LipChain: A decentralised social media network for surfers
Surfing is growing in popularity as an international sport. This growth is accompanied by the emergence of an ever larger and more robust community and an industry that supports it, providing access to locations, merchandise and sponsorships. But their development is far from finished, and there are problems that get in the way of surfing becoming “the next football”. Chief among them are the barriers facing someone who wants to become a professional surfer. Under current conditions, the required funding and training can be very difficult to come by, requiring a lot of time, effort and luck.
LipChain offers a new model for the development of surfing, tying business and community interests together with the help of a social media platform powered by blockchain technology that would enable its users to gain sponsors and exposure. At the same time, it also proposes to provide more direct and tangible assistance to beginner surfers by establishing a chain of eco-resorts with inland wave pools that could be used for training.
What could LipChain do for surfers?
LipChain will provide a decentralised social media network that would allow users to share, discuss and rate surfing-related content, such as videos and photos, as well as organise and carry out contests with rewards. Smart contracts will allow various interested businesses to act as sponsors for content providers (that is, surfers and their video producers), offering money in exchange for advertising their products or services in videos. Users will be able to decide whether to accept such offers and whether to make their content public, and also set their own prices within ranges permitted by their five star rating, which will depend on the views their videos get. While the payments will be done in the platform's LIPS tokens, their amount will be tied to their current Euro price (so a beginner could expect to get 10 Euros' worth of LIPS a month, while a five star user could get up to 2800). A separate token reward will go to the moderators who will approve videos and confirm payment invoices. The platform will also allocate tokens to users to reward the most popular content, out of a five year token reserve.
The tokens allocated by a sponsor for an advertising campaign will be divided as follows: 40% will go to either the surfer or the producer, 20% will be given to the producer or the surfer, 10% will go towards developing and supporting the platform and 30% will go to a decentralised development fund managed by the community. Among other things, community voting will be used to decide where to open new Lipwave surfing resorts. Those resorts, the first of which will be set up in Ericeira, Portugal, will include inland wave pools as well as all the necessary comforts, and could be used for training all year long. Sponsored content makers will also receive free hours at resorts.
LipChain will launch a multicurrency wallet with advanced security features, including biometric authentication methods such as face and voice recognition. This wallet will be attached to a proprietary feeless cryptocurrency exchange. The platform will allow the purchase of surfing merchandise, like the ecofriendly surfboards that LipChain plans to develop with its partners, or services such as more Lipwave hours, at a discount if LIPS are used. Using LIPS for transactions on the blockchain will come at no fees, though there will be small fees for using other cryptocurrencies instead. The blockchain will also be used for transparent community management and contest voting.
A comprehensive platform for surfers and sponsors
LipChain stands to benefit from a tightly designed ecosystem. Surfing is heavily dependent on weather, and inland wave pools are a potential solution to many of the problem this creates for would-be professional athletes. Meanwhile, the social network will help them attract both fans and funding and encourage their continued growth as sportsmen. Businesses interested in surfing, whether they are part of the tourist industry or the sports goods industry, should gain access to a large target audience and a mechanism through which they could reach them. Since the tokens they earn will be tradeable and will also have many uses on the platform, content providers will have every reason to cooperate.
The company is based in Portugal, where surfing has seen a particular growth in popularity. It should be well-positioned to ride the national and global wave of enthusiasm for surfing. Additionally, its commitments to “green” activities (such as the development of the aforementioned eco-friendly surfboards and a pledge to share a part of the revenues with charities aimed at keeping the seas and beaches clean) should help it gain more support from the environmentally-minded – which surfers tend to be. The LipChain project has already received the support of some parts of the surfing community, such as the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World.
ICO details
Lift surfing up to a new level
As international surfing continues to grow in popularity and scope, it will need a sufficiently dynamic infrastructure to support it. LipChain proposes to provide a large part of that infrastructure, both online and offline. While some parts of its exact proposal could be clearer, the core idea behind it is sound and likely to be attractive.
Like with practically all cryptocurrency projects, its success depends in large part on its ecosystem, because in a decentralised network, it is the participants who define its true value. That includes not only the surfers themselves, but also their potential sponsors and the company's partners. But if its initial offer is enough to gain their backing, then the rising tide of surfing should lift LipChain's platform and resort chain up as well.
Links:
Website: https://www.lipchain.io/
WhitePaper: https://www.lipchain.io/assets/pdf/white_paper.pdf
Telegram: https://t.me/LipChain
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LipChain-1754237891332927/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lipchain
Medium: https://medium.com/lipchain
ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4507111.msg40579212
Author: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=980049
Disclaimer
This review by Bonanza Kreep is all opinion and analysis, not investment advice.