Bitcoin Luges Its Way Into Winter Olympics | News

The 2018 Winter Olympic Games will likely be an enormous speaking level for the following two weeks and there’s a staff that the broader cryptocurrency group can get behind in South Korea.

Just like Cool Runnings made Jamaica’s first ever bobsled staff well-known, the latest edition of the Winter Olympics will see the USA luge staff grow to be a champion for Bitcoin in what could possibly be a primary for cryptocurrency within the sport.

The USA Luge Foundation has been campaigning for donations in Bitcoin on Medium since December 2017. While they will’t put on any sponsor logos on the Olympics, the staff has promised to advertise the preeminent cryptocurrency in upcoming competitions, relying on how a lot Bitcoin they increase.

The staff claims to be the primary US Olympic group to arrange its personal Bitcoin pockets to just accept donations. It’s a transfer that's synonymous with the spirit of luge, excessive velocity and fraught with hazard.

US luge doubles silver medallist and present USA Luge advertising and marketing director Gordy Sheer said the endowment fund is a pure match.

“You know, we hear a lot of jokes about lugers being crazy, and people don’t know why we do it. But luge is something that gets into your blood and transforms your life and the Bitcoiners we’ve met know exactly what it’s like to be all in on something that the world doesn’t appreciate yet. We’ve looked at Bitcoin hard, and it is definitely a risk-reward we understand and are eager to take.”

One of the primary donors to the USA Luge fund was former luge Olympian and Wall Street investor Ty Danco - who sees the fund as the proper funding eyeing the following two Winter Olympic meets over the following eight years.

“It’s such a natural and good fit for the team. The luge team is not thinking short term, but long. By hodling Bitcoin with the express goal of holding on through the 2022 and 2026 Olympic Games, the sport hopes to change from being underfunded to being able to support full teams on the World Cup level at the same time as developing grassroots youth programs to develop athletes. Bitcoin is still in its early days, and hats off to USA Luge for being both brave and prescient to ride this wave.”

Champions of Bitcoin

The staff has additionally promised to incorporate Bitcoin logos and decals on its package and tools sooner or later - depending on how a lot Bitcoin they obtain of their fundraising initiative.

• 5 BTC - Bitcoin’s brand will seem on staff hats and memorabilia hats
• 10 BTC - Above, together with Bitcoin brand sewn onto all luge staff outerwear for the 2018 season (excluding the Winter Olympics)
• 25 BTC - All of the above, together with Bitcoin brand of sleds for the following two seasons.
• 50 BTC - All of the above, with Bitcoin brand on sleds for subsequent 4 seasons.
• 100 BTC - All the above together with Bitcoin brand on staff pores and skin fits for 4 years (excluding Olympics).

Tongue in cheek, the staff promised to “Find Satoshi, and get him on a sled” in the event that they raised 21 mln Bitcoin, which in fact is the max quantity of Bitcoin that may be mined.

Advertising in sport

While the USA Luge staff isn’t precisely essentially the most well-known staff competing within the greatest sport, the probabilities of its Bitcoin fundraising/promoting endeavor may nicely begin a development for the cryptocurrency group.

The house is rife for cryptocurrency promoting and its really stunning that we've not seen extra ICOs and extra established Blockchain and cryptocurrency firms sticking their manufacturers throughout sport groups.

There are already plenty of cryptocurrency betting platforms geared toward sport punters, permitting individuals to gamble on-line with cryptocurrency. Coupled with sturdy promoting of varied digital currencies, it wouldn’t be stunning to see extra of those cryptocurrencies cropping up on staff jerseys, motor autos and way more.

Vendor accepting Ethereum in Pyeongchang

Given that South Korea has been a booming hub for cryptocurrency commerce over the previous 12 months, you’d have anticipated extra distributors accepting digital forex for his or her wares on the ongoing Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang province.

However, according to Forbes, there's a ski-rental store close to the Olympics village that's accepting Ethereum as a cost technique. Given low cost transaction charges, and the ‘universal’ nature of Ethereum, it’s stunning that extra distributors aren’t doing the identical.

As reported by Forbes, extra distributors have been anticipated to take up the cost platform Coinduck, which accepts Ethereum funds and pays the distributors Korean gained in flip.

Don’t count on to listen to or see any point out of this in the course of the Olympics, however the truth that individuals are actively utilizing cryptocurrency throughout large international occasions just like the Olympics exhibits the facility of the expertise.

Those which have taken to cryptocurrency can skip the effort of paying a go to to a Bureau de Change. Transacting with digital currencies whereas touring may nicely grow to be a large use-case sooner or later.