Bringing Professional Cycling to Web3 with Road Code

Welcome to gossip about gossip. Powered by Hedera Hashgraph. And each episode will cut through the hype of blockchain promises and explore real world examples of organizations creating the next generation of decentralized applications, which will bring trust back to the internet for us all. Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest episode of gossip about gossip, the podcast where we talk about real world applications of distributed ledger technology. My name is Zenobia gods Chuck and I'm the SVP of communications here at World's labs, helping to grow the Hedera ecosystem. Today, I am delighted to be joined by Philipp mustard, who is the CMO at Road code, a new application that has gone live on the Hedera network in partnership with a number of organizations. Philip, welcome. Thank you so much, zenobia, for having me. Yes, absolutely. So, you know, I think I know there was an announcement in December, but tell us a little bit, what is road code? Sure I think road cut, firstly, we're targeting the Pro cycling vertical and it's very important probably just to highlight initially, this is a major partnership between valon and at the mobile foundation. Starting with Phil on Avalon is owned actually by the top teams, the Pro pro cycling teams in the cycling worlds. And it consists of teams like Ineos and team jumbo and, you know, a number of the other previous winners of these world circuits. So we are basically launching a platform or the platform itself is going to be a place, a single place for all rider content where people can stream and consume content through various different formats and and means predominantly. It's going to be an OT platform or over the top content platform with a fantasy league component to it. And obviously there's a very strong Web3 element to road code. Of course, you know, blockchain. And we're three elements where we're going to have digital collectibles and we're going to have trading, you know, digital trading options and also in-game assets, which is going to be very key to the fantasy league that will be launched. But yeah, it's going to be a very exciting space. And also what's innovative on road code is that we're developing a very unique new ranking system for cycling. And what makes this difference is that, you know, historically ranking systems have always been about the teams that are winning the races, and that's traditionally how things are aggregated or tracked. What this ranking system is going to do is going to be tracking the individual riders. And what that means is that you can actually set up your own fantasy league teams and you can beat your own manager on the platform, but you can use real time data to set up and manage your teams. And that's obviously going to have a very fun implication to the fantasy league that's going to be deployed and the game mechanics that's going to be deployed. Very exciting. And you mentioned balon. So I think those who are in the cycling world probably know who they are. But for those of us who are not. Can you share a little bit more about who is balon? Yeah, well, Belen, I mean, so for this project, they are basically owned by the top 12 or so cycling teams around the world in this project that we've got launched with red card. We've got the top 10 cycling teams there. The full list of these teams are going to be obviously is available on the platform itself. But like I said, we've got, you know, top teams like kickstart and and Ineos and jumbo Prisma teams. And these are like the best of the best within the cycling fraternity. And like you said, that anyone that is in or, you know, cycling enthusiast will be, you know, well-known with their own. It is a household synonymous label and brand. Yeah and then tell us a little bit about road code. You know, you you guys, who is building it with some of your background? Where where did you all come from? Yeah yeah, it's a wonderful mix of different eclectic skills, I suppose. But, you know, at the core, I think that you one just needs to highlight what the core partnership really sets with well on itself and with the ball foundation. And you guys will know very, very well who the foundation is. And then, you know, obviously we've decided to build the tech stack on Hedera on the Hedera network, which is obviously also very important to this. But the teams behind the projects, you know, where like immortal sets is a venture studio based out of Denmark, Copenhagen. It's, it's basically like a, you know, a creative hub or a tech, you know, new business builder and, you know, immortals working across a number of different, very exciting projects with rocard being one of the bigger projects that has recently been launched. And then we've got one of the Web3 developer partners, which is reality plus gaming, and they've done some exciting projects in the past with, you know, IP rights with BBC and, you know, that type of onslaughts of, of international broadcast rights. Yeah and it does seem like virtual gaming or some of these fantasy teams are becoming very popular. Why did you all decide to launch road code? What about this sport? Said, hey, gosh, we really need something better here. Yeah, I think, you know, that's the best question, I think, really, because what problem are we trying to solve here? Right and right now, the cycling fraternity is largely quite fragmented, you know, and also because of the way that the obviously the broadcast rights are managed and all the different teams splits and the management teams and the riders. So right now, if you following cycling, you have to go to different sources to basically get, you know, get into the know and you have to follow and subscribe to a number of different forums. What road code does is aggregate this all into a single platform. So just going back to sort of, you know, the tagline, it's one place for the race and that is going to be very key to this. And it's really about the content that we're going to be developing. And the content is going to have some really fun angles to it. You know, we're going to be developing documentaries. We're going to have podcasts. We're going to have direct to, you know, rider options where people can actually interact with their favorite sports stars and then obviously vice versa, we're going to have an option. And that's what Web3 is about, right? It's the direct to fan model where we have, you