McLaren Racing Joins Hedera Council to Accelerate Web3 Fan Engagement

Reigning Formula One constructors champion, McLaren Racing, has joined the Hedera Council in a move which seems intended to boost retail engagement on the largely enterprise-focussed network. 

As part of its new role on Hedera’s governing body, McLaren will now host a network node and gain governance rights, helping to guide the development and growth of the Hedera network.

Joining Hedera Council enables us to help shape the Hedera network’s evolution, while delivering a seamless, secure, and scalable fan experience worldwide.

Nick Martin, McLaren Racing’s Co-Chief Commercial Officer

McLaren Racing is a somewhat unusual addition to the Hedera Council, being much smaller than most of the existing council members and also being the first sporting organisation added. Other members include the likes of Google, IBM, Dell, Australian Payments Plus, Standard Bank and the recently announced FedEx. 

The Hedera Council currently includes 34 members drawn from a diverse range of industries and geographies. When fully populated, the council will have a total of 39 members.

McLaren’s addition to the Hedera Council follows a sponsorship deal announced earlier this year that saw the Hedera logo added to McLaren’s cars and race suits. The deal also involved the launch of a range of free-to-mint NFT collectibles issued on Hedera, with releases coinciding with F1 race events.

The Australian and Chinese NFTs have already dropped, with the Japanese NFT drop coinciding with the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka this weekend. The collectibles are accessible through native Hedera wallets, such as HashPack.

McLaren representatives are also set to appear at the Hedera ecosystem’s flagship event, HederaCon on May 4 in Miami Beach, which will take place alongside the Miami Formula One Grand Prix.

Related: AUDD Launches Natively on Hedera, Pioneering Australian Dollar Stablecoin Innovation

Hedera Technology Played Central Role In RBA’s CBDC Pilot, Project Acacia

Earlier this month, it was confirmed by Hashgraph, an enterprise software firm focussed on building solutions on the Hedera network, that its HashSphere technology played a central role in the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) led wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) pilot, Project Acacia.

HashSphere essentially functions as a private instance of the public Hedera network, allowing institutions and enterprises to maintain a high level of control over their network environment, while still maintaining complete compatibility and easy communication with the public Hedera mainnet.

In an article published to its website, Hashgraph said it collaborated closely with Australian Payments Plus (AP+), the operator o fAustralia’s domestic payments scheme (including Eftpos and BPAY). Throughout Project Acacia, AP+ leveraged Hedera’s HashSphere technology across three use cases, which focussed on “integrating tokenized money with Australia’s existing payments infrastructure, including the New Payments Platform (NPP).”

Related: Australia Grants Stablecoin Class Relief to Boost Digital Asset Innovation

Commenting on the use of HashSphere in Project Acacia, Rob Allen, the Head of the Hedera Enterprise Adoption Team (HEAT) at Hashgraph, said that it proves “digital money can work in the real economy, under real regulatory oversight.” 

“HashSphere was designed for exactly this kind of environment. It gives regulated institutions a trusted foundation to build, test, and scale digital asset solutions with confidence.”