Primer: AJ is a former data scientist at Amazon. In this episode of Zima Red, he shares how he is using data science to analyze cards in Sorare, a fantasy soccer game on the blockchain, as well as his involvement in Blackpool, a yield-focused NFT fund.
Origins
Started career in corporate finance
Eventually found finance boring after 5 years. Taught himself data science to challenge himself
Went over to Amazon as a data scientist
Started learning about crypto in 2017 and found it interesting
Went heads down into crypto in 2020. Left his job and went into alt coin trading
"It's just all these projects that people are starting with one-man teams or three-man teams. And they're creating such innovative new technologies that our corporate technology behemoths, Google and Amazon and Apple aren't doing." - AJ
Came across Sorare, which is his 1st NFT project he got involved in. Went fully into NFTs after that
What Attracted Him To Finance
Finance gives the biggest chance to make the most money
Got disenchanted after awhile
Learned that there are more important things than money and decided to find a better balance in life
"And it's [Finance] like, not like that at all. You're basically just on an Excel sheet being a monkey all day hitting buttons, and you can entertain yourself with that for a little while." - AJ
Teaching Himself Data Science
Was already at Amazon at that point
Hitting his technical limitations
Became friends with a couple of data scientists
Took online courses on Python and Tableau
Got really serious and completed a 6-month boot camp at the University of Texas
What Attracted Him To Crypto
Initially, attracted to crypto to make a quick buck
Later on, he reflected on the technology and what crypto could do. Realized that people can become their own bank
Remembers someone on the Zima Red podcast mentioning the book titled Sovereign Individual from 20 years ago. The book managed to accurately predict where we are today
On the Sovereign Individual Book
Questions basic assumptions of authorities
Realized that, relative to past ages, people in those days have more freedom
As sovereign individuals, they should be able to make all of their decisions themselves
However, this is still not the case today
Initial Attraction To NFTs
Came across Sorare while looking for projects to invest in
Major League Soccer signed up with Sorare's platform and people can buy their cards and use them in a fantasy soccer lineup
Found it the perfect combination of everything he liked (fantasy sport, data on sports, blockchain)
Sorare
Introduction
Fantasy soccer where gamers pick players and put them in a lineup
Every week, there are soccer games going on around the world
The players are scored based on their real-life performance on the field
The lineup of each gamer competes against others to win prizes
Limited minting of players to ensure scarcity
Gameplay
Don't actually control the players in Sorare. Set the lineup and come back later to view their performance
Lineup consists of 5 players:
Goalkeeper
Defender
Midfielder
Forward
Flex card where gamers can use any outfielder
Scores of each player are tallied up and range from 0 to 100, with 100 being the best possible score a gamer can get
Win ETH and cards from playing
Cannot use the same player twice in a lineup
Can choose which region to compete in (e.g. America, Europe, globally, etc)
Data Science And Sorare
Spent his time analyzing how well players scored over the past week
Each player's performance varies across the weeks
Have to analyze and select the best player at each position for each region
Have to analyze how much he is willing to pay to acquire a player
Have to think about how you are going to use the players, how long you will be holding them, and the expected returns for all your players
Uses a dashboard to help in his analysis
Dashboard For Sorare
Several 3rd party tools are now available
Largest tool is soraredata.com. Provides different views and ways to look at the data
However, if you want to go deeper, you have to build your own dashboards. Sorare has an API from which users can pull data and build their own customized dashboards
Blackpool
Quantitative hedge fund for NFTs
Founded by Julien Bouteloup and Max Mersch
Structured as a DAO. Currently rolling out their 1st version of governance and voting
The NFT sector is a niche market that requires expertise to find value
"You have to know what you're buying, you can't just go and say, oh, this one was expensive, cool, I'll try to buy one of those. There's all these different traits and different rarities and things that make them special." - AJ
People who want to have exposure to the space can purchase their Blackpool token for capital appreciation
Their focus is on yield-generating NFTs such as Sorare and Axie Infinity
Other NFT funds include PleasrDAO, WHALE, B20. However, their focus is on expensive art and avatars. They do not have any way to make money other than to sell their assets to others at a higher price
Is Play-To-Earn Sustainable?
"There's somebody who's paying for their own dialysis by playing this game [Axie Infinity]. There's people who are supporting their entire families, or you know, other family members that have medical needs. And the stories sometimes are just, you know, heartbreaking in a good way." - AJ
It's not a fad; it's the future of gaming
Foresees that there will be a merge in traditional games and blockchain games at some point
Have Axie Infinity scholars in Blackpool
Will The Game Loop Break?
Possible if the game is unbalanced in some way
Games that depend on new users signing could be unbalanced and not sustainable
Sorare and Axie Infinity are extremely well-balanced right now
Once the foundation of a sustainable model is better understood, new games will come out and implement a similar sustainable model
Any News To Share
Their team is shared and spread across the different Julien Bouteloup projects
Sharing of code modules and resources across the projects
Have an advantage in dev resources
They are the only yield-generating and yield-focused NFT DAO in the space
Grand 5-10 Years Vision
Expect to be still contributing to Blackpool
Buy an actual football club and managing it like their digital Sorare football club
"And so can you imagine a hedge fund that then goes buys a football club and does everything using data science and machine learning?" - AJ
Love Of Tesla
Loves the community of Tesla enthusiasts
Loves Elon Musk's passion, drive, and ability to ignore detractors
Paid for full self-driving, where the public release is only a couple of months away
Got Tesla solar panels, Tesla tequila, Tesla shorts
Favourite Video Game
A FIFA addict
Forza Horizon because he is a huge car guy
Single Favourite NFT
Bruno Fernandes unique card on Sorare
Extremely short supply of his cards on Sorare
Own his unique card, super rare card, and rare card
Most Controversial Thought On NFTs
"NFTs are definitely going to eat the entire world in terms of everything." - AJ
If You Could Change Something In The Space
Improve liquidity
Get more people into NFTs
World Of NFTs In 3 Years
Big traditional video games announce that they have launched some in-game NFTs on-chain
Ubisoft is already looking heavily into this. They are one of the first investors in Sorare and other NFT games
"So you know, it's going to be just like Tesla, where it's like, one company does it. And then everyone else realizes, oh shoot, if we don't keep up, we're going to be left behind." - AJ
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