FunFair is an Ethereum-based platform for online casino gaming. Targeting the $47B online gambling market, FunFair isn’t actually a casino. Instead, the underlying gaming technology is licensed out to casinos and other gambling platforms. The FunFair team is attempting to solve some of the biggest problems online casinos face: slow performance, high operating costs, and lack of user trust. Through the use of blockchain technology and Fate Channels, an in-house built version of state channels, the products they license have the potential fix all of them. FUN is an ERC-20 token that you use in every part of the FunFair platform. It’s the only token accepted for in-game credits, how game creators in the marketplace are paid, what casinos must pay their licensing with and receive revenues in, and all fees on the platform must be paid in FUN. A total of 11,000,000,000 FUN tokens were created on June 22, 2017, and no more will be created. With a fixed supply, the token is deflationary and should experience sharp increases in price over time as demand for it increases. Furthermore, the FUN that’s paid as fees will be burned for the first two years which should further drive price upwards. Casinos can also stake the FUN tokens in their bankrolls to receive additional dividends. The 30+ person FunFair team is based out of London and is led by Jez San, OBE. San’s entire career has revolved around entrepreneurship and the computer gaming industry. He founded Argonaut Software as a teen and created the first chip to power 3D games like Star Fox and Harry Potter. Rounding out his resume, San also founded the 3D online poker room, PKR, and is an investor in one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, Kraken. Other members of the team are just as impressive. Jeremy Longley, founder and CTO, co-founded PKR with San and has over 15 years of experience managing development teams. FunFair COO, David Greyling, was previously the International Director of William Hill – a worldwide betting and gaming company. FunFair is attempting to enter the gigantic online gaming market by providing a solution that’s unique to the blockchain industry. Instead of acting as a casino, the company is licensing out their technology to other casinos which helps to mitigate their liability and risk. The project already has a working product and plans to launch early this year. With the wealth of experience that the team has in the gaming space, it’s hard to see this project failing. If FunFair can overcome the market domination of current incumbents using traditional technology, blockchain-based casino games could be the new industry paradigm.
Setting up a blockchain infrastructure is an expensive and complicated ordeal, and many may certainly be on the lookout for a solution that handles this for them. Simple Token is that solution.Simple Token enables all types of businesses to tokenize their assets. It empowers mainstream apps to have their own branded tokens, helping them set up their own crypto based economy on the Ethereum network. The Simple Token website lists over 35 people as part of its team, with other sections listing even more people as it advisors and extended team. Jason Goldberg is the CEO, with an 18 year career and experience in multiple countries and sectors. He is assisted by Sunil Khedar at the CTO position, and Ben Bollen as the Chief Blockchain Strategist. The team is well recognised by the investor community and markets in general. This is easy to see when you observe that it is backed by multiple VCs, including 500Startups, Greycroft, and China’s Tencent among others. OST is the future of business tokenization, allowing companies to have their own branded tokens without the costs of setting up a blockchain infrastructure. Faster transaction times, since transactions are run on their own side chains rather than the Ethereum Main Net, avoiding the Ethereum network congestion. With the team providing monthly updates, it’s evident there is still a lot of work to be done. The ostKIT alpha is close to being released, and serves as the first public version of the complete blockchain toolkit for businesses. ostKYC is already live, and uses the OST token for all billing purposes. Other tools currently in development include a block explorer and an enterprise-grade email marketing solution. There’s also the consumer-oriented wallet to keep an eye on, as well as an updated version of the Simple Token protocol itself. Check out CoinBureau for the complete review of OST.