RGT Cycling to award NFTs as prize purse for Echelon Racing League

Published October 22, 2021 08:58AM

Non-fungible tokens will be created and awarded as prizes to the winners in the men’s and women’s pro racing series, as well as to the winners of the para-cycling events.

“We chose RGT Cycling as the platform for the series because of their big ideas and their progressive attitude towards esports and technology with this concept being no exception,” said Project Echelon’s Eric Hill. “Issuing NFT’s adds to the prizes and as they are awarded equally for winners of each series, we hope they will serve to introduce a new path for supporting and rewarding athletes.”

NFTs are cryptographic assets on blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. Blockchain technology validates proof of ownership. Unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs cannot be traded nor exchanged at equivalency but can be used to represent easily reproducible items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files as unique items.

RGT Cycling and Project Echelon Racing will issue NFTs as prizes, each of which will be represented by a one-of-a-kind digital “work of art.” RGT Cycling indicates these will have both monetary and intrinsic value.

The league begins on November 20, 2021, will see 40 teams and 240 riders compete in the pro event, which consists of 8 rounds across a variety of digital parcours.

Races will be contested on courses that emulate in-real-life routes in Echelon events. Rally Cycling, Canyon eSports, Tibco-SVB, Butcherbox, and the U.S. national team have been previous competitors in the series.

This year, RGT Cycling and the Echelon Racing League will also offer events for para-cyclists, and offer virtual adaptive bikes and avatars. The series was developed in collaboration with the Paralyzed Veterans of America and USA Paracycling. The series has a unique set of rules and regulations specific to the para-events.

For more information about the Echelon Racing League Series, visit the RGT Cycling website.