DeRace to the Top: NFT horse racing at full gallop!
If gambling on horse races, breeding Thoroughbreds, building hippodromes and participating in races sounds like fun, then DeRace may be your cuppa tea.
I am not much into horse racing but on the first Tuesday in November of every year, at around 5 p.m., New Zealand and Australia come to a standstill for about 3 minutes and 20 seconds for the call of the mighty Melbourne Cup.
The Melbourne Cup is New Zealand’s single biggest betting event. For many Kiwis like myself it is a once-a-year trip to the TAB — NZ’s official bookmaker (bookie). Unfortunately, I have never managed to pick the right horse and last year was no different. My pick Johnny Get Angry (NZ) came in at #22.
With that in mind, I think that cryptominded Kiwis and Aussies alike might be very intrigued by DeRace, which is, in short, a decentralized blockchain-based NFT horse racing ecosystem that allows users to participate in horse races, buy, breed, and trade NFT horses, and host events in their own hippodromes.
DeRace is a combination of 2 significantly growing multi-billion-dollar markets: video gaming, and horse racing, all merged by blockchain and NFT technologies. Each of these trends has significant tailwinds, so combining them all creates something special.
Opportunities abound — case in point, the horse and sports betting market is poised to grow by $139.52 billion during 2020–2024 progressing at a compound annual growth rate of 9% during the forecast period.
The numbers for the video gaming market are equally impressive. A new forecast by Fact.MR estimates that video games revenues will more than triple between 2021 and 2031, reaching $510 billion with a staggering compound annual growth rate of almost 13%.
Now add the integration of blockchain technology with a dash of Play To Earn, Metaverse, and NFTs and Bob’s your uncle!
I am particularly intrigued by DeRace’s nifty use of NFT technology— One-of-a-kind NFT horses that you can purchase, create (breed) and use in a race in order to make a profit. The NFTs guarantee the authenticity of each horse and enable a possibility to breed new authentic horses.
An NFT horse “races, it has genes it passes on, and it lives on an algorithm so no two horses are the same.” Roman Tirone
Nifty indeed — reminds me of a pod by Ellio Trades Crypto which relates to the evolution of NFTs (tune in at the 3:00 minute mark).
To sum up, Ellio is extremely bullish on GameFi and NFTs in particular! The fact that OpenSea just smashed the monthly record in January with $3.5 billion in NFT transactions pretty much confirms Ellio’s NFT narrative — so much for the crypto bear market.
Ellio’s take in regards to the evolution of NFTs is also very insightful:
Most of the time we saw stoners draw cartoons and make millions of dollars…These flex items are cool but that is just a small part of this industry. NFTs in 2022 are going to start being so much more than just zoo animals… 2022 will be the evolution of NFTs. Ellio Trades Crypto
I can definitely see how DeRace is at the forefront of the ‘shape-shifting evolution of NFTs’ — some might call it NFT 2.0. In particular, a DeRace NFT isn’t just a picture of a horse — its NFT horses have different traits that define their rarity, performance, cool-down time, and ultimately, value. Thus, each horse is different and has its own unique characteristics that allows you to participate in races and earn payouts.
Before I go on and on about DeRace, simply have a peek at their whitepaper and tell me what you think in the comments section. Mind you, I have to admit that my language might come off as a bit too Salesman(ish). Rest assured that I am not trying to shill this project by any means.
Full disclosure: I have NOT invested any money in it, nor have I tried to put down a cheeky bet (yet). Come to think of it the latter will probably stay reserved for my one-and-only annual Melbourne Cup punt — it’s just what Kiwis do (or maybe it’s just me).
I just happen to think that the horse racing, NFT 2.0, Play To Earn narrative has some real potential to take off in 2022. Case in point — why else are NFTs soaring while digital assets have plunged into bear territory? NFTs have definitely ‘decoupled’ so I see a real opportunity here.
