2021 the year of adoption? With Ubisoft, Binance, Sorare and Socios – Cryptocurrencies


We all wonder if 2021 will be as important a year as 2020 for blockchain adoption and if it will be the year of NFTs. During its Webimarathon to obtain a blockchain certificate, Binance decided to invite Brian O’Hagan from Sorare, Alexandre Dreyfus CEO of Socios and Nicolas Pouard from Ubisoft to give us some answers.
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Hello everyone, Brian can you quickly introduce Sorare to us?
Brian O’Hagan: With pleasure, but first I just want to give you a number that I think is important. The collectibles market which includes but is not limited to sports cards, represents almost 370 billion dollars per year. When people are passionate about something and can afford it, sometimes they are willing to put in a very large amount of money for certain items. Thus, we have recently seen cards be sold for values in the millions !
About us, Sorare is a fantasy football game, which uses NFT to represent different football players in the form of cards. Thanks to the properties of NFTs, they are therefore transferable, salable and usable for gaming. The value of cards is determined by various parameters such as their rarity. In our game, you play as a virtual coach with a budget to build a team. This consists of players from different leagues so that you can fully use your imagination.
The teams formed by the players compete against each other every week and depending on their ranking, their holder gains Ether or new cards.
In view of your rapid growth, can you give us some important figures on Sorare?
Brian O’Hagan: To date we have nearly 60,000 players, which represents almost 1.2 million euros traded each month. We have already signed with 105 Football clubs from different countries and leagues (Juventus, PSG, OM, etc.) and others are in negotiation.
Thanks for these informations ! Alexandre, will I let you introduce Socios to us?
Alexandre Dreyfus: Socios is a company which takes place on the open sea fan market engagement. With the majority of fans on a team not being in the city of the team they support, we wondered how to ensure that all fans’ views were taken into account. So we launched Socios, a free downloadable application where you can buy fan tokens for Chiliz (CHZ), our native token. These fan tokens are specific to each team with which we have a partnership (PSG, Juventus and many others) and allow you to participate in the life of your club. Depending on the team, you can influence the choice of music in the stadium during a football match or the color of the team’s jersey.
Of course, we don’t only have FootBall clubs in our partners. Whether you are a fan of cricket, combat sports or esports, you will find your account here. We are also very close to our partners, because each club with which we have signed and a validator of our blockchain. By using the blockchain to vote on these decisions, we can easily show that the outcome was not rigged.
Do you think NFTs will help with adoption?
Brian O’Hagan : I am convinced that the adoption of blockchain will come through the video game market. Why ? Simply because people will use technology without even knowing that it is present, which is the eternal history of technology adoption.
The video game market being that of cinema added to that of music, it is a huge gateway.
Nicolas Pouard : We share the same vision at Ubisoft and for the record we are working with Sorare as part of the Entrepreneur Lab.
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Where is the integration of NFTs at Ubisoft?
Nicolas Pouard : We are actively looking for the best way to integrate these into our AAA games, (the equivalent of blockbusters for video games). Beyond the unique aspect of these for the items of our games, we believe that NFTs have a role to play in building a better community. If players have a wallet, it will be easier to identify them to penalize them for toxic behavior. It is really this theme that interests us because making rare items and an interesting concept, but in view of our millions of players, it should be handled with care so as not to frustrate anyone.
What is Sorare’s vision?
Brian O’Hagan: Currently we are only focusing on Football with one goal in mind: onboarding the world’s top 20 clubs, to offer new players to our users. Once achieved, we will start implementing new games and diversifying our offer with other sports.
Binance currently offers several Launchpools related to fan tokens, can you tell us more?
Alexandre Dreyfus: Indeed, we are fortunate to have a special relationship with Binance. We share offices in Malta, you have also invested in our project and today you are offering several of our fan tokens.
For simplicity, for a limited period, if you own CHZ, BNB or BUSD on Binance, you can stake them in pools to get token fans from PSG, Juventus, Atlético de Madrid, As Roma and the organization for free OG esports.
Regarding Bitcoin and the sector, how do you see 2021?
Brian O’Hagan: For Bitcoin I am extremely bullish! For me, this is digital gold and I think institutions are really understanding it. I am also very confident in Ethereum, especially for its use in the gaming sector and obviously DeFi. While DeFi has undoubtedly been the trend of 2020, I think its development will accelerate in 2021.
Regarding blockchain, we are going to witness a revolution that begins with the promotion of sport, which will continue with the arrival of more and more influencers who will make it mainstream.
Alex Dreyfus: Personally, I’m not a big fan of DeFi, because of that “we’re gonna make more money with money” side. It reminds me too much of the 2008 subprimes with this desire to build increasingly complex products to generate money.
The blockchain will definitely be democratized in 2021, but I would like to see the implementation of blockchains with concrete products. So I am in favor of a purge of the industry to shut down today’s unnecessary and unused blockchains so that we can build a stronger market.
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Nicolas Pouard: I, too, am convinced that the acceleration will pick up this year, because although we do not see it directly, blockchain is now starting to be used in industries such as aerospace and automotive. The technology is maturing and adapting to new use cases and there is no doubt that gaming and NFT projects such as Ultra and Flow will allow as many people as possible to know the sector.
So what do you think, 2021 will be the year of NFT, DeFi and blockchain? Or maybe the year of regulation? And by the way, will it be regulation that encourages or stifles innovation? You still have a few hours to take the bets before we begin the great journey of 2021 together.

Engineering student in IOT, Translator, Community and Bounty Manager, I have been sailing the turbulent oceans of Blockchain since 2017.
Aware that the Blockchain will change our future, I too am participating in the revolution. Find me on Bitcointalk, LinkedIn and Twitter to discuss or suggest articles.