know, forums where fans can truly engage with their favorite writers. They can get inside of views, they can get training tips and advice from their best writers, and they can really get closer and more personal with the writers, which is going to be very important to us. But moreover, on the other side, right, we're going through a very interesting time with social media and social media. And I'm not going to mention some of the, you know, the behemoths in the room. I think it's been quite topical for the last couple of weeks or months. But social media is facing a significant crisis in its aging, you know, in its maturity cycles. So what that means is now what we're going to be launching is a platform that is going to be decentralized. It's going to provide riders and fans a direct to each other or direct to fan model, which means that they're not going to rely on these large intermediaries anymore. And another very important component, the Web3 component that is going to be, you know, enhanced on this platform, is that all the fans themselves or community members, they're going to own their own data and they're going to have ownership of whatever that ecosystem looks like, which is very, very important moving forward. So we're not going to be reliant on intermediaries. You know, we're not going to be worried about a big tech solution, basically deleting accounts because we might not be complying to policy policies or something like that. So we don't have to worry about. We're going to be taking that power back. You know, and I know it sounds like a little bit of an idealism and cliche, but really what we are going to be doing is we're going to be decentralizing that authority and we're going to be providing a very equal level playing field for everyone who wants to participate and share in this. And I mean, yes, road code is going to strongly appeal to a cycling enthusiast or a cycling viewer or sports fanatic, but it's also going to have a much broader appeal. You know, it's going to have something that like that's anyone within Web3 or gaming or, you know, collectibles will be able to participate. We're also looking very strongly at the user journey and onboarding and making sure that we're not using very alienating terms or jargon that is probably going to be, you know, not understood by the average person. So it is important that we appeal to a very broad market. We're not using, you know, tech specific jargon. We are normalizing the onboarding process. And this also leads me to the point of where and how this platform is basically going to be run through the user account. The user account is basically you're just going to set up a profile or you might have already set up a profile. Now within that profile, basically that's going to become your vault, which means that on your profile you can only be social with other profile holders, but you can also store and hold all of your digital collectibles or your in-game assets and even have options, obviously for the buy and sell components with a marketplace that might be launched in the near future. And then obviously going back to hedera, because if there is such an important part of this ecosystem, you know, eightball is going to be the primary form of transactional utility value on the platform. So this is really where someone's going to be able to keep and store all of their own, you know, personal, you know, memorabilia and track records and all that sort of thing that comes from building your own persona within this beautiful ecosystem that's been developed. So I do want to drill in a little bit more to each of those parts of the platform. But you made a good point about social media, right? It can be very unidirectional and it can feel like brands are just talking at you rather than actually engaging with you. So how do you build that, that closer connection between the writer or the team and the fan? Yeah and setting up, you know, direct dialogue, setting up direct forums, I think is going to be important, but it's also not coming across as a promotion from a promotional angle. I think this is where brands get it kind of wrong, where there's an agenda behind it. You know, you're pushing an agenda, you're pushing some sort of adoption or sales agenda behind it. And what we're trying to do, and I go back to my points on leveling the playing field, is that everyone is going to be a co-owner of this, you know, this ecosystem. So writers have an incentive. Users have an incentive to build and to basically create this, you know, this symbiotic relationship in what is going to be road cut in the near future. There's going to be voting options also for community members. You know, if you are, you know, an avid follower and you want to actually be involved in the decision making, the strategy of what that looks like, it's all about participation and ownership, which goes back to the point it's not going to be a broadcast or one directional, you know, means of communication. I think that's what originally social media was all supposed to be about, right? It it was supposed to be this. OK, now we're going to build this like, you know, two way dialogue that is going to sit between the brand and the communities. But then communities realize that, hold on now, this is a great forum to complain or to do all these things. And it lost its and lost its original sort of ethos of what we were trying to build in web two, which is a community where people kind of now is the technology is ready for this more equal environment where you've both got a vested interest in to whatever is going to be built. Right so you're not going to be sitting there with an agenda that skews one or the other because that doesn't meet the symbiotic nature of what is being eventually deployed, you know, within the ecosystem. So that, too. But also they're not going to be. Yes, to a degree. There will be a central management team that's going to be, you know, handling all the cues and A's and making sure that they stability and everything else. But really, what social media should have done was let go of the conversation. Let the conversation take an organic flow in whatever direction that takes. Right so, yes, we are the original impetus providers, right? So we've set the platform in the direction and we've given it so, so called, we've given the keys over to individuals. And I mean like keys in crypto sense. Yes and also keys as in writing the course, since we're