Chiliz (CHZ) is a FinTech blockchain infrastructure built to cash in on sports and entertainment.
They call Chiliz (CHZ) a currency for blockchain products and services built for mainstream consumers. CHZ uses include fan engagement, alternative payment solutions for convention products. The goal of Chiliz is to provide sports and entertainment businesses with blockchain tools to monetize fandom.
Chiliz works some of the world’s biggest sports franchises, including FC Barcelona, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, AS Roma, Galatasaray, Atlético de Madrid, OG, CAI, & UFC. However, the only major English-speaking sports brand Chiliz lists is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Notably, Chiliz is not working with any major North American or British sports teams or leagues. Hence, Chiliz is not working with the Premier League Big Six, NFL, NHL, NBA, college football, college basketball, or Major League Soccer. I also note that Chiliz is not working with any big racing circuits such as NASCAR or Formula One or with any major pro-wrestling outlet such as the AEW, WWE, or New Japan.
Chiliz and Socios.com
Chiliz is building a blockchain infrastructure for the sports-fan platform Socios.com. Socios is an app that allows fans to engage with teams and earn loyalty points.
Fans can use Socios rewards (loyalty points) to earn tickets, behind-the-scenes access, VIP experiences, and more. For example, fans can earn enough Socios rewards points to meet their favorite player or get access to team events.
They build Socios communities for fans to meet up and connect. Socios is available in the Apple App Store and GooglePlay.
Socios is working with the UFC, Professional Fighting League (PFL), Major League Soccer (MLS or US professional soccer), the NBA’s Boston Celtics, and the RFK Racing team.
The Chiliz Ecosystem
The Chiliz Chain 2.0 v2 Scoville Testnet or CC2 is live. They describe Scoville as a curated, semi-decentralized blockchain for enterprise level sports and media organizations.
Ultimately, they envision Scoville as the protocol foundation of a Web3 development ecosystem for the sports and entertainment industries. Fans will access sports and entertainment brads through Scoville by using a Fan Token.
Scoville comprises scalable user-centric platforms that serve large numbers of fans. Blockchain infrastructure provider Ankr will build those platforms. CC2 provides a governance structure for projects built by whitelisted developments.
The ultimate hope for Scoville is to integrate the sports and entertainment business with global digital asset exchanges. For example, to build markets for sports and entertainment-themed nonfungible tokens.
Chiliz Chain v2
Chiliz is trying to build an open ecosystem parallel to Socios.com for Fan Tokens. That system will give sports and entertainment brands access to vetted developers who will build decentralized apps (DApps) and platforms for sports and entertainment brands.
They hope to use Chiliz (CHZ) as an in-app currency that can enable the Chiliz Chain v2 (Scoville) ecosystem. Chiliz will maintain security by creating a Proof of Stake Authority (PoSA) for approved stakeholders. The Stakeholders will become the node operators who will build the network. Stakeholders will earn CHZ by providing a Proof-of-Stake Authority.
They hope the Chiliz Chain v2 ecosystem will support decentralized finance (DeFi) products, NFTs, Metaverses, Play and Earn (P&E) games, Event Ticketing, Loyalty Programs,, and Merchandising Certification programs. For example, Chiliz could certify a sports-team’s merchandise as official. Chiliz could also build NFTs for the team, and operate P&E games in which fans earn loyalty points. The fans could use the loyalty points to earn discounts on tickets and merchandise.
Chiliz and Ethereum (ETH)
They claim the Chiliz Chain 2.0 is compatible with Ethereum because they built it with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). To explain, the EVM is the digital computer that operates Ethereum. You need access to the EVM to build Ethereum solutions and Ethereum request-for-comment (ERC20) tokens.
Users pay a gas fee or transaction fee to use EVM. Chiliz claims it can charge a low transaction fee of 20₵.
They claim the Chiliz blockchain offers a high transactions-per-second (TPS) volume. TPS is the number of transactions a blockchain can process in a second. The higher the TPS, the more customers a blockchain can serve.
Chiliz Testnet and Mainnet
Chiliz Phase 1, or Anaheim, contained a faucet for CHZ, a blockexplorer, NFT smart contracts, a Fan token Smart Contract, community developer access, and a fan taken faucet. Chiliz Phase 2 or Jalapeno contained a decentralized exchange and a Survey Smart Contract.
Phase 3 of Chiliz or Serrano contains a CHZ Cross-Bridge chain to connect Chiliz to other blockchains. Chiliz Phase 4, or Cayenne, contains documentation for building a local node and a GitHub repo release.
The future Phase 5 of Chiliz or Pequin will offer CHZ staking, delegators governance, and voting. Phase 6 or Malagueta will support NFT campaigns and final audits. Phase 1-5 are the Testnet.
Chiliz’s Phase 7 and 8 will comprise the mainnet. Phase 7 is the launch or Halaberno scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2022. Phase 8 could contain new features that they have not announced.
What Value could Chiliz obtain?
Chiliz (CHZ) operates in a growing business. Statista estimates the worldwide sports industry was worth $501.43 billion in 2022. Statista projects the global sports industry’s revenues to grow to $707.84 billion in 2026.
Similarly, Research and Markets projects that the Global Sports Market could grow to $599.9 billion by 2025 and $826 billion by 2030. Importantly, Chiliz is targeting the fastest growing of the sports industry, spectator sports. Research and Markets estimates spectator sports revenue will grow by 11.1% between 2020 and 2025.
Additionally, Statista estimates the global sports apparel market was worth $190.98 billion in 2022. Statista projects the global sports apparel market will grow to $204.08 billion in 2023, $218.07 billion in 2024, $233.02 billion in 2025, and $248.99 billion in 2026.
Thus, Chiliz is targeting a fast-growing business that generates enormous amounts of cash. Anybody who has bought tickets to a big-time sporting event in the US lately knows what people will spend on sport. Chiliz could cash in on the high price of sports.
What Value does Chiliz have?
Mr. Market has a strong interest in Chiliz (CHZ). Notably, Chiliz was CoinMarketCap’s ninth-most trending cryptocurrency on 1 November 2022.
CoinMarketCap ranked Chiliz as the 38th largest cryptocurrency on 3 November 2022. CoinMarketCap gave Chiliz a 23.88₵ Coin Price, a $1.434 billion Market Capitalization, a $2.121 billion Fully Diluted Market Cap, and a $531.790 million 24-Hour Market Volume on 3 November 2022. Chiliz had a $531.789 million Centralized Exchange Volume on 3 November 2022. They base those numbers on a Circulating Supply of 6.01 billion CHZ and a Total Supply of 8.889 billion CHZ on 1 November 2022.
In contrast, Chiliz (CHZ) was CoinGecko’s 44th ranked cryptocurrency on 3 November 2022. CoinGecko gave Chiliz a 23.91₵ Coin Price, a $1.278 billion Market Cap, a 24-Hour Trading Volume of $541.241 million, and a Fully Diluted Valuation of $2.125 billion on 3 November 2022. They base those numbers on a 5.344 billion CHZ Circulating Supply and an 8.889 billion CHZ Total Supply.
I consider Chiliz an interesting blockchain business plan. However, I recommend speculators avoid CHZ until Chiliz adds some major English-speaking sports franchises, besides the Boston Celtics, to its platform. I cannot see how Chiliz can make money without the NFL, the NBA, and the Premier League.