499Block：Now our AMA will officially start. Before that, we ask MIss Lin and Oleg to make a short self-introduction.
Siyi：Hi I’m Siyi, I’m the Community Lead and Marketing Specialist (China) for Chiliz. So basically what I do is managing & developing the Chiliz community, and on the marketing side, I do marketing planning and execution in China for Chiliz.
I joined Chiliz in 2019, so till now it has been over two years. I feel quite lucky to be part of the Chiliz journey, and to be able to witness our company growing from a 50 people team to over 110 people, with 40+ partnerships announced and a full-fledged product launched. It has been a fascinating experience.
Oleg：I am Oleg, Partner Acquisition Manager — Sports. Joined Socios x Chiliz 2.5 years ago. I used to work at Zenit FC, responsible for commercial partnerships/sponsorships.
499Block：That’s impressive experience! great! Let’s start off today’s theme, What problems can the CHZ blockchain improve in the sports industry and what new changes will it bring？
Oleg：Big challenge in Sports Industry is that 99.9% (during covid 100%) of fans live/locate outside of the city where their favorite teams are based.
If you are a Juventus or Barcelona fan and live in the US or in Brazil, you cannot go to the stadium to support your team. and basically you are not recongnized as a fan or big fan,here at Chiliz we try to bridge this gap between sports entitis and global fan base, with CHZ fans can buy Fan Tokens and be closer to their favorite teams.
with Fan Tokens fans have a say as well as access to fan rewards incl money-cant buy experiences.
Siyi：So our initiative is to turn the passive fans into proactive participants in the sports industry. Since the rise of internet and social media, fans all around the world have been able to receive instant news & updates from their favourite clubs, however this kind of interaction usually goes from one -> many, it doesn’t go both ways.
Fans feel the need to be part of their favourite clubs, and they are seeking for more ways to be able to interact with the clubs. In the meanwhile, the clubs themselves are also looking for new ways to enhance the engagement with their fans, and that’s exactly what we do.
With the implemention of blockchain, we built fan tokens for clubs, as Oleg said, it’s a tool/certificate to give fans the right to participate in clubs’ daily decisions, and other interactive activities. Fans will also be rewarded during this process.
499Block：Impressive!! It’s so true that those Clubs attract fans from all over the world, hope Chiliz really improve the experience of those who live far away from their favorite teams, and can support their team anywhere in the world. Now let’s move to the second question.
What is the difference between the fan tokens issued by CHZ and many teams with traditional stocks and members?
Siyi：Ok, I think you mean club’s stocks & membership system.
I believe Oleg has the most authority to answer this question since he is a sports business professional. I’ll add my thoughts afterwards 😄
Oleg：Fan Token is not an investment tool. Fan Token is the new digital asset to engage with your favorite teams. Our fan tokens are utility tokens that give fans some desicion making power as well as access to different Socios platform benefits. Fan Tokens are a bit similiar to club’s membership program, but Fan Tokens have different utility attached.Fan Tokens do not give you a share of a club.
Siyi：Yep, owning just ONE Fan Token would give you the opportunity to participate in the polls run by your favourite club, however in the traditional finance market, you need to have lots of $$$$ and own a big chunk of shares of a club to be able to decide something for them. Even though there is a difference between the scope of the decisions to be made.And voting in club’s polls doesn’t consume fan tokens at all. Once you own the fan token, they are always yours unless you decide to sell/give out.
Oleg：Fan Tokens are very much affordable. Initial price usually between 1–2 USD. as long as you hold at least 1 $JUV Fan Token, you are able to participate in all Juventus fan polls.
499Block：Wow that’s awesome! Can’t wait to get tokens for my favorite teams!Now let’s move to the next question.
NFT is a hot topic recently, NFT also has some status symbol functions. However, What are the similarities and differences between NFT and the fan tokens on CHZ? It could be confused.
Siyi：Yep just one more add, As Oleg said, Fan tokens are similar to club’s membership programme, which means fans will also enjoy the benefits as club members. Owning a fan token would give fans the access to different exclusive rewards (signed merchs, special discounts) & VIP experience, and the opportunity to closely meet their favourite players. This is a campaign we did with Barcelona, that we sent 22 $BAR token holders to Camp Nou and had a amazing match .So regarding NFT & Fan Tokens, the fundemantal difference is Fan Tokens are NOT fungibal tokens.
Oleg：compare to NFT our fan tokens are fungible tokens and have utility behind. The main utility behing NFTs is scarcity, there is only one particular ‘digital art’. While fan tokens are fungible token (1 $PSG Fan Token is equal to another 1 $PSG Fan Token and has the same utility).
Besides, fan tokens have utility behind such as fan voting, access to fan rewards, in-app games and other fan experiences
499Block：Got it! So much benefits from Fan Token. But How do major Clubs view the existence of fan Token? And How is the acceptance of Fan Token to mainstream sports fans?
