Why NFTs, Blockasset, and Sports Are a Perfect Match

The adoption of blockchain technology has had an impact on a lot of industries. However, it has specifically seen, as of recently, a lot of growth when it comes to specific digital collectibles that cannot be replicated, or what we know as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). These fan-tokens are driving extreme growth within the professional sports world across the entire globe, and both the fans as well as the athletes in question have a truly unique chance to mutually benefit from them.

Exclusivity and memorabilia go hand-in-hand when it comes to supporting fans of any athlete or sport out there, and as such, NFTs, as well as sports, might be the perfect match.

But what exactly are NFTs, how do they work, and what makes them so special and appealing to the thousands of collectors who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on them? Let’s dive in.

A Brief Look at NFTs

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that run on the blockchain. The main way in which they differ from cryptocurrencies is in the way that each and every NFT is completely unique. This means that you cannot exchange one NFT for another, as each of them has a different value registered on the blockchain and has different attributes.

Furthermore, they come with the benefit of letting you know exactly who created them, who the owner of that NFT is, and provides authentic information about every time that NFT gets transferred from one person to another person. This provides it with a history, as you know exactly where that NFT came from.

This is all kept, and verified by the blockchain.

NFTs are digital, non-fungible assets that are completely unique and have a certain value attached to them which is backed by blockchain technology.

NFTs and Sports

This is where NFTs truly shine, and of course, we’re talking about sports. You see, a general thing about sports players is that they have a wide and varied community of fans that genuinely support them.

Just imagine watching your favorite football or basketball game, we all have that one special player that we genuinely love seeing, the way they move around the field, make their moves, kick that ball, throw that punch, jump that net, it’s all, in a way, poetic to see.

So assuming you’re a fan that wants to stand out from the masses, you need to look at Blockasset. Throughout our history, fans have collected cards, filled sticker albums, and have had balls signed by their favorite players. The idea here is to have something unique, something only you can have, you own, and everyone knows that you are the owner of that specific asset. This is what makes you, as a sports enthusiast, shine when it comes to the support of your favorite players.

Not only does having this asset make you stand out in your community of people and fans as a huge fan, but it also gives you a sense of fulfillment, knowing that you’re the only person out there with that specific fan-based asset.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have sports players, which might want to have an added source of revenue. Traditionally, they would need to contact a specific agency, shoot marketing videos, photos, and other advertisement materials so they have an alternative place through which they can genuinely make some money.

NFTs might be a match made in heaven when it comes to sports due to the fact that it fills this void from both sides.

Through monetizing by using NFTs, athletes can change and remove the middlemen, and directly serve their content to their fan base. They can shoot videos, photos, and other things and actually sell them to their fan base directly.

The point here is that blockchain technology allows you to track who the creator of that NFT token is, and who has owned it prior to you. This leads to a higher level of authentication, as you can do away with fraudulent merchandise.

Now, speaking of fraudulent merchandise, this has plagued physical things for decades. Whenever an original item comes out, there will be some knockoff made in some other location that attempts to replicate the original, however, it is fundamentally fraudulent.

The issue that arises in the real world is, how do you track if the product is original? Typically, these products will have specific logos or serial numbers associated with them, but these can also be fabricated.

As such, through blockchain technology and the level of security the technology offers, you cannot replicate an NFT that already exists, and even if you do come close, you cannot replicate the proof of ownership.

If the NFT came from a legitimate platform such as Blockasset, or the sports player you are a fan of, you will have undeniable proof, recorded on the blockchain, which proves who the original creator of that asset is.

Sports personalities can sell their NFTs, put them on auction, all of which are digital, and continuously reap all of the benefits even beyond their initial sale.

Now, when we take a look at the fan or the consumer’s side of things, they can have an authenticated, legitimate digital asset, that has proof of ownership that they can track, which is secured by blockchain technology, and where only they are the single owner of that asset, which gives a higher level of scarcity and exclusivity to that specific asset.

If you’ve ever wanted to support your favorite sports player, and wanted to own an asset that has their likeness, you could essentially own a video of them, for example in the game of football, hitting a goal, or in an example of MMA, get that winning kick or punch.

The selling and purchasing process of these assets isn’t done in an auction house or a physical store, but on specific online exchanges that enable NFT technologies.

Now, NFTs by themselves can run on different blockchains and follow different standards, however, one thing remains with them, no matter the blockchain, and that is the fact that only one of them can exist.

