Brief review of Olyseum - new football-themed ‘blockchain’ social network

A new blockchain-based social network called Olyseum has been announced by several football stars, including Carles Puyol and Andrés Iniesta. Developers claim that this website could dramatically improve the communication of football stars with their fans. Bitnewstoday tried to assess the project and its future perspectives.

What does a new user see after the registration procedure? A relatively easy-to-use blog website with likes and comments, clearly designed for the mobile use and resembling Instagram in layout. The amount of non-English posts may easily deter those users who don’t know foreign languages. The current level of user engagement cannot be called big, although this might change in the future.

Despite the easy interface, some may want to see a tutorial - and that’s where we see a first design problem. When clicking “Help”, the link refers to a support email address instead of tips on how to use the site efficiently.

And what about blockchain which is claimed as one of the biggest and notable advantages of the website? It does not exist yet. The mobile app with the use of smart contracts will be launched in the near future, and there is a reason to believe that it will only serve as a platform for football merchandize and reward system.

Blockchain reward system is something that the crypto community has already seen - Blackpool, a startup company, has partnered with Björk on this matter in November 2017.

Anyway, the social network may prove useful for those who want to see posts from different football players in one feed - although the same can easily be done on Twitter. Considering all the aforementioned signs, for now it looks like an attempt to play on the hype around two popular things - football (2018 World Cup takes place in Russia right now) and blockchain.

Image: Lluis Gene / AFP