Siyi：On a technical-wise, Fan Tokens are minted on the Power of Authority side chain of Chiliz (Chiliz/CHZ itself is built on ERC20). And each fan token would have a limited number of supply which is based on the size of their fanbase. For example, there are a total of 20,000,000 $PSG token, and each of them are identical and contains the exactly same utility. On a different note, you can track all the fan token information here -> https://www.fanmarketcap.com/ And I also want to add some thoughts on NFT & Fan Tokens.
Oleg：Fan Token is a new club’s asset. Usually clubs have/sale/promote tickets, merchandise, membership program, but now they have new new B2C product — Fan Token.so now you can see clubs promoting their fan tokens
Siyi：Currently, most NFT products barely deliver any utilities or value aside from being a collectible. Collectible’s value comes from scarcity & the IP behind it, however, for example if there are millions of similar collectibles, there is no scarcity.
Oleg：We give to sports entities an opportunity to have new product and access to new audience.
499Block：Great, nice and clear explanation! As we know, Many sports stars have issued personal tokens or NFTs. How to treat this phenomenon? Does CHZ have corresponding plans?
Oleg：we are discussing a lot opportunities internally incl tokens for celebrities, but nothing announced yet. So, keeping this question open for now 🙂
Siyi：In my opinion, in the end of the day, the value of NFT comes from the utility.It’s about what you can really get from holding it. As for collectible-type NFTs, as I mentioned above, it’s about scarecity. And Fan Tokens are the utility tokens that can deliver real usecase & bring out real-life rewards to the users.
And as Oleg mentioned, we are also working on similar opportunities, so please stay tuned and we might surprise you ;))
499Block：Now we have better understanding of Fan Token! Next question
What services does the social token function of CHZ provide for sports teams?
Siyi：Yeah, so in the Socios.com app, there are chatting rooms for different clubs. You need to own at least one Fan Token of the specific club to be able to join the chatting room, so it basically created a close & exclusive space for the fans and fan tokens owners. And Fan Tokens also build the social bridge between fans and the clubs, as it’s providing fans the power to participate in club’s daily activities & decisions.
https://twitter.com/SociosFighting/status/1411006758659702793
Here is an example of the social bridge :))That’s all from me. Oleg do you have anything to add?
Oleg：Nothing from my side. As always Siyi explained it perfectly.
499Block：Wow That’s a cool feature, it’s great that Fan Token brings people together! Such a nice characteristic adding to the social value. Next question
What other application scenarios and values can fan tokens have?
Oleg：Fan Tokens have utility behind such as fan voting, access to fan rewards, access to games, quizzes, chat rooms, discsounts. important thing that fans cannot buy anything with fan tokens. you cannot spend your tokens.step by step we will be bringing more and more utility, experiences and fan engagement features.
Siyi：So aside from the above, we are also working on intergrating with the traditional banking system. For example, if you intergrate your Socios identity with your credit/debit card, and you own some fan tokens, let’s say $JUV, you will be able to enjoy some discounts in any Juventus shops or the shops of Juventus sponsors (adidas, etc). This is still under development, and I think it will start in Europe. We are planning to build a comprehensive digital VIP membership system for the fans around the world.
Oleg：now fans can get cashback on our partners official jerseys in CHZ if they have certain number of tokens. we are working very close to all our partners to enhance fan experiences with owning fan tokens.
Siyi：And in the future there will be a lot more utilities & benefits to be added upon holding Fan Tokens, like the accomendations, comsumptions near the stadium, more promotions from the club’s sponsors etc. And right now we have been already working with Rakuten Europe, and their users are able to redeem Fan Tokens from their Rakuten credits. More benefits similar to this will be designed in the near future.
499Block：Now we move to the last question of today’s AMA.What is CHZ’s next development plan and focus?
Siyi：So Oleg will speak from the partnership wise and I’ll go from the Chiliz perspective.
Oleg：We have lots of plans in bringing new teams/leagues/federations, adding new sports verticals to the platform. Important part is to develop new fan engagement features for Socios.com users. we already have 20+ months of experience in launching fan tokens, but we are still at the begging from what we want to achieve.
Siyi：On the Chiliz side, as many of our community members are aware, we are working on building our own smart chain — Chiliz 2.0. It’s kinda delayed indeed, since the team have higher priorities for now, however don’t worry it’s in our pipeline.
NFT — yes it’s in our pipeline 🙂 and our CEO Alex recently just posted a test video, so the first NFT product will be out soon (if you are not aware please make sure follow his twitter — https://twitter.com/alex_dreyfus).
And with respect to Socios.com app, we always listen to the community and keep collecting users’ feedback, so there will be more improvements and developments, more gamification & social features, which will create more engagement and active users.
499Block：Thanks to Siyi and Oleg for sharing! Chiliz Socios.com
