Last night the ceremony of the Golden Ball 2022 who saw the coronation of Karim Benzema. This event, broadcast in more than 200 countries, brings all football fans together for the award ceremony for the best player of the year. And for the first time, the latter will not only leave with a trophy made of brass and pyrite, but even with two awards, one of which is under the shape of an NFT.
This Monday, October 17, 2022 marks an important step in the young history of the blockchain. For the first time, in fact, the awarding of the Ballon d’Or – big sporting event in the small football world – is forever engraved in the form of NFT in a distributed network.
Indeed, by delivering a digital trophy in the form of an NFT to the 5 winners of the competition, but also by selling more than 2000 non-fungible tokens called “Pyrite Shards” designed by the artist Leo Caillard, the team magazine (organizer of the Ballon d’Or) wants to keep up with the times.
Three types of NFTs will commemorate this event:
- digital trophies;
- True Pyrites;
- Pyrite shards.
This is the Franco-Swiss blockchain Tezos which was chosen to create this collection of NFTs. Energy efficient, economical and easily accessible, it is regarded as one of the best blockchain facilitate mass adoption.
The different types of NFT
Five in number, the prestigious digital trophies will be awarded to the five winners of the Golden Ball 2022 (Men’s Ballon d’Or, Women’s Ballon d’Or, Kopa Trophy, Yachine Trophy, Gerd Müller Trophy).
They are therefore not for sale and should now be awarded every year. Unique copies given to each laureate of the ceremony, this one NFT are the rarest and most exclusive. They allow on the one hand to register a proof of authenticity of the winners, on the other hand blockchain and on the other side to allow join the circle very closed from the Ballon d’Or. 2 extra creations will be auctioned Nov 8 during a physical sale of photos organized by the house million Bee Paris. They give access to the best bidders, to a venue for the Ballon d’Or ceremony in 2023.
The Real Pyrites, meanwhile, are 3 in number. Referring to the base material of the trophy, Pyrite, these NFTs were sold out on September 15 last. Listed as an auction, the starting price was 635 XTZ (Tezos cryptocurrency). At the end of this salethe 3 winners were contacted directly by the Ballon d’Or teams, allowing them to benefit from a VIP experience at the 2022 ceremony.
Finally a collection of 2022 units “Pyrite Fragments” was issued to the general public.
Tezos wants to be very present in the sport. Indeed, the project is present in Formula 1, on the side of the stable of Red Bull but also in football next door Manchester United or on the side of baseball with the New York’s Mets.
It’s also not the first time Tezos has teamed up with the sports world to launch a collection of NFTs. McLaren to be especially associated with them to offer a series of NFTs, trace the history of the brand and its team.
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DeFi inspires
It is interesting to note that both the collection and marketing approach reflect the practices of many decentralized finance projects (Challenge). Communication, pre-sale logic, unfolding of the “coin”…uses that the crypto community knows well. Beyond blockchain choice Tezos that enables mass adoption, even events of such a scale to be completely inspired by projects decentralized launched on DeFi is good news for the ecosystem.
A system of CAD (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) was even performed. Allow any holder of an NFT to be to vote on the decisions made about the evolution of the Ballon d’Or.
Ledger Invites Himself to the Ballon d’Or Party
Another demonstration that the 2022 edition of the Ballon d’Or is decidedly crypto, the french unicorn Ledger Karim Benzema also donated a special “Golden” edition of his famous physical wallet.
we can see something We will Like it wrong in this Web3 initiative that connects NFT and the football world. Some will indeed observe an operation marketing instead of a performancetechnological. Mainly due to the fact that the organization will collect 7.5% transaction costs incurred on each resale of an NFT on the secondary market.
However, it’s hard not to see an extra step towards a mass adoption to open the doors of the web3 and a little Challenge to a wider audience. By encouraging football fans to delve into the subject and engage with the circleA very closed member of the Ballon d’Or community, adoption is only possible speed up.
Like it or not, whether this practice continues over time or not, one thing is certain, this 2022 Ballon d’Or ceremony will last forever. engraved in the blockchain.
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