By James Sweet III | Gibraltar

Gibraltar United, a soccer team from the British territory of Gibraltar, is set to become the world’s first sports team to pay players in a form of cryptocurrency. The team’s owner, Pablo Dana, is an investor in “Quantocoin”.

The team’s management has reached an agreement with players that will take effect next season, changing their method of payment from fiat to crypto. Gibraltar’s finance sector, according to The Guardian, is leading nations in embracing technological innovation and the blockchain. Pablo Dana sees the transparency of blockchain technology as a way to reform the soccer community and to remove corruption in the sport.

Due to the size of both Gibraltar and the soccer club, Dana sees embracing the blockchain as a way to pay foreign players who can’t easily access a bank account based in Gibraltar and allows their payments to bypass many fees and taxes in the territory.

If the many teams and leagues of soccer embraced the blockchain, they could easily stop illegal contributions and bribes to clubs, players, and league officials. Soccer seems to be a good market for cryptocurrencies, as players like Lionel Messi have signed partnerships with crypto firms and businesses.

In reference to Gibraltar’s technologically advanced environment, Pablo Dana said, “It was the first [place that] regulated betting companies 20 years back when everyone was seeing them as horrible.”

With Gibraltar United taking a step into the unknown, the club could be a pioneering force in the world. If the process involving cryptocurrency works out, many nations and private organizations may become less reluctant to the blockchain technology, seeing how it could expose illegal practices like money laundering and bribes, as well as making the payroll process easier for both business owners and employees.

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