Just what are fan tokens anyway?
Could fan tokens be one of those ways, humbly providing a system patch to sports fandom? At their core, fan tokens are cryptographic assets made available via well-known blockchains such as Ethereum, Polygon, or Binance. As such they tend to be more popular among people already invested in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and similar technologies since their precise value fluctuates like any publicly-traded token and according to the success of the sports team in question. However, the tokens also have a value that is tied to the access they provide, which is something like an interactive form of club membership. After purchasing any quantity of the tokens, apart from having a more direct personal stake in the fortunes of the team, fans who hold them can participate in games, competitions, and decision-making polls with real-world outcomes officially sanctioned by the team. The idea is not to spend the tokens like currency, though, but use and reuse them or trade a quantity of their stake in said team.
Which teams have adopted fan tokens?
Teams from a wide range of sports have already made partnerships to launch fan tokens in recent years. From Formula One to Indian Premier League cricket, some of the biggest names in each are now trading on several blockchains. The Manchester City fan token, for example, has already enabled holders to vote for the design of a fan wall placed in the stadium and get hold of signed merchandise. Other teams have held similar polls for bus designs and stadium entrance gates. Just like the football clubs, in esports Team Vitality fans can win the chance to meet the players and other VIP rewards like special guest attendance on the exciting end of the spectrum, albeit with some distinct day-to-day perks including shop vouchers and augmented reality features.
The future of fan culture?
So what does it mean to be a fan of a sports team or athlete, and how might fan tokens play into that? One meaning of fandom is hitching yourself emotionally to the object in question. And there’s more than anecdotal evidence to show that people who are serious fans often have significant physiological reactions to the highs and lows of a team’s progress in leading to the production of pleasure and stress hormones respectively, with studies of the COVID shutdown impacts on disabled football supporters in Britain suggesting substantial negative mental health impacts of live sports suspensions. Fan tokens may have the effect of enhancing the speculative aspect of supporting a team by being financially invested in it, And in turn the height of the highs and the depth of the lows. Meanwhile, the feeling of solidarity and camaraderie amongst fans provides an arguably important human need for community. Here, too, a fan token platform enables discussion outside of a game, whether in its token-based incentivization to predict the outcome of community-based decisions regarding aesthetic choices. It pays to stay abreast of developments in the worlds of tech and sports, and we’re constantly adding content on the latest technology and much more.
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