You might think that horses couldn’t possibly have anything to do with something like cryptocurrency, but you’d be wrong!
Most horse owners, indeed most people, would be hard-pressed to answer even basic questions about the new technological innovation that is blockchain and cryptocurrency. To us, discerning real ‘crypto’ information on sites like Coindesk could be indiscernible from satire sites like Crypto Town Crier. So it would surprise almost everyone to know that horses really are beginning to take the crypto world by storm.
In the online platforms Zed Run, Pedaxy, and Digital Downs, people can take their passion for horses and horse racing to the Metaverse, acquiring their own digital equines and racing them around virtual tracks for real money. Participants on the sites can purchase race-horse NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum and retain permanent ownership of their animals.
These NFTs all possess unique characteristics such as gender, color, bloodline, size, and speed, and are guaranteed to be non-reproducible by the decentralized blockchain. Owners can also team up with other owners to breed offspring with hopes of becoming online champions.
Prices for the crypto-horses vary based on rareness, with the highest recorded NFT selling for nearly $125,000. Races, which are set at 12 entrants, generally cost between $5 and $15 to enter, but unlike real world horse racing can be continually run based on the number of willing participants at any given time. While the most rare horses will be the strongest competitors, it does not guarantee their victory.
An algorithm runs 10,000 possible outcomes before each race, choosing one at random for the final outcome. Non-owners of NFTs can also take part on the site by betting on their preferred horse in every race.
While a participant won’t get the touch, smell, or feel of a real horse, they also won’t get a lot of the troubles that can bring. Virtual horse owners won’t have to worry about feeding the horse, getting injured, or sick with an ailment. The horses held in the blockchain world will never have to be ‘put out to pasture’ or sent to the glue factory. Indeed, an NFT racehorse, if one were able to breed the digital Secretariat, could reap a stable full of coin for many years to come!