When we first caught wind of Bike Club NFT, claiming to be ‘the world’s first blockchain-based cycling club’, we also noticed that the idea was met with a pretty scathing reaction from some corners of the cycling community. After the second wave of backlash we got a message from Bike Club, and thought it was time to put some questions to two of the founders: Tyler Benedict, also the founder of Bike Rumour, and Richard Mitchelson, the popular cycling artist also known as Rich Mitch.
*Press play to listen to the interview, keep scrolling for bonus musings
A decentralised cycling club with members from all over the world, happily chatting away online about their shared love of all things bike… sounds great, right? Almost a little bit like the original concept of road.cc when we started out way back in 2008. It’s also what the founders of Bike Club NFT says it has started; however, it turns out if you add in the word ‘NFT’ and require members to buy in using the controversial cryptocurrency called Ether, you risk making at least half of cycling Twitter pretty mad.
Catastrophic for the environment.
— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) February 5, 2022
Environmentally damaging, ‘Ponzi scheme’, ‘scam’ were some of the terms and accusations being thrown around, and it was all turned up a notch when the former pro-turned presenter and commentator Matt Stephens announced his involvement earlier this month.
Stephens is a highly respected and much-loved…
