Chiliz AMA Recap
CryptoDiffer team
We are glad to meet here Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz (@alexdreyfus)
Let’s CryptoDiffer x Chiliz AMA get started!
Can you introduce yourself to the community? What is your background and how did you come to the idea to create your project?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
First of all hi everybody, wherever you are from hope you are having a good day.
My name is Alex Dreyfus, French, 41yo and been an internet entrepreneur for the last 25 years. I was the founder of several start-up since 1995, including last 15 years in the online gambling (poker, betting, casino). Sold my last business to largest casino provider in US few years ago.
Chiliz is a tokenization platform for the sports & entertainment industry. We are tokenizing some of the biggest sports teams, from multiple sports, to engage & monetize their fan base globally. We create “Fan Tokens” for each club we are working with, and these tokens allows millions of fans from all over the world to vote on binding surveys, trade tokens in our marketplace, engage with the clubs and other fans (token holders).
The point of the Fan Token is to give a voice, a power to the 99.9% fans that are not in the stadium. As a Fan Token holder, you are ‘identified’ as an official Socios or Fan, which can’t be done with Facebook or Twitter. There will be rankings of fans all over the world (you can be the top influencer of your favorite team, in a small city anywhere in the world).
The name of the mobile app that we are launching is Socios.com, its powered by $CHZ token exclusively.
We raised $60m last year in a private placement, with Binance one of our major investor & partner and we are now working on the launch of our mobile application by early Q4 this year. Our company has 53 employees with nearly 24 nationalities, and we have offices in Malta (40+ employees), London, Buenos Aires, Seoul and Singapore.
Our project aims to be the biggest consumer-facing blockchain-based product (after exchanges) with the support and marketing of dozens of global brands & sports teams. We are building one of the biggest mass-adoption project and it will be launched in the next couple of months.
Last but not least, not only we do not have any competitor, but we as we are working exclusively with the teams, we are trying to have a strong network effect.
I suggest to have a look at this thread on my twitter, where you’ll find links to official team announcements + videos of our app/features and cool stuffs
As we are starting our first trading competition on @Binance_DEX, one week after our first official listing of @chiliz. Time to sum-up some facts about us (thread): pic.twitter.com/iWnyqA1rSW
— Alexandre Dreyfus (@alex_dreyfus) July 9, 2019
CryptoDiffer team
What are the major milestones you achieved since Token sale?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
We did private placement only last year, but since we hired 40+ people, signed Juventus, Paris Saint Germain, AS Roma, West Ham, OG Esports and many more (not announced) teams that are preparing with us our launch.
The launch of our mobile app is in more or less 2 months now.
Example of how we work with teams:
hehe. To prepare the launch of our @socios app in a couple of months (powered by @chiliz tokens) we had the players of @OfficialASRoma hunting fans tokens 🙂 Thanks @Cristante @JJesus_Official @Fede2Fazio. #bemorethanafan #tokenization #augmentedreality #adoption pic.twitter.com/DF74A4iSdJ
— Alexandre Dreyfus (@alex_dreyfus) August 14, 2019
CryptoDiffer team
Can you name your competitors? What are the main competitive advantages of Chiliz?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
We do not have any competitors, to date, and because we have:
– a product
– exclusive teams (Juventus, PSG, Roma, WestHam, …)
– $$$
– 55 people
– experience
we do not expect any crazy people to compete with us.
If, and it is a big IF, we succeed, we will be the biggest blockchain-based app. In term of users.
CryptoDiffer team
What are your plans for the nearest year in terms of marketing and business development? How do you plan to expand the network, community, partnerships, etc? What’s your vector?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Your questions are a bit generic next time try to DYOR
Well, as I said, we are launching our mobile app in 2 months now, with some of the biggest football teams who have 5, 10 50 or more millions of fans. So our marketing is driven towards these teams. We are signing and announcing new teams, in new countries.
Our goal is to have 100,000 registered users the first 3 months and 1 million after one year.
Our ‘vector’ is that we are the only consumer facing blockchain company that has access to mainstream audience.
Cryptodiffer Community
What is Socios ? Why such company like Socios decided to create tokens, for what purpuses?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Socios is the name of the platform. Socios in spanish, means members/partners/associate. So we inspired ourselfe from the fans of Real Madrid & FC Barcelona.
We use blockchain for 2 reasons : transparency of votes and integrity, and tradability of the Fan Tokens.
Cryptodiffer Community
Q: Which standard does Chiliz base on when selecting a team/club as a partner? Is small clubs/teams in your aim?
Q: Do whales/big investors have a chance to manipulate team/club voting by holding big bags of CHZ token? If yes, what is Chiliz team solution?
Q: To start a blockchain project about sport teams. I think you have the love for sport, right? Which is your favourite club/team?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
1. For now we are focusing on the biggest teams, who have a global audience, because it is about engagement & monetization. Eventually, we aim to have hundreds of teams, including very small with few hundreds fans.
2. No they can’t, there is a cap per individal in the Socios.com app for voting.
3. I actually do not love sports I like it, but I’m no fan I’m excited about technology and innovation.
Cryptodiffer Community
What is your monetisation strategy?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
We are – one of the only – to actually have a business model. We take a commission (like an exchange) on every transactions between clubs & fans. See us as Binance of Sports 🙂
Cryptodiffer Community
What companies invested in chiliz on private/seed stages?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Binance, OKEX and many others.
Cryptodiffer Community
Do you plan to add sport bettings into your platform ?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
No, that would be illegal and doesn’t bring any value. You don’t need me to do sports betting.
