賽鴿歷史源遠流長，早在西元220年便已興起。當今風靡世界的賽鴿運動是由比利時鴿友在19世紀早期發起，自此世界各地的賽鴿愛好者開始聚集起來用自己訓練的鴿子比賽得獎。在過去兩個世紀裡，賽鴿從單純的愛好或者小規模亞文化逐漸演變為價值數百萬美元的專業賽事。
當今賽鴿運動已然發展壯大。雖然最初只是愛好，如今卻已然成為專業的賽事，與此同時參賽賽鴿飛行速度不斷加快、歸巢技巧更強。某些賽事中賽鴿需要飛行100至1800公里，格外考驗賽鴿的速度和耐力。
雖然賽鴿大賽的規則和飛行距離在各個國家和錦標賽中各有不同，但賽事舉辦方均需確保挑選最適宜的天氣條件以及放飛賽鴿的最佳地點。賽鴿所在的鴿舍和放飛地點之間的距離也是用地圖和GPS經過精心測量的。賽鴿需在當地鴿會的嚴格監管下進入比賽。一旦所有賽鴿確認參賽，它們會被放入專門設計的賽鴿比賽運輸籠，然後帶到事先決定的放飛地點。一旦天氣條件和飛行路徑都滿足比賽要求時便同時在同一放飛地點統一放飛，歸巢最快的賽鴿就能贏得獎金。
過去十年間，賽鴿運動的賽鴿本身和比賽分發的獎勵都吸引了公眾的極大興趣。不斷發展的亞洲市場助推賽鴿運動的崛起。賽鴿在中國大陸和臺灣地區的尤為風行，已發展成為價值數十億美元的產業。雖然賽鴿運動發展迅猛，此行業仍然存在尚未解決的挑戰阻礙其進一步發展。
主要的問題所在還是和基礎設施缺陷和市場高度分隔有關。不同的鴿會有自己的流程和標準來舉辦比賽，這導致了巨大的價值損失，因為一個統一的流程和標準所能提供的共同利益未能得到良好利用。
為市場引入先進易用的技術能為賽鴿行業節省大量的成本開支。賽鴿幣能幫助各地鴿會和聯盟利用本平臺組織賽鴿比賽、拍賣和其他活動，而不必建立其獨立的基礎設施。此外，技術基礎設施的統一化能確保鴿會依照最高標準舉辦賽事、提供更好的用戶體驗。賽鴿幣平臺提供了節約成本的手段，而且應用十分容易，所以能夠幫助新興鴿會崛起，同時促進現有鴿會的發展，從而推動整個賽鴿運動的發展。賽鴿幣平臺能減少現有賽鴿流程中的人為失誤、詐騙和違規行為，加強參與者對賽鴿行業的信任和信心。
為了提供上述價值主張，賽鴿幣平臺會採用區塊鏈技術。區塊鏈技術是去中心化不可更改資料帳本，能以可驗證的方式永久儲存資訊。此技術能有效在共用狀態的網路中達成共識而不需要一個中央集成點。區塊鏈是電腦網路科技的突破性技術，且由於其無單點故障、智慧合約免徵信執行、無集中管理、智慧合約的決定性性質等明顯優勢，此項技術支撐的賽鴿基礎設施將徹底顛覆市場。本專案初版將建立在乙太坊區塊鏈上，但我們也會考慮將平臺移植到EOS和其他區塊鏈以保證本應用程式對主流區塊鏈都適用。
我們堅信基於區塊鏈的賽鴿幣平臺將揭開賽鴿行業的新篇章，進一步推動此項運動的發展，同時使用最先進的技術促進行業的整合與標準化。
Pigeon racing has enjoyed a long history since its inception in 220 AD. The international sporting sensation of modern pigeon racing as we know it today was created by Belgium fanciers in early 19th century. The sport has since spread around the world, enthusiasts coming together to race their trained pigeons for attractive rewards. Over the past two centuries the pigeon racing industry has transformed from a mere hobby or small subculture into a surfeit of professional racing competitions, where millions of dollars are at stake.
Modern pigeon racing has come a long way from its humble beginnings. What started as a hobby has grown into a professional sport, where pigeons today fly faster and longer than ever. Races test the speed and stamina of the birds over distances ranging from 100 to 1800 kilometers.
The rules and distances of pigeon racing depend on the country and championship. Competition organizers carefully consider the best weather conditions and liberation points for releasing the pigeons. The distance between the pigeon’s home loft and the liberation point is carefully measured by mapping and GPS. Pigeons are entered to a race at the club’s headquarters (such as a local public house, sports club or village hall) and must adhere to strict regulations. Once all the birds are entered into the race, they are collected by a specially designed pigeon racing transportation vehicle and taken to a predetermined liberation point. The pigeons are then released from the same liberation point at the same time. The fastest birds to return back to the home loft are awarded the prize money.
Over the last decade, pigeon racing has gained significant traction both in terms of the racing pigeons and the rewards distributed during the competitions. This trend is conditioned by the growing Asian markets, gaining popularity particularly in Mainland China and Taiwan; emerging as a multibillion-dollar industry. Despite the fast-paced growth of the sport, there still exists unresolved challenges which hamper the industry’s further development.
The problems are primarily related to the infrastructural deficiencies and high segregation of the market. Different clubs follow their own processes and technologies to service pigeon races. This leads to significant value loss where there is a poor utilization of shared benefits from a unified infrastructure.
Introducing the market to a high quality and easy to use technology will lead to significant cost savings for the industry. Pigeon Chain allows racing clubs and leagues to apply the Pigeon Chain platform to organize pigeon races, auctions and other events, without any need to set up their own individual infrastructure. Furthermore, unification of the technological infrastructure will ensure racing clubs adhere to the highest standards of quality in pigeon racing and facilitate a better user experience. The cost cutting measures and ease of application that Pigeon Chain provides will enable the emergence of new leagues and clubs, increase the popularity of existing clubs and, therefore, promote the growth of pigeon racing generally. Pigeon Chain will enable the mitigation of human errors, fraud and misconduct present within the racing process, which will increase participant’s trust and confidence in the pigeon racing industry.
In order to provide the above-mentioned value propositions, the Pigeon Chain platform will apply blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is a decentralized and immutable data ledger which enables the storage of information in verifiable and permanent way. It is used to effectively achieve consensus on the shared state of a network without a central integration point, which is a true breakthrough in computer science. Considering the significant advantages of blockchain technology, including no single point of failure, the trustless ex*****on of smart contracts, no central governance, and the deterministic nature of the smart contracts, blockchain’s ability to power the pigeon racing infrastructure will be highly disruptive to the market. The initial version of the project will be built on Ethereum blockchain, but we also consider the EOS and other public blockchains to keep the application blockchain agnostic.
We believe that the blockchain-based Pigeon Chain platform will open a new page in the pigeon racing industry, boosting further popularization of the sport while facilitating the aggregation and standardization of the industry utilizing the most advanced technology available.
