{"id":14581,"date":"2018-03-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2019.dash.org\/2018\/03\/10\/dashs-jeff-smith-explains-how-cryptocurrency-could-be-the-future-for-fighter-compensation\/"},"modified":"2021-09-18T11:37:40","modified_gmt":"2021-09-18T11:37:40","slug":"mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dash.org\/news\/mma\/","title":{"rendered":"Dash\u2019s Jeff Smith explains how cryptocurrency could be the future for fighter compensation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Standing in the center of the cage, victorious after going five grueling rounds with\u00a0Douglas Lima<\/a>, newly crowned Bellator welterweight champion\u00a0Rory MacDonald<\/a>\u00a0was graced with his hard-earned championship belt. What may have been missed in that coronation was that \u201cThe Red King\u201d was also representing a new brand, one that could become a major player in the MMA fighter compensation landscape.<\/p>\n

That brand is Dash, a growing cryptocurrency company that emphasizes anonymity and speed as a means to differentiate itself in a field where privacy and lengthy transaction confirmation times can be an issue. For network operations head\u00a0Jeff Smith<\/a>, it\u2019s important to spread the word of Dash through unconventional means, and his passion for MMA led him right to MacDonald.<\/p>\n

MacDonald has long been vocal about his interest in cryptocurrency, and last year Smith sought to contact him and sell him on the virtues of working with Dash. The two both hail from British Columbia, and Smith has even trained at the Toshido Fighting Arts Academy in Kelowna, where MacDonald began his martial arts journey.<\/p>\n

Smith and his team were in attendance at\u00a0Bellator 192<\/a>\u00a0in Inglewood, Calif., on Jan. 20 \u2014 decked out in turtlenecks in homage to the stylish MacDonald \u2014 to see the Canadian win a world title while wearing a hat, t-shirt, and shorts bearing their logo. But this was no ordinary sponsorship.<\/p>\n

The process under which MacDonald became a representative of Dash was more complicated than a handful executives simply signing off on the deal that ended up being for 320 Dash, which at the time was worth $250,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dash\u2019s Jeff Smith sees many similarities between the rise of cryptocurrency and the rise of MMA<\/p>\n

Jeff Smith, Dash<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201dThere\u2019s actually a monthly proposal cycle, we call it our \u2018treasury system,\u2019 and so every month our treasury budget opens and closes and there\u2019s an amount of Dash that we can use as sort of a positive feedback loop,\u201d Smith explained in a recent interview with MMA Fighting. \u201cSo we\u2019re using this Dash to reinvest into the ecosystem to do things that we as a network think will be better for Dash. Rory\u2019s play was he had this opportunity to be on prime time TV and that\u2019s something that we as a network wanted to do some advertising for, so he approached the network with the idea of, \u2018Let\u2019s get me all Dash\u2019d up and I\u2019m gonna be on TV and you guys can be a sponsor of mine.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201dBut it\u2019s not like a board of directors or a company where there\u2019s just one person that has the call and that\u2019s the big difference here. Usually, for someone to spend $250,000 to sponsor a fighter, there would be some boardroom that made the decision and stamped it for approval; in this case it\u2019s not, it\u2019s approximately 4700 people all over the world voting yes or no on multiple proposals. Last month I think our cycle had 56 proposals, so there were 55 other people with ideas like Rory\u2019s on how to better Dash.\u201d<\/p>\n

As is typical with cryptocurrency, the value of MacDonald\u2019s dash payout has fluctuated greatly since the Dash was transferred, but it\u2019s six-figure starting point is impressive when you consider that the Reebok sponsorship payout for the UFC\u2019s recent card in Austin, Tex., came out to $165,000\u00a0total\u00a0for the 24 fighters on that show.<\/p>\n

Given that eye-popping number, other fighters could soon be burying Smith\u2019s inbox with messages asking how they can get a piece of the pie, and he\u2019s excited about the prospect of working further with Bellator and company president\u00a0Scott Coker<\/a>\u00a0to get more athletes involved.<\/p>\n

\u201dA lot of the Tristar gym fighters have heard about this, like\u00a0Georges St-Pierre<\/a>\u00a0and the boys that are around Rory and Firas (Zahabi), because Firas, Rory\u2019s coach, kind of got this all started. So a lot of the Tristar gym fighters are starting to ask us questions and that was a question Scott Coker had for me too,\u201d said Smith. \u201cWe were chatting after the fight and he just said, \u2018You\u2019re crazy. When these fighters find out how much money you gave Rory, your phone will not stop ringing,\u2019 and the irony of it is that these fighters deserve it. Of all the people that deserve some payout like that, it\u2019s the fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith describes cryptocurrency as being \u201cmisunderstood\u201d and \u201cmisconstrued\u201d at times, similar to how MMA has been ever since it emerged on the sports scene in the 90s. The digital asset is unregulated and decentralized, meaning it is governed solely by its investors without oversight from any major financial institutions.<\/p>\n

In that sense, it could be the perfect avenue for fighters willing to take risks in pursuit of greater compensation.<\/p>\n

\u201dWhat I\u2019m starting to get now is that there are these fighters that are realizing that this alternative method of payment is available, and that\u2019s really kind of starting to resonate throughout that community because they haven\u2019t had that ability before,\u201d said Smith. \u201cFor us, we specifically wanted to use Bellator because of the opportunities \u2014 the place for me was I want the money in the hands of the fighters. Because we have a lot of power as an advertiser, I can go to these companies and say, \u2018I want to advertise with you, but I also want to put some of our money into the fighters\u2019 pockets as well or even into the fans\u2019 pockets, so we\u2019re working on some \u2026 very interesting models with how you can do all these things.<\/p>\n

\u201dI would say that the response wasn\u2019t as high as I thought in terms of literally my phone blowing up with fighters wanting to take it, but\u00a0Michael Chandler<\/a>\u00a0did have a crypto sponsor on that same card, and we\u2019re hearing other fighters want to talk about that now that Rory is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rory MacDonald and his team all donned Dash gear for his championship bout at Bellator 192.<\/p>\n

Bellator MMA<\/em><\/p>\n

As the de facto ambassador for Dash in the MMA world, MacDonald has been hit up on social media by people wanting to learn about cryptocurrency, but he\u2019s found that fighters are still reluctant to fully embrace the concept.<\/p>\n

\u201dI think I caught some of the fighter\u2019s attention, because now\u00a0Chael (Sonnen)<\/a>\u00a0is in the process of making his own proposal, but unfortunately no other fighters have yet to speak to me about it,\u201d MacDonald told MMA Fighting, via e-mail. \u201cBut hopefully soon fighters will either start creating their own proposals like Chael has, or will reach out to me so I can show them how to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacDonald had high praise for his fellow Bellator fighter\u2019s pitch, which includes wanting to see the Bellator cage decorated with the Dash logo, potentially making a broadcast a two-to-three-hour long commercial for the company.<\/p>\n