Kickflips for Crypto? This Challenge Will Pay $28K for a Guinness World Document – Decrypt

As numerous crypto initiatives work tirelessly to reshape Wall Road, a comparatively novel one is targeted on Guinness World Information.

The premise: Skateboarding historical past will both be made, or a gaggle of backers will settle for their ambitions are quixotic and promptly liquidate.

For 3 weeks, a little-known venture referred to as POIDH—“pics or it didn’t occur”—has been incentivizing individuals to do greater than 36 kickflips on a skateboard in a minute, hoping {that a} crowdsourced bounty of meme cash can be sufficient to encourage somebody.

A kickflip is a skateboarding trick that mixes an ollie with a flick of the entrance foot to rotate the skateboard 360 levels alongside its longitudinal axis within the air. That requires ability. Doing so 37 occasions in a minute would break the present world report.

Though the bounty was value $28,000 on Friday, just one individual has filmed themselves hitting pavement. The official title—per Guinness’ web site—has remained in Australia with Ricky Glaser, an expert skater and streamer, since 2012.

That was a very long time earlier than the social media protocol Farcaster existed; in addition to Degen, an unofficial token that’s used primarily for suggestions amongst its customers; and The Haberdashery, an impartial group of Degen holders that acquired the token free of charge and sometimes likes to bankroll issues.

POIDH’s pseudonymous founder goes by Kenny, who can be a member of The Haberdashery. He informed Decrypt his curiosity in crypto’s potential “to arrange people to get issues completed in the true world” dates to his discovery of the house over a decade in the past. However solely previously couple of years has Kenny been making an attempt to bootstrap his imaginative and prescient.

Given Kenny’s stake in POIDH, The Haberdashery’s contribution of three.3 million Degen, representing a 3rd of the overall bounty, is an obscure advertising and marketing tactic, he mentioned. Nonetheless, the initiative echoes the spirit of teams like ConstitutionDAO, well-known for its ill-fated try and buy an authentic copy of the U.S. Structure at public sale in 2021.

Kenny described POIDH as rooted in a number of the identical rules as decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs. Of their most typical kind, DAOs are used for funding and governing initiatives. POIDH primarily hosts miniature variations of DAOs, which might deal with something, similar to kickflips, and even discovering a “rat hotspot” in New York Metropolis.

Kenny mentioned the platform is self-custodial. Anybody contributing funds to a bounty can get better them at any level, except somebody is actively making an attempt to show that they accomplished a bounty, he added. To ensure that a payout to be licensed, contributors have to vote, and that’s weighted in opposition to the amount of cash that they’ve put up, he continued.

POIDH is designed in such a method that if a bounty’s backers not wish to assist it, everybody recovers the cash like nothing occurred, Kenny defined. POIDH prices a 2.5% charge on accomplished bounties, he mentioned.

“There simply aren’t that many use circumstances that I really feel like I can present to my family and friends and be pleased with within the trade,” Kenny recalled, saying that FTX’s high-profile collapse in 2022 left him pissed off. Kenny mentioned he primarily works as an website positioning marketing consultant.

To make certain, POIDH doesn’t pay out bounties in money. It doles out Ethereum and Degen, and Kenny famous that the platform’s largest bounty but has fallen from $30,000 over the previous week in consequence.

“The value goes up and down based mostly on funds added or withdrawn, and the fluctuation of the underlying crypto,” he mentioned, referring to a POIDH bounty. 

Since its debut, roughly 2,500 POIDH bounties have been created. However only one,400 have been efficiently accomplished, in keeping with a Dune dashboard.

“I might be speechless”

A skateboarder who goes by JD on X mentioned he’s pushing 32, however informed Decrypt that six hours of effort, up to now, has yielded some outcomes.

JD mentioned they’ve completed at the very least a couple of periods, however wet circumstances are making it troublesome to take further stabs. Lower than every week in the past, JD shared a video of himself finishing 26 kickflips on a skateboard in 39 seconds.

“After you get to 25, it’s actually robust and tiresome, however you simply struggle to make the final stretch occur,” he mentioned. “If I actually gained that amount of cash, I’d be speechless.”

JD mentioned that he would probably use a portion of the bounty to make amends for debt and pay some overdue payments, whereas preserving some Degen to “see what occurs.” However he’s not the one one which’s taken intention on the Guinness title held by Glaser.

Skilled skateboarder Alex Decunha recorded a video of himself beating Glaser’s report in 2021, however Glaser nonetheless seems to be the official report holder. In a dialog between the 2, Glaser acknowledged that “submitting a lot paperwork to Guinness” takes endlessly.

The bounty on POIDH is fairly particular within the regard: Along with submitting a video that’s not doctored or sped up, whereas together with a visual timer, whoever needs to efficiently declare the bounty should even be “verified by Guinness as the brand new world report holder,” per its description.

“You could say, ‘That is for DEGEN,’” it provides.

Some pseudonymous skaters could hesitate to disclose their names, however skilled skateboarder Dave Bachinsky has signaled on POIDH that he’s within the working with JD. On X, Glaser has referred to as the bounty “sick,” elevating the potential for coming into the competition himself.

Decrypt has reached out to Glaser and Bachinsky for remark.