Boxing Legend Manny Pacquiao took to the stage at a free concert Sunday in Manila, sang to the crowd, and announced he’s launching a cryptocurrency called “PAC”.
At least that’s what he said, so most of the media simply repeated it.
But like most athletes, outside of playing their sport of choice, they can be found endorsing pretty much anything willing to pay their fee.
A company based in southeast Asia called ‘GCOX Group’ joins McDonalds, Hewlett-Packard, Nike, Nestle, San Miguel beer and others in paying that fee.
CGOX Group says they plan to“Allow celebrities, at the different stages of their celebrity life cycle, to develop, monetize and revitalize their popularity through the various mediums that are housed on the ACCLAIM blockchain”.
What can you do with the coin? Buy merchandise, and there’s been some vaguely worded statements that somehow it can be used to gain additional access to Pacquiao online… which so far in the world of celebrity apps, has meant ‘see a pic they’re going to post to Instagram, a whole day early!’
Does this mean it will fail?
Probably, but there is potential for this, or something like it to be a success.
While there’s no real use-case here, there never was with trading cards either.
It’ll be a challenge to create a market where the appeal of owning a Manny Pacquiao coin is being able to say ‘I own the Manny Pacquiao coin’ – and so far the company behind it doesn’t seem to be taking this approach.
So, maybe this won’t be the one, but it wouldn’t surprise me if at some point limited edition ‘official’ tokens tied to personalities are traded no differently than trading cards once were.
Frankly, the tech is perfect for the digital equivalent. Free of counterfeits, and easier than ever to track its current value. Think Crypto Kitties, but with real life athletes.