writing the corrections. Right but it's really about handing over that responsibility at some point in the future where now it's going to be owned by the teens themselves. Right they've got that they've got one they've got that broadcast option to, you know, obviously publicize and tell the world what they're up to. And they don't have to worry about new Twitter policies or any, you know, social media policies that might be suddenly implemented, which means that their accounts are in jeopardy. They have ownership of that platform. Then the user themselves they can get involved in. Yes if they don't like something, there has to be a certain amount of vetting and all that. But at the end of the day, we do believe that communities will look after itself. Sometimes brands and and, you know, agencies or agents in the middle just need to step out of that process and let it figure itself out. And I think that's where web, the new web, is kind of heading in, you know, in terms of what it might look like, you know, post, post Web3 or post Web5 or whatever you want to call it in the future. Yeah OK, so walk me through. I'm a user. I, you know, I signed up for the platform. I start to engage. What kinds of things can I do or collect or display today? And then what do you think I'll be able to do down the road? Yeah, it's great. So I think what is really going to be important to us is going to be the component, the video, the video content that is going to be produced. So it sort of means over the counter. So like or over the top. Right over the top means basically it's film production or TV production that can be streamed across multiple devices. You might be familiar with smart TVs where, you know, you go to a smart TV and there's an icon on your home screen and you can click on this, you know, this icon be at Netflix. Netflix is an example of that. We're going to have a road code, you know, smart TV or connected TV option. And we are in discussions, exciting discussions with certain TV providers, and I can't give too much information about that. But say you buy this TV, there's going to be an icon. And if you're a sports enthusiast or cycling enthusiast, you have direct access to all this content that's going to be deployed and that's going to be one of the first that's going to be developed on road code. And within that, there's a number of different channels and different content verticals, but one is going to be a behind the scenes, which is going to be important, you know, components of what's happening really behind the scenes and what are the training regimens look like, you know, what are the teams themselves up to? What are there any tips that people can comply to? That is going to be biometric data that's going to be included in this. So you can actually compare your own biometric or training results to professional sports. Athlete is going to be great. I want to do that. Yes, I'm not I'd like look at me. I'm not like the phone guy, but. Yes, absolutely. So we've done extensive market research and we know that, you know, people have these in-home devices where they're tracking, you know, virtual reality is going to be a component where they can actually cycle within that race. So I think we go back to we bringing the person sitting at home that is the expert that the aspiring cyclist closer to the race. So giving them an option eventually in the near future to actually participate in virtual means to be part of that race, which I think is going to be incredibly exciting. Right and there's also going to be some, you know, obviously e-commerce options there where immediately with the digital collectables, you're going to have access to content because it's going to be a gated community. What I mean by that is if you are a token holder, this, you know, an NFT holder that automatically gives you granted access to this content that will be deployed. So this is not about setting up an account and, you know, doing additional steps in that it's automatically going to recognize that in your vault or your user profile, which is going to be very nice and streamlined. So people are going to go, OK, great, I've immediately got access to that. Now it's going to be also important to highlight that this will be a subscription model for most people coming after the fact. So this is a long term project that is going to go for years and years, but there is going to be a subscription fee applied to it. Now with year 2023, which obviously is the first year it's going to be offered, most of the content is going to be free. So if you are a holder, you're going to be able to access most of the content and the equivalent will be probably 99 or 100 or something around that. And in terms of what that subscription fee might look like, but if you subscribe to road code now, you get free access for the year, whatever is going to be developed on that platform. And I go back to the types of content, which is really exciting. We going to be doing really cool podcast scenarios. We've got expert panels we're going to have behind the scenes. We can have training advice related to the ranking system, which is going to be a lot of fun, right? A new ranking system where people can see individual biometrics, which is going to be very interesting because it's real time. So imagine watching esports now. I'm not saying that we're going to encourage betting, but that happens in sport, right? Imagine being able to access all this biometric data and knowing then how that might influence an outcome. Right so that's going to be a very interesting one to watch. You know, let's see how that pans out. But then the fantasy league itself, right, that is going to be a very important part, which is connected to the biometric data and the real time ranking system, which is going to be a fun game components. So for the first year you're going to have a lot of fun content which will probably be streamed in multiple different languages. So this is not going to be English only. We're looking at you know, we're looking at latam, you know, you know, Portuguese and Spanish and very big populations, which I think is very popular. We're looking at Italian, we're looking at Spanish, we're looking at French, we're looking at Belgium, you know, and and there's going to be many different languages that are going to rolled out. So this isn't going to be an English only platform, which is also important because of the nuance, right? So we think also