that have been great? You bet, it would have been!
The possibilities are endless and I suspect we will see areas of fan engagement that we can’t even fathom today! All thanks to chiliZ!
It is also recommended that readers understand more about chiliZ through any of the following informative resources.
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Image Courtesy: chiliZ Resources
