#102 | Formula 1 Racing Towards NFT Ticketing Adoption

Estimated Read Time: 7 minutes

Hey friends,

Wonderful to have you join us today! We have a pretty great curation of stories today with progressive blockchain news out of Europe along with some absolutely huge NFT ticketing news from Formula 1 and the Professional Fighters League. Let’s just jump into it!

In such a volatile industry sometimes it’s nice to take a week off, and that seems to be crypto’s plan with both Bitcoin and Ethereum remaining unchanged over the past week, sitting around $27k and $1.8k respectively. With neither bulls nor bears dominating the charts, it’s hard to justify any hot takes so I guess let’s just sit back, relax and see how the markets are heading in the next brew-up.

When talking about cryptocurrency and the blockchain, “decentralization” is a word that finds its way into most conversations. It can mean different things to different people, but one thing everyone agrees on is its facilitation of the “Freedom To Transact” movement in an increasingly digital world. It seems this sentiment is also shared by the European Parliament, whose recent report went deep on the upcoming virtual euro cryptocurrency that is set to be introduced as a digital version of cash in 2027.

There is a lot to cover here, but what stood out was the report’s debate against the European Central Banks (ECB) suggested tight holding limits, remuneration schemes, and limited privacy features that all go against the freedom of Web3. Specifically, the central bank’s plans could infringe on the European Convention on Human Rights which state “Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions”, with Seraina Grünewald saying “It is wise and legally desirable to ensure that systematic surveillance of the payment behavior of individual citizens and firms by the ECB as a public institution is rendered impossible by design”.

Work is already in progress for EU legislation that would govern the operation of the blockchain-based euro payment system, with this report concluding that the groundwork for a digital euro will take time and should not be rushed for the set 2027 release. We highlight this story to show how there are voices from within the power structure who also stand for the freedom to transact, and as the conversation on this topic proceeds, so does our Web3 future.

With over 70 million viewers per race, Formula 1 is without a doubt one of the most popular sports in the world. It was only 7 months ago we caught wind of their potential foray into Web3 with F1’s plans from community-focused digital collectibles to virtual entertainment services, but it seems the first real-world use case was something that's been in front of us the whole time, NFT ticketing.

The Platinium group is the leading ticket issuer for F1 and they have recently teamed up with blockchain infrastructure company Elemint and Web3 agency Bary to help create, mint and sell NFT tickets starting with the Monaco Grand Prix over the past weekend. CEO of Elemint Jacques-Henri Eyraud best summarised the motivation for F1’s dabble in NFTs saying “Web3 technologies make it possible to design ticketing solutions that are more secure and more adapted to the specificity of each event… The experience becomes more personalized and fun for fans of all types of sports competitions”. Highlighting the awesome potential of NFTs because not only will fans have a more secure ticket to access the race, but Web3 gives continued utility such as hospitality benefits and future race discounts to encourage collectors to stay loyal to the brand.

To say F1 adoption of NFT ticketing is bullish would be an understatement, the onboarding potential of a 1.5 billion person audience is unfathomable and could set a precedent for the entire sporting industry. That is, if it can be executed properly, which has been a key focus for the initiative with Elie Zerbib the Co-Founder of Bary saying “By providing a completely seamless experience on the main website, the user doesn't need to have any Web3 knowledge to purchase the NFT ticket… We make users understand the benefits that come with this new type of ticketing and onboard them on a journey that will change their F1 experience.”

Here at Morning NFTea we naturally see Web3 as the next evolution of the internet, and having one of the most popular streamed sports in the world beginning to embrace NFTs not for any speculative monetary value but because of its superior infrastructure for the organization and community is the perfect exemplifier of our Web3 future.

NFT tickets/passes could take any form from Starbucks NFT loyalty program to Flybondis NFT plane tickets, but to stay on the theme, this week also happened to see another popular sporting group utilize NFT ticketing with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) newly announced VIP NFT tickets. In the world of Mixed Martial Arts, you have probably heard of the UFC, but in a close second is the PFL which is constantly looking to gain an advantage in the industry which this time comes from Web3.

June 23rd will see the start of this initiative, where The PFL and Web3 partner CrossTower plan to release limited edition NFT-based VIP tickets. The F1 story above highlighted the transparency, traceability, personalization and engagement that seamless digital ticketing has to offer, and the PFL is utilizing it all starting at the VIP level. Alongside secure access to the expected premium cage-side seating, these NFTs also offer exclusive weigh-in events, fighter meet-and-greets, and ring walk experiences to name a few.

The NFTs in question will be hosted on XRP’s blockchain for an open-source and energy-efficient solution that offers the enterprise-grade scale and utility required to pull off this Web2 to Web3 transition. NFT ticketing is gaining momentum, and it’s easy to see why with NFTs’ elevator pitch of “authenticatable digital assets” finding a perfect use case in our online access passes. So much so that America’s largest ticketing provider Ticketmaster created an NFT ticketing department, it’s going to be great to see society onboarded to Web3 without the hustle and bustle of speculative investing that puts most people off.

BRC-20 has been all the rage these days.

They’ve been highly recognizable based on these large orange squares colored the same color as Bitcoin that have been all over Twitter…

But what actually is BRC-20 and is there value to adoption of this technology on the Bitcoin blockchain? After reading the analysis of experienced crypto traders…

The conclusion is that while these technologies are reviving a chain that has few use cases other than being a store of value (even using it for global transactions is wildly financially and technologically inefficient), this opens up an invitation to innovate in a way that Bitcoin has never seen before.

Only time will tell whether it will gain adoption or not.

Thanks for popping by on this Morning NFTea, while we curate the next edition we hope you have a great couple of days. Take care!

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DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.#102 |