Joab Garza from Chipz talks about various trends & challenges in the Blockchain lead Gaming Industry
1. Tell us about your role at Chipz?
CTO, CoFounder of Chipz, lead a team of fullstack developers and smart contract devs, as well as provide the architectural details and user experience elements necessary to make this product a success.
2. Can you tell us about your journey in this industry?
2015 I made the turn to developing mobile apps through an agency located in Medellin, Colombia, Talos Digital. Throughout this time, I’ve help architect user experiences for several apps, including most recently Tezotopia on the Tezos Blockchain. Tezotopia mixes elements of DeFi and traditional real-time strategy gaming, gamifying an experience like decentralized finance—I believe, is crucial to increasing user adoption. It’s the same desire for us with Chipz, to gamify the DeFi process, make it fun to stake tokens and earn.
3. How is technology changing the fintech arena?
Fintech is constantly evolving, and with each new iteration we’re introduced with we come a few steps closer to mass adoption and we are seeing cryptocurrencies at the forefront of the new wave of FinTech. It’s exciting to see crypto on PayPal, SoFi, and CashApp, massive user bases now have at their fingertips a whole world of decentralized finance. And a lot of DeFi is still very much tucked away in a corner of the internet, with hurdles for the average user to get to. The ecosystem is growing, the tools are being created to make it easier to use, and that’s all that matters. Nothing great happens overnight.
4. Blockchain technology is agreed by many to be a potential market disruptor. What role do you think decentralisation will play in the future growth of our industry?
It’s really the vision of Satoshi Nakamoto coming to fruition when we start talking about decentralization. It’s a total disrupter and it’s just getting started. DeFi is going to be the center of it all, as more and more people begin to learn about the benefits of DeFi and the technology behind massive yields and being your own bank, things will shape out in very interesting ways. Decentralized platforms put governance in the hands of token holders, they vote on the future of the platform and how things will move forward. Utilizing blockchain technology to democratize a process like banking will truly shake the industry when it reaches mass adoption. The industry is starting to look at DeFi with a serious lens now, and that could potentially be very beneficial for early adopters.
5. What were some of the key Fintech lessons you learnt from last year’s events and how does this feed into your plans for growth in the future?
The government will keep printing money and continue to devalue the power of the dollar. If this is the only solutions our governments have in a time of crisis, then we must surely start building the tools to counter the effects of massive inflation. Utilizing blockchain and the tools we have now is more important than ever.
6. Last year’s events changed the iGaming landscape forever. What was the biggest lesson you learned in regard to customer engagement and how will you use it to your advantage going forward?
Working in crypto, and seeing the rise of Bitcoin to a new all-time high has shown me that in this landscape, the crypto landscape, crypto centric communities stick together through the hard times, they’re not just invested financially, but emotionally and want to build this community up through the hard times and easy times. Innovation is born in the bear market, I strongly believe this, crypto, iGaming, etc. will keep on moving forward, we just have to be ready to be agile and flexible to fit ourselves into the shapes of the future.
7. Cryptocurrency going mainstream over the last couple of years has seen the online betting, gambling, and casino industry jump on the blockchain tech wagon. How will the smart booking contract platform impact the gambling industry?
Like I said before, very briefly, but I’ll expound here: incorporating elements of DeFi, with DeFi backed principles like yield farming and staking is going to bring a whole new way of betting to the world. You can place a bet on the who wins the 2024 US Presidential Election, stake your Chipz tokens in a yield farm that’s producing capital on top of your bet, win or lose, you’ve made money by locking your Chipz tokens into liquidity. It’s taking future events, placing a bet on them through staking, earning yield off that stake, but also potentially getting paid out in loads if you win. It’s these two great worlds meeting. What’s not to love?
8. What are some of the recent trends and highlights relating to cryptocurrency has been seen in the Betting Industry?
It’s happening more and more each day. Either current online gambling portals are introducing crypto into their prize pools, or new ones are popping up with crypto as their main currency. Having a token with a use case for betting on a platform is the new trend, and it won’t stop any time soon. The use of oracles such as Chainlink and Band help incorporate realtime data in a safe and secure way as well, bringing results from sports matches into the blockchain in a quick and accessible format.
As the blockchain ecosystem grows, so you shall see every aspect of everyday life get disrupted by it.
9. What advice would you like to give to the upcoming business and startups who are expanding their reach into the Betting sector?
Explore privacy, NFTs, and decentralization when jumping into the betting sector. Make sure you’ve crossed your Ts and dotted your Is as far as legal formation of your company to avoid any damages down the road. Have a clear vision but be willing to pivot and be agile. Let the business evolve for you, don’t force the evolution.