Then there are specific, athlete-only NFT marketplaces such as Blockasset, which works directly with athletes and matches them with top-tier artists to create unique collectibles, something you cannot find anywhere else.

Marketplaces such as these allow athletes to monetize themselves through different, more direct means, where they get a higher percentage of the sales, and allow fans to have something truly extraordinary and unique in regards to their favorite athletes, which leads to a higher level of demand and appeal, as its something exclusive, something, out of which only one version exists.

In fact, the world record for the most paid sports-related item is the original Olympic Manifesto, which was written in 1892 by International Olympic Committee founder Pierre de Coubertin, and sold in 2019 for $8.8 million USD.

An NFT created by Beeple known as Everydays — The First 5000 Days sold for $69 million in March of 2021. This showcased just how valuable NFTs can be, and what kind of demand there is for them. Why wouldn’t someone be willing to pay for a video of their favorite basketball player getting a dunk?

The Ja Morant dunk, for example, is selling for $250,000, and these prices can only go higher.

Blockasset Filling in The Gaps

At this point, you are probably well versed in what NFTs are and what kind of value they can bring to your favorite athletes, so the next challenge you need to tackle is to pick the best platform that can provide you with this kind of option.

Blockasset is a unique athlete NFT platform as well as a marketplace that is built on the aforementioned Solana blockchain, intended to bridge the gap between athletes as well as their most dedicated fans through athlete-verified exclusive NFTs as well as experiences for their fans unlike anything else out there.

In fact, given the fact that the NFT space has become a multi-million-dollar industry which enables sports enthusiasts to actually make special moments immortal and interact with athletes one on one.

Tangible sports cars, as well as most memorabilia, as previously discussed, can be faked, digital sports cards and artworks, on the other hand, packed as an NFT, cannot. This is one of the main reasons why they have such a high value, as they are truly legitimate, and fully traceable when it comes to their own history.

Currently, Blockasset has specific athletes on offer that have genuinely verified their collectibles, including Giorgio Chiellini, David Trezeguet, Darren Till, Terence Crawford, and Leon Edwards.

However, this is just the start of a bigger picture. The more the platform grows, so will the contact with world-class athletes as well as the world’s top sports agencies, and the marketplace will end up getting filled with elite athletes that have verified NFTs that you cannot really find or replicate anywhere else.

So now you have a combination of one of the best new ways to support your favorite athletes, and have a truly unique asset, that no one else has, which gives you a higher level of exclusivity and sense of ownership that is truly traceable through a marketplace built on the Solana blockchain, as well as verified NFTs that are, and will permanently exist in digital form, that has the potential to be worth thousands if not millions of dollars.

The unique aspect about Blockasset is the fact that it works directly with athletes to ensure that the network lives up to the highest of standards, where all of the athletes are actually paired with artists who they specifically choose, to ensure that each and every one of the NFT artworks is truly unique and tells a story unavailable anywhere else.

This can surely appeal to a lot of collectors that want something truly exclusive.

The Solana Blockchain

Solana can be defined as a base-layer blockchain protocol specifically designed to optimize scalability when it comes to projects that implement blockchain technology. It has the main goal of providing a platform that can empower developers towards the creation of decentralized applications (dApps) without the need to design them around specific setbacks or bottlenecks found in certain older blockchains.

It has a unique proof-of-stake system which is implemented through a method of creating a trustless system for determining the time of a transaction called Proof of History. As such, it can handle thousands of transactions, in fact, over 50,000 to give you some perspective.

It was founded in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko, and it is what powers Blockasset in the back-end, allowing you to exchange NFTs quickly and efficiently, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

The Winning Combination

These NFTs or in a way, fan tokens, videos, images, and other types of interactive content represent another level through which both athletes can have a different source of revenue, as well as a method through which fans can indulge in specific, specialized, and unique content created by the athletes they love the most.

Furthermore, platforms such as Blockasset will in the future offer NFT Games, athlete tokenization, and NFT event ticketing. All of these elements lead to an even heightened usage of the NFT tokens. This in turn will add a lot more functionality to NFTs, where everything can be secured, authenticated, and most importantly of all, bring value to both the athletes as well as the fans.

The future of athlete-fan interaction is here, and everyone is slowly starting to reap the benefits of these secured, traceable systems which allow them to have a truly authentic digital collectible, unlike anything before it, and Blockasset is at the very center of this, offering ones which are truly authenticated and have the genuine passion of the athletes which have created them alongside artists.