Exclusive interview with Gian Luca Comandini: Blockchain in Music and Sports.

Inside Achille Lauro’s NFTs. Vesta Calcio. Ownership Stadium. Popular Shareholding, Tokenization and ICO.

To begin this interview, I return to the subject of my previous article for Affidaty’s blog: the “minting” of Achille Lauro’s Non Fungible Tokens, which took place on October 30th, 2021, at the Teatro degli Arcimboldi in Milan, with the aim of helping the children’s cardiology department of the San Donato Policlinic in San Donato Milanese, in the Metropolitan City of Milan, with the donation of the proceeds from a charity auction.

Gian Luca Comandini, Gian Lorenzo Comandini, and Fabiano Taliani were responsible for the project’s consulting and development.

In the first part of our fascinating conversation, I speak in-depth with Gian Luca Comandini about this topic.

You minted the NFTs during a live performance. What was the process in this specific case? Technically, how did you capture Achille Lauro’s emotions?

First of all, we did everything ourselves!

We didn’t buy any sensors, but with the 3D printer, we created all the harnesses and objects needed to hold the sensors on Achille Lauro. We used these sensors to track some vital parameters of Lauro, from the heart to the wrist veins, and we intertwined these vital parameters to give them an artistic form, which was then seen by everyone in the output of the vibrating heart.

All of this was done live, with the risk that it wouldn’t work or that there would be interference.

It was a theater full of technical equipment, and in real-time, while we were taking these parameters to transform them into an artwork like a pulsating heart, we were minting the NFTs on Crypto.com.

We were in constant contact with the Crypto.com staff from the other side of the world to ensure that all of these times aligned.

And what did the 3D printer do, in particular?

The 3D printer simply took Achille Lauro’s body measurements and printed cases for the sensors, bracelets, and headbands.

All the wearable devices that were needed to keep the sensors securely fastened close to Lauro’s vital organs were created with the 3D printer.

Can you tell us any strange anecdotes related to this experience and this type of procedure that had never been done before?

Yes, I’ll tell you right away! There is also a video of this anecdote!

A few seconds before Achille Lauro entered the stage from backstage, one of my technicians noticed that a sensor was no longer giving any signs of life! No more input! Keep in mind that we had tested it days before, and it was perfect. We had done the dress rehearsal days before, and it was perfect. Everything was perfect in the morning. Everything was perfect half an hour before starting. We had never had a problem. Ten seconds before the start, it broke! Total panic! We had a spare one. The problem was to put it on him! There is this video where he is about to take off his jacket and enter the stage, and I rush towards him, block his entrance, and with a very fast gesture, I tear off a bracelet from him and put another one on him, and Lauro doesn’t understand what’s happening! We were really scared! In the true sense of the word. Then, this is truly exclusive: until the last moment, Achille Lauro had chosen another figure as a graphic representation of these beats, but then, in the end, he opted for a heart that was beating. Before, the image was a circle with a black and white background. It was completely different. Then, shortly before going on stage, he changed his mind, saying that a heart would be better because it gave more of a sense of what we were doing. So, in the end, it was decided for the heart. Actually, it was supposed to be another one, the NFT.

Let’s continue the conversation by talking about another world related to Gian Luca, that of technological innovation in football, as owner and treasurer of Vesta Calcio. The project was born from a group of young entrepreneurs, active in the fintech and startup sectors, who decided to invest in creating an innovative football team, using the new technologies available and an entrepreneurial mentality to reach Serie C within 4 years of its foundation.

How does Blockchain currently impact sports in general, and football in particular?
What are the innovations brought to the world of sports and football by Blockchain?

Unfortunately, today Blockchain could have a significant impact, but it does not have any impact, except at the level of speculation, sponsorship, and therefore at a commercial level. At a technical level, no one is using Blockchain, and we are the first to do so with Vesta Calcio, and specifically, we use Bitcoin to pay some salaries, but even more so in the technical aspect, we use Blockchain to make our budget transparent, visible to anyone, and immutable.

So, any sponsor, supplier or partner, or any authority, can see our income and expenses and check how, when and why these financial flows occur.

All of this is very useful and would completely kill money laundering, mafia and tax evasion, which unfortunately exist today in big football, just look at the many masked capital gains or fake sponsorships.

