‘Bad Joke’: FC Barcelona Criticized for $22 Million Deal with Samoan Crypto Firm ZKP

European soccer membership FC Barcelona has come underneath criticism after signing a $22 million, three-year international sponsorship cope with little-known crypto agency Zero-Information Proof (ZKP), based mostly within the Pacific island of Samoa.

Xavier Vilajoana, a former board member of the membership, instructed the Monetary Instances that hanging a cope with the crypto startup was an indication of monetary “desperation,” pointing to “pink flags” within the firm’s background and calling the choice “extremely regarding.”

In a tweet, Vilajoana pointed to how ZKP’s X account had solely 33 followers on the time of the official announcement of the partnership, and he criticized the corporate’s alleged affiliation with former kickboxer and controversial influencer Andrew Tate. Tate posted an endorsement of the Zero-Information Proof know-how on his X web page, which was later shared by the corporate on its Telegram web page, with a further ZKP emblem.

“It looks like a foul joke, however sadly it is actual,” commented Vilajoana.

The membership, which is considered underneath extreme monetary strain, is holding €469 million of debt ($542 million).

Zero-Information Proof seems to have launched its social media channels and white paper early this November. Particulars about its possession and funding construction aren’t clear from its web site, although it says it’s regulated underneath Samoan legislation. The agency is at the moment within the strategy of conducting its preliminary coin providing. ZKP’s namesake cryptographic know-how has been potential for the reason that early ’90s.

The Monetary Instances famous that it was unable to seek out public details about among the agency’s administration, together with Jeff Wilck, its head of blockchain.

In an official assertion, FC Barcelona stated it “has no connection in any respect with the corporate’s token,” and that the membership hasn’t mentioned the existence or issuance of this token throughout sponsorship discussions.

“The membership has no accountability for, or involvement in, the issuance or administration of this token, nor does it use the related know-how,” stated the membership.

Harry Halpin, CEO of blockchain-privacy agency Nym Applied sciences, stated he could be skeptical of any firm “which appeared out of nowhere and claimed to supply privateness through zero-knowledge proofs.”

“There are solely about 50 programmers alive, I believe, who can really perceive the mathematics and code production-ready zero-knowledge proof techniques.”

He added that the majority of them already work at established firms like privacy-centric Ethereum layer-2 Aztec, blockchain protocol Anoma, privacy-focused layer-1 blockchain Aleo, and the Electrical Coin Firm, which is behind the Zcash privateness coin.

He additionally identified that zero-knowledge proofs in and of themselves don’t essentially present anonymity robotically, because the IP addresses of these concerned should still be seen, therefore using “mixnets” in some privacy-centric ecosystems.

Decrypt reached out to Zero-Information Proof for touch upon the broad criticism of the corporate and FC Barcelona’s assertion, however didn’t instantly obtain a response.

“No LinkedIn. No pitch deck. No press appeal offensive. Only a new blockchain, deployed Proof Pods, and 100% self-funded,” the corporate posted on X on Friday. “Perhaps what’s regarding trad media is that we skipped the PR sport.”



Crypto and soccer

Crypto sponsorships have change into near-omnipresent in European soccer lately.

Examine Europe’s evaluation from earlier this month discovered that over a 3rd of groups in Europe’s 5 largest leagues are partnered with cryptocurrency or buying and selling corporations this season, rising to 70% within the UK’s Premier League.

Buying and selling platform eToro has signed offers with eight completely different golf equipment, and crypto exchanges Bitpanda and Kraken have signed 4 and three offers respectively with main European golf equipment.

In 2022, Bloomberg reported that Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon and Italy’s Spezia terminated their business relationships with Bitci.com, a Turkish-based crypto group, as a consequence of alleged non-payment.