Web3 is not about one size fits all. It will become these next examples where the multiple languages are going to be available and you can form your own. Communities and subjects and all that stuff, which is going to be fun, you know, in terms of how you identify with the platform because at the end of the day, it's not about us telling that community what they should be identifying with. It's for them to identify themselves and to find those niches and, you know, integrate, integrate themselves. So that's what it's going to look like for 2023. Thereafter, whatever happens off, that is going to be know, that's going to be an interesting one. But we do have one, right? Yeah, it is. I don't want to like I mean, I've seen some interviews where it's like, oh, you know, we just we don't have a game. We've got a very good game plan. But it's so ambitious sometimes that we kind of think the thing going, you know, how are we going to do this? And my old saying is, how do you eat an elephant? And that's one spin at a time. Maybe not the best. But it is it's grandiose. And I mean, you know, we're also talking about documentaries that can be streamed with, you know, broadcast partners. I might have mentioned that name early on, but they are those type of options where, you know, it's really going to be an exciting platform that if you love the sport and if you're not, you know, maybe if you don't, you're only starting to explore cycling. It's going to be that very easy access point for you to get your head around. Things not only participate in, you know, the content and improve your own cycling results or data sets, but also participate in owning something that's going to be very exciting. And then also the gaming component is going to be cool. But then e-commerce. So say you are improving your results and you know, there's this horrible term, I don't know if you agree with me, but this is horrible term called phygital. Right? and and that's like the combination of physical. I know the face was a cringe, cringe worthy face, but there's this physical item and there's the digital item rights. And these are both going to be important parts to it. So we believe that whatever we developing in terms of the in-game assets or the digital collectibles, that could be a real item, you know, accessible through that. So say you bought this digital copy of it and it is tradable on this, you know, this game mechanic and you wanted the physical item to be delivered to your doorstep. That could be an option for that. So, you know, cycling apparel is huge and gears and bike accessories is also going to be part of the platform. But it has to be seamless. It's not going to be like something where people go, you know, I want the digital option or I want the physical option. It's going to be something that is seamless, that it's like basically I think an NFT, one of the strongest components of anonymity could be or a C function. So I bought the physical item. The NFT is immediately associated to that item and then I have that option to trade or you know, you know, exchange on the platform itself. Right and so, Philip, you you mentioned you're working with the Bar Foundation. You know, the solution obviously is built on top of the Hedera network. Why did you choose hedera? And can you share a little bit more about the platform components that you're using? Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, we did extensive market research and one of the biggest challenges or requirements for cycling is a very carbon friendly environment that we have with their eat this. Right, exactly right. So and there's been previously, you know, previous examples of NFT or Web3 projects in cycling that has failed because they did not address this or they didn't take that seriously. So first and foremost, we needed to find a network partner that had the best, you know, carbon neutral approach. And had the most efficient sort of, you know, scalability around that. So after extensive research, of course, Hedera was an outright, you know, winner in terms of all of that. So that is an important part, which we will be addressing. Hedera was obviously a no brainer when it came to the consensus mechanism. It's scalability. It's even, you know, compliance or compatibility, which means that when we are looking about cross-chain or multiple or interoperable options, that's going to be key down the road at some point because again, what are your definition of the metaverse could be a different definition, but it should be this whole interoperable environment. We can't crowbar paths or user journeys down a certain part because we believe it's right. It has to be this mix match. Hedera is, you know, one of the easiest options for us to do because it's scalable, it's incredibly efficient, and it's also very cost effective. We didn't want to go with a solution that obviously had, you know, high gas fees or high network fees or something like that. Because, one, we're talking to an audience that they don't even know what a gas fee is right. Anymore well, you have to do this. And then, by the way, there's a secondary or a third component to cost implications. We're going to lose all of our audience. So we had to choose a network that was the most cost efficient also. And I mean, if you do your due diligence here, there is like way out in the front. And also if you look at the conglomerate that is behind all that, the group of conglomerates that are behind it, there are you know, you've got the likes of of, you know, Google. And those type of blue chips. It is an incredibly strong, you know, professional ecosystem. So Hedera for us was an absolute. Logical choice and we are excited about working with the hydra teams and whatever this might look like in the future. Fantastic well, Phillip, Thank you for joining us today. You know, this is such an exciting project both for, I would say, hardcore cycling enthusiasts as well as those who are just looking to get into the sport and learn more about it, potentially can virtually compete and challenge themselves and explore. So we hope you will keep us posted on your progress and we look forward to hearing more. Yeah Thank you so much for having me on. And it's been fun. Yeah and it's going to be an extremely exciting to 20, 23 and beyond. And yeah, I'm excited about working with you guys and, you know, let's, let's go, as they say in Web3. That's right. Thank you, Phillip. Take care. Just by the.