Adoption is one of the most important questions for crypto. In order for all projects and investments to reach their full potential, they need to reach out to everyone around the globe. That is easier said than done, crypto is a hard concept to get into. Chiliz takes a new interesting approach to solve this, through the help of sports.
Background
Socios is the company running the Chiliz blockchain and it's based in Malta. The company aimed to take a odd approach to crypto adoption and opening a new marketplace in crypto, sport tokens. The funds for the project were raised in a private placement during 2018, no public sale took place. The following year the company minted 8.888.888.888, or 8,888 billion tokens, on the Ethereum blockchain. What has followed is Socios adding more features to their ecosystem and bringing more teams into the fold of their fan token system.
Network
The network is a fairly simple one, it runs on top of Ethereum (also being added onto Binance Smart Chain and TRON) using smart contracts. The chain maintains governance through a Proof of Authority protocol. This protocol allows for approved nodes to validate transactions and create new blocks, essentially a delegate proof of stake without any staking. This makes Chiliz a very centralized token as all consensus is headed by Socios.
The ecosystem itself was built to allow for easy adoption by the public at large. There's no security risk thanks to their PoA system and all the features and polls are publicily audited before allowing any participation. The smart contracts and ecosystem have also been approved by the software security company Certik.
Use cases
The biggest use in the Chilliz ecosystem is from their PoA running side chain hosting the fan tokens. Chiliz can be used for purchasing fan tokens of their various supported clubs. Fan tokens allow users to have 1 vote for changes and polls in the respective team. This can vary from picking colors of the shirts, goal music or mottos. Large token holders can also enjoy VIP benefits which include merch or signed match shirts. The goal is to allow passionate fans to get closer to their teams.
Chiliz today
Socios and Chiliz were going by fairly unnoticed until the start of this year where they had surge in popularity, this was most likely thanks to the partnership and launch with Binance. One of the most common tokens to get on the Binance Launchpad is Fan tokens. With their surge in popularity, they have also sped up their acquisition of teams in their fan token program. Each new team opens up the way for more adopters and giving another revenue stream for the Chiliz token. A very novel idea that is going to be interesting seeing where it goes.
Pros:
- Unique adoption approach
- Real world use
Cons:
- Centralzied
- Slim use case
