FanWide's Bringing Tokens to Game Night [INTERVIEW]

The president and chief architect of FanWide, for one, seems to think for the "World's largest fan club network", blockchain is a no-brainer.

CryptoSlate sat down with Symon Perriman, former Microsoft veteran and serial tech entrepreneur, whose Seattle-based sports-tech company will be using crypto to give at least 100,000 sports diehards even more reasons to get together on game night.

FanWide might come off as the sports-crazed lovechild of Meetup and Groupon-directing team fanatics to their nearest venue "Game-watch party" and sweetening the deal with drink and food specials.

Where the outfit appears to have been giving a certain bang to the buck of sports stakeholders, Perriman and his team have been hungry for a more robust way to help FanWide spread its roots.

He explained that while on the hunt for a digital rewards system, FanWide was looking for a malleable technology that could accommodate local needs, as the current system-which typically involved putting free beers in hands-wouldn't fly in every jurisdiction, legally.

Such a mission may have given FanWide a leg up onto the blockchain bandwagon, but the entrepreneur explained that the technology's transparency-enabling properties could equally become the crown jewels to a company that profits off attendance figures.

Blockchain may have fit FanWide like a glove, and yet Perriman was still faced with a founder's quandary: whether to build a FanWide token from scratch, or go forth and find a sports token provider that was already out on the playing field.

Fast-forward to Q4 2018, and FanWide is to become an inaugural "Mint" of FanChain coins; an issuer of ERC-20 tokens with a novel ERC-721 twist-allowing FanWide to stamp team-specific metadata as they dish out, say, New York Yankees tokens to FanWiders for attending, engaging with sponsors, buying drinks, or referring other fans.

Ideal such a product would come to FanWide, its founder saw a symbiotic, mutually beneficial agreement between the two companies as they unite to make FanChain the "Main sports token that's going to be out there".

Or, as the FanWide head honcho put it when FanChain opens up shop halfway through 2019, FanWide will be able to finally "Reward fans for being fans".