How does Blockchain currently impact Vesta Calcio in particular?
What are the innovations brought to football by Vesta?

Vesta Calcio not only uses Blockchain in various aspects, as I said earlier, but also uses IoT, the “Internet of Things,” through sensors on shin guards or under the jersey, to track various player parameters, with the aim of improving performance.

We use drones and a 360-degree camera, mounted on a pole above our stadium, to allow anyone to watch training sessions, athletes to study training sessions, and therefore technically understand what they are doing wrong and review games, but above all, it allows fans to watch our home games “real time,” for free, from anywhere in the world, on social media.

Is this why we immediately had a great response and now have over 2000 fans throughout Italy. We also use a series of start-ups and technological partners in various aspects related to the team.

From away travel, where we use a start-up that compares all rental buses and allows us to organize the trip by bus at the lowest possible cost. We use another very interesting start-up called “Golee,” which allows us to have a series of technical management tools to better control every managerial aspect of the team.

We use digital tools and platforms to scout players at our level. So, whenever there is a scent of technology, we like to experiment a lot and take advantage of it.

Do you expect future tokenization and an ICO for Vesta?

That’s the dream!

I have always said that I want to reach professional football on my own.

On the verge of professional football, therefore from Serie D onwards, maybe from Serie D or Serie C, if we get there, the ultimate goal is to tokenize Vesta.

This will allow all the fans who have believed in this madness and who have seen this path from the beginning to contribute financially to the big jump and become owners of the team!

There is a Marche team, from San Benedetto del Tronto, called Porto d’Ascoli, like the eponymous neighborhood, which plays in Serie D and is trying to build a stadium of its own!

Is it possible to have a stadium of your own, even at these levels? Do you dream of a stadium of your own for Vesta?

Lucky them!

Because the most difficult thing, and I’m realizing it, for us trying to build a stadium of our own is finding the space.

In Rome, then, in such a chaotic city, it is impossible to find an existing stadium to take or a space to build a new one.

We have been looking for it for 6 months now and we will continue to look for it.

So, definitely yes, one of the goals is to have a stadium of our own, but, to date, there is still nothing.

However, we are convinced that to make the big jump in professional football, a stadium of our own is necessary.

So it is an even more priority step than climbing the rankings or going up in professional football.

Before even reaching at least “Eccellenza,” we must try to solve the stadium variable.

Last question, which is also my curiosity: popular ownership vs. tokenization and ICO.

So far, popular ownership has already been used by teams like the United of Manchester, opposed, as a management method, to the much older and more prestigious Manchester United, and, also in football, by other clubs such as Santargangelo, Roma, Mantova, Arezzo, Enna, Vibonese, Hellas Verona, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Osasuna and Real Murcia and, in basketball, by Pallacanestro Treviso.

In recent years, however, we are faced with concepts like tokenization and ICO.

Is tokenization and ICO similar to an idea of popular ownership?
How do these two management concepts differ from popular ownership?

Tokenization and ICOs are similar to the idea of popular ownership? How do these two management concepts differ from popular ownership? Tokenization and ICOs are a popular ownership 3.0, with less bureaucracy and more liquidity.

Tokenization and ICOs certainly allow for more liquid shares. If I have subscribed to ownership through an ICO via tokenization and, after a day, I want to leave or liquidate my shares, it is easier for me, as a shareholder, to exchange that token and receive money without being subject to the bureaucracy associated with popular ownership.

Tokenization and ICOs also allow for better management of all decisions and hierarchies within ownership, based on the tokens you have and, consequently, based on the specific weight you have in controlling that company, thanks to the Blockchain technology.

They also allow new capital flows to enter, because popular ownership targets the old target, the traditional target, while tokenization targets many people who have many cryptocurrencies today and don’t know how to spend them.

That’s why, for the latter, tokenization would represent a new form of investment.

Let’s say that tokenization has a great appeal. So it allows to be much more appealing than traditional management situations. Then it does not have to incur the bureaucracy, rules, and constraints associated with popular ownership.

Thanks to tokenization and Blockchain, until a precise and complete regulation is written (which regulates its uses), currently, (regarding the uses of tokenization and ICOs), there is still enough room for maneuver.