Cryptodiffer Community
When is Ronaldo going to play for Chiliz team?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
I’m having breakfast with him tomorrow morning, will ask the next date.
Cryptodiffer Community
What if any unpredictable/unforeseen circumstance arise all of a sudden like:
-regulatory issues.
-CEO/Founder leave in the lurch like- Zilliqa recently.
-Security breach like Binance faced recently
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Tough life. That’s business. EVERY SINGLE F*CKING DAY there is a problem so either you bet on an entrepreneur or not. Regulatory is actually pretty much in our favor, as we are based in Malta in a regulated environement.
Cryptodiffer Community
How many clubs are you expecting to join Socios.com and ChiliZ by end of the year?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
5+
Cryptodiffer Community
Every single dap nowadays claim they can tap into the mainstream audience. From seeing their user count it doesn’t seem to be happening. Would you say chiliz could be the first viral dap of the crypto space?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Time will tell. We are rather an app than a dapp, though 🙂 but we are – for sure – the biggest mainstream app that will be launch in short-term, beside exchanges/wallets, etc …
Cryptodiffer Community
Esports receiving more and more coverage recently, but few stumbling block like :
Net Neutrality and
Violent Content in Gaming
so whats your strategies to take on them?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
We already work with one the of biggest esports team, OG (which is playing right now in Shanghai The International DOTA2).
Cryptodiffer Community
Can you name some use-cases how can i crowd-manage my favorite team? For example can i decide a new logo, ask for buying new players etc. What happens if football club will be disagee with their fans?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
It will NOT be re: players/game, obviously, but fan related (logo, jersey, music, academy and many more things …).
The football club is the one asking both questions and answers (A,B,C,D, …). So they are fine with the answers. Also, the club is LEGALLY COMMITTED to enforce the outcome of binding votes they are offering to the fan token holders.
Cryptodiffer Community
Which leagues and countries are Socios.com focusing? Any plan to expand to American soccer?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
For now we have France, Italy and UK announced, but we will have few others countries soon. Including Latin America. We don’t touch too much US for now. Early next year.
Cryptodiffer Community
Are you planning to report the use of funds to your community, how much you spend per month/year and on what?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Nope. We are a business, not a foundation or a charity.
Cryptodiffer Community
How do you come up with name Chiliz ?
And
How did you get this idea to Develop such Simple Yet Revolutionary Project?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Because we are geniuses.
Cryptodiffer Community
I really dont understand why fans need to buy your tokens, for what reason? Can you explain ?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Fans buys Juventus, PSG tokens. The only currency available to use in our platform is actually CHZ. To buy, to sell, to use, everything is CHZ.
It is a real utilty token … WOW
Cryptodiffer Community
1.How does socios.com will help to build tokens ? I mean fan tokens? Do we need to buy chiliz first to create our fan token? If yes then what’s the minimum buy?
2. When can we see other sports (like cricket, MMA , hockey etc..) partnership with chiliz @alexdreyfus
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
1. You can’t create your fan token, we do it with the club.
2. indeed, cricket, fighting, basketball, baseball will come next year. We started with football because it has 3.5 billion fans and we managed to sign some of the biggest teams.
Cryptodiffer Community
Are you planing to list on Asian/Korean crypto exchanges in the near future?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
I would split both.
We will be listed on bigger Asian exchanges soon and so we aim to be in South Korea too.
Cryptodiffer Community
Q: Which big achievements did your team get? What make your proud of Chiliz project?
Q: When will Socios.com app officially launch? Is there any promotion for early birds?
Q: Beside buying CHZ token to be come a superfan in Socios.com app, is there any other ways to earn CHZ token like watching football, esport videos or is there social mining?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
1. everything that is written in my introduction.
2. in a couple of months. See the videos above re: promotion
3. there will be a way, called Token Hunting (pokemongo style)
Cryptodiffer Community
How can we earn in Chiliz? do you have any staking program, mining smth like that?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Walk in the street.
Cryptodiffer Community
Why is there a need for blockchain and native token for a sports and entertainment Platform? Why not follow the available methods? How does blockchain solves the existing problems in this industry if any?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Wrong question.
The right aquestion is : is there a way for fans from all over the world to engage with their favorite club and to make sure than fans have a vested interest. Answer is yes. We use blockchain to create a Fan Token, that gives a voice/power to each fans globally. We create a new ecosystem (and a new model) with vested fans
Cryptodiffer Community
In CHILIZ, Validators won’t be decentralised? They will always be choosen by the CHILIZ team for security purpose???=
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
At first yes. (well, we don’t have validators, but whatever)
Cryptodiffer Community
Does CHILIZ solve the problem of bringing the fans closer to the club to a great extent ?????
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
That’s what clubs sees in us.
Cryptodiffer Community
How are you planning to use 60 millions USD you have raised via private sale ? It’s big amount compared to what IEOs are raising these days. Any thoughts? Any plan to do public sale?..
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Cocaine. Its expensive nowadays.
We are already listed (DYOR), so you can buy tokens now if you want (which I would recommend if you want to use our service).
What we do requires a big amount of $$, because we do a real business that is consumer facing.
Cryptodiffer Community
When do you think a regular person will be able to spend Chiliz in the shop or airport?
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
Same as Ripple.
Cryptodiffer Community
What plans do you have to increase the value of $Chz
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO
I don’t need a plan. We just need users to start to use our product later this year, that requires CHZ to fuel 100% of our activities.
Cryptodiffer TEAM
Alexandre (@alexdreyfus) thanks a lot!
It was a pleasure to conduct an AMA with such a cool project like Chiliz. Thank you for your time!