Besides, at a market cap of $73,604,436 (as at 02/08/2022) together with current market conditions, I think DeRace still has significant upside. At best I am fairly certain DeRace might be able to return to ATH numbers that we have seen in November of 2021.
In addition, and most importantly (drums rolling sound) I am actually doing an Asset Profile on DeRace for the Messari Hub, which is a community-driven marketplace for crypto research. This post is just a little warm up before I begin my maiden voyage as an “independent analyst contributing to Messari Hub”. Fancy pants terminology but rest assured that it’s not. You start off with data entry from what I can gather — besides I am super confused atm so I will keep you posted.
I’d also like to point out that even though DeRace calls itself “the first decentralized blockchain-based horse racing platform”, it is important to note that they are certainly not the only one competing for a piece of the pie in the virtual horse racing market. Notably, Pegaxy and Zed Run are also competing to give DaRace a run for their money (pun intended).
Here is a nifty little summary of all three projects by the Paul Barron Network:
Please note that Zed Run’s popularity has also skyrocketed, thanks to a rabid fanbase and some major press in the New York Times. While it is still in its early stages, Zed Run is definitely an interesting investment opportunity that is available right now. The same goes for Pegaxy so #DYOR at your own convenience.
So which project is best? Who knows — the good thing about crypto is that when one project pumps then similar protocols generally follow suit #WAGMI. Personally, I prefer DeRace because I like the style and the graphics much better. Case in point, Pegaxy’s steeds have wings and sh*t — wtf is up with that? Definitely not my cuppa tea as I like my racehorses a bit more traditional i.e. realistic so DeRace it is!
In summary, horse racing is fertile ground for crypto innovation. DeRace and other horse horse racing NFT games such as Pegaxy and Zed Run are a combination of 2 significantly growing multi-billion-dollar markets: video gaming, and horse racing, all merged by blockchain and NFT technologies. Each of these trends has significant tailwinds, so combining them all creates something special. Definitely worth a closer look!
Happy horse racing ya’ll.
Bit of an unrelated topic but please do me a favour and watch this pod by The Defiant related to SCAMMING!
I hate to say it but I have been scammed myself recently on Discord! Long story short, I FOMO’ed into a zkSync token pre-sale that never existed based on a private message from Discord! I didn’t even realize it is a private msg at the time as I was new to Discord — lost 0.1 ETH! Let’s just say I paid 0.1 ETH for a valuable lesson on being a greedy dumbass — good on you scamming f*ucks! So if you are loitering on Discord beware of private messages — here is a great write up on this topic.
Morale of the story: If you are transferring ETH or BTC on Metamask to another addy to buy some tokens or receive any free NFTs or whatnot then think again! It is glaringly obvious now but once you have your FOMO glasses on it’s very difficult to think logically.
In addition, there seems to be a lot of sneaky scams related to Metamask so please don’t have all your goodies in your Metamask wallet. These guys should really get their act together and introduce two/three factor authentication but that would not be good for business, would it?
Greedy C*nts!
Last but not least, I have recently downloaded the Phantom wallet to stake my Solana — better than having them sitting idle in Binance. Sure enough I found some spam in it! If you click on it, it takes you to some website that pretty much tells you how to enable scammers to steal your shit.
How the F do you receive spam in a wallet in the first place! Never seen this on the Luna Station wallet so f*ck Phantom wallet — back to Binance for me and let’s forget about this crappy product! Disgraceful — you need a condom to interact with this wallet. I wonder how many newbies actually fell for this?
Best buy a Leger X and Bob’s your uncle. Mind you it’s over $200 bucks so not a cheapo is it?
Enough for today. Leave a comment, say hi on Twitter — at your own leisure!
Frei Bier / Twitter: @FreiBIER13
Medium: https://freibier.medium.com
DISCLAIMER: My writings are merely a reflection of my learning journey and my attempt to compartmentalize the cryptoverse. I am learning out loud so feel free to correct me or disagree with me. This is not investment advice but my hope is that you find value in some of my links and ideas.