How often have you attempted to obtain tickets for an upcoming event just to see the “sold out” status the second you logged on? Imagine sitting in front of your computer for hours when you finally get the notification that ticket sales have begun. After logging into your account you then quickly notice that all tickets are gone within that split-second. How could something like this happen? Organizers for all sorts of events ranging from New York Comic Con to sporting events have orchestrated strategies to combat ticket hoarding. However scalpers continuously devise ways to bypass these preventive measures using bots and other hacking techniques. Fraudulent means have posed a threat to the ticketing industry for a while due to the opaqueness of the industry. The answer to such frustrating challenges resides within blockchain technology and the increasing amount of blockchain developers.
What exactly is blockchain and how can it fight ticket hoarding? In short the blockchain is a list of records that are linked together and secured using cryptography. The blockchain is resistant to any type of modification of data and used to record transactions between two parties directly. The decentralization of the blockchain allows for peer-to-peer transactions to take place in the form of virtual contracts, disallowing for any third party interference. Blockchain has given individuals and companies the opportunity to take back their financial freedom by partaking in direct transactions between two parties. With the rise of blockchain development, there has been a serge of various decentralized applications made to connect peers directly with businesses or other individuals for transactional means. Blockchain developers have been hard at work coding out dApps or decentralized applications. The ticketing industry should seriously take a look at the apps these blockchain developers have been constructing. DApps have the potential to combat fake tickets, ticket duplication, ticket hoarding bots and various other tricks used by scalpers. Blockchain developed applications also offer more transparency for customers to see where exactly their money is going. To read more about the ticketing issues that blockchain can fight be sure to read this Cointelegraph article.
Let’s take a look into some decentralized ticketing applications by blockchain developers that are leading the way. First up is Blocktix, the Ethereum-based platform that connects event organizers with an incentivised community. Blocktix allows event hosters to save up to 90% of their budget by directly connecting event hosters to communities that help with organizing and funding proposed events. Users that are part of these communities act as “event vetters”, and are awarded credit whenever they attend events and write reviews. To learn more about the Blocktix platform read more on their website. The open-source Aventus platform is looking to use the blockchain to manage ticketing sales while combating touting, counterfeiting and technical debt. Aventus blockchain developers aim to keep the Aventus platform open-source in order to promote the transparency of their platform amongst tech savvy individuals. Find out more about Aventus on their company website. Companies such as Blocktix and Aventus are utilizing blockchain development not only for a business venture but also to solve fraud issues surrounding the ticketing industry today. With the emergence of blockchain ticketing platforms established ticketing companies must not turn a blind eye to hiring blockchain developers to integrate blockchain features into their