If there is a cringeworthy trend in tech right now, it is the concept of blockchain. The core technology to cryptocurrency, blockchain acts as a distributed digital ledger to keep track of ownership and transfers. It is a clever technology, with practical uses.
However, the number of dubious companies and concepts that have latched onto the crypto-craze has made blockchain something of a joke in Silicon Valley and the rest of the world.
There has even been a trend of companies “using” blockchain purely to boost stock prices and secure funding – even if the technology was relevant to their field.
Finding people who understand blockchain is even tougher to achieve, as is the case within the ranks of Dorna, the media rights holder to the MotoGP and WorldSBK championships.
Announcing today the debut of MotoGP Cryptobilia, the premier motorcycle racing championship is about to embark on the whacky adventure of digital motorcycle racing collectibles, powered by blockchain technology.
You can almost read the pitch deck to this idea without seeing it. Slide one: Blockchain. Slide two: Millennials: Slide three: ZOMG So Much Money.
The collectables themselves, called icons, are costless to produce, and really no different from trading cards. Instead of physical ownership though, like you would have with a baseball card, blockchain is used to transfer the icons between collectors.
This creates a market where Dorna and its technology partner make something for essentially no cost, and then hope that people give them money in exchange for it, in the hopes that other people will then buy it from them…I think I just described cryptocurrency in a nutshell with that one.
Presumably young motorcycle racing fans would be enticed into collecting these “icons” of riders, teams, and bikes – thus presumably helping to grow the sport amongst a new generation of enthusiasts.
Of course, there is nothing cryptographic about these MotoGP Cryptobilia icons, but using the crypto nomenclature helps latch onto the cyrptocurrency craze that made blockchain technology such a part of our modern lexicon.
On the one hand, you have to give Dorna credit for thinking outside of the box and trying something new. On the other hand though, it is amazing that the technology partner SingularCK wasn’t laughed out immediately from Dorna’s office in Spain.
Source: MotoGP
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