KARATE COMBAT DRAFT WHITEPAPER
Within is an early draft of the to-be-developed Karate Combat whitepaper. The league looks forward to receiving community feedback and finalizing the whitepaper in the second quarter of 2023.
Sections
Summary
Problem & Solution
KarateDAO
Up Only Gaming
Front-end Clients
Airdrop
Tokenomics
The Future
Summary
Karate Combat is a rapidly growing professional full-contact combat sport with free-to-watch cross-platform distribution on many of the world’s top sports networks. It features 100+ exclusive fighters who compete for championship belts across 10 weight classes and is streamed in immersive 3D VFX environments rendered in Unreal Engine.
Karate Combat was built by a core team of crypto and tech entrepreneurs with the vision to be the first professional sports league governed by its top fans and fighters and gamified to appeal to the habits and interests of sports fans.
In order to achieve this, the team is fully embracing crypto rails.
In the immediate term, the league is utilizing new web3 tools to provide fans the access, ownership and interactivity they want. In the medium term, the league is adopting an open decentralization model for unprecedented transparency, fan-friendly intellectual property and a creator-first mentality to spark a whole universe of community-driven innovation.
Karate Combat is the first professional sports league structured with a decentralized autonomous organization (“DAO”) to innovate new models of collective decision-making that include input from the league’s fans and athletes. The league was sold in 2022 to Sensei Foundation, a Cayman Islands foundation company and Sensei Ltd, a Seychelles international business company. In May 2023, the KarateDAO launched the $KARATE token on the Hedera and Ethereum networks.
The $KARATE token was created to facilitate governance voting and to allow community members to play and compete on the KarateDAO’s innovative Up Only Gaming system.
To play, holders of the $KARATE token can vote for their favorite fighters and boost their potential prize pools above and beyond fighters’ contracted pay via the Karate Combat web app and mobile app (iOS, Android).
In contrast to sports gambling, $KARATE holders who pick winning fighters earn additional tokens from modest token issuance with no risk of loss. No purchase is necessary for fans to access the league’s applications or to claim $KARATE tokens from the Up Only Gaming system.
Karate Combat’s founders intend for the KarateDAO to give away up to half of the $KARATE tokens for free to fans and athletes over time.
Core contributors to the league believe the community’s most active and informed fans and best fighters should control key league decisions over time.
“We’re trying to create products that the community runs and governs and continues to build for good reasons. Products and orgs and sports leagues built by the community can live forever. People can’t. Companies can’t. They live for 100 years, maybe 150 years at max. Cities can live for thousands of years, so we’re trying to build products and communities with the persistence of cities.” - @onlylarping
Problem & Solution
Problem
TV audiences for traditional sports leagues are aging^1, and there’s been a significant drop in sports fandom among Gen Z^2. Almost half of NFL fans aged 18 to 34 would rather watch highlights than full games, which is in stark contrast from older fans. This shift could threaten the TV rights deals that support the traditional sports economies.
But it's not all doom and gloom! Younger fans engage with sports in different ways, and this presents huge opportunities for adaptable sports formats. Research by Nielsen and LaLiga Tech found nearly half of fans under 34 prefer watching sports on their phones, and mobile social streaming is helping smaller sports formats grow^3.
Younger generations grew up with social media and gaming culture, and they expect a different level of access, participation and interactivity. There is a massive secular trend towards the gamification of sports content, and younger fans are leading the way. 28% of Americans aged 21 to 34 bet on sports at least once a month, way more than older age groups^4and are only interested when betting is involved^5.
Today’s established sports leagues may not be able to fully capitalize on these opportunities. The average NFL broadcast is over three hours long with only 18 minutes of action^6. It costs over $1,000 a year to watch all UFC fights^7. Baseball's rule set has barely changed in over 100 years^8 and ownership in major North American sports leagues is held by a few of the richest people on the planet. Compared to other entertainment options, traditional sports are expensive, have limited distribution and lack the community and interactivity today's fans crave^9.
Solution
Combat sports have a history of disruption in the media world. The first widely available sports radio broadcast was a boxing match in New Jersey, and TV's earliest hits were fights. Wrestling was a top show when cable TV was starting^10, and now, combat sports' action-packed format is exceedingly popular with younger fans^11.
Karate Combat was built for the mobile experience to engage the next generation of sports enthusiasts.
Wrestling, grappling and kicks between the knee and waist, which slow fights down, are against Karate Combat league rules to encourage aggression. Most fight matches have three-minute rounds - shorter than UFC’s five-minute rounds. And the signature Karate Combat "pit" forces action away from its walls to the center of the stage. The end result is a stand-up, striking-based fight event with winners decided by punches, kicks and throws.
Since 2020, Karate Combat has been hosting real fights in immersive 3D environments created with Epic Games' Unreal Engine^12. It's the only professional sport to film using in-camera VFX^13 and Extended Reality, with fight environments ranging from ancient Okinawa to futuristic sports stadiums.
Events are completely free to watch across multiple platforms like Eurosport, Globo, BeIn Sports, Karate.com, Youtube, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook (LinkedIn Live may be next!).
Now, to boost the league’s growth while optimizing engagement and interest among fans, Karate Combat is the first professional sport to structure its league alongside a DAO.
The $KARATE token is issued on the Ethereum and Hedera networks. The token governs KarateDAO and gives its holders access to the Up Only Gaming system. Token holders can use smart contracts to play the game through the league’s web app and mobile apps. By playing the game, $KARATE holders support their favorite fighters and boost their prize pools above contracted payments. Picking winning fighters earns $KARATE holders more tokens. Unlike sports gambling, players do not lose $KARATE tokens when they pick losing fighters.
Over time, the KarateDAO should be controlled by the most engaged and informed fans and the best fighters.
KarateDAO
The KarateDAO governs the Up Only Gaming system and will contribute to key league decisions as a “wisdom of the crowd oracle”^14. Karate Combat is the first professional sports league committed to innovating new collective decision-making processes that include input from the league’s top fans and athletes.
In 2022, the Karate Combat league’s assets were sold to Sensei Foundation, a Cayman Islands foundation company (the “Foundation”) and Sensei Ltd, a Seychelles international business company. The Foundation and its subsidiaries will be governed by directors and advisors who will be required to solicit input from the KarateDAO on key decisions. For example, wisdom from $KARATE holders should be integrated in decision-making over time with respect to fighter contract and fight matchup selection, intellectual property licensing, grant and bounty distribution, marketing strategies and selection of contributor teams.
While DAO governance participation rates are notoriously low^15, the league’s research indicates a strong desire by fans to influence fighter contracts, fight matchups and league rules. However, fighter and matchup selection is a regulated process that requires deep, experienced care for fighter safety and development. To that end, the league’s fighter operations supplier will regularly propose bounded ways for the community to participate. For just one example, the fight operations supplier may offer to the community the option to pick one of three curated belt contenders to next challenge the reigning champion.
The catalyst for the birth of the $KARATE token is to enable Karate Combat fans to play Up Only Gaming and to contribute to league governance. Core contributors to the league believe the $KARATE token has 100x more utility than any sports token or NFT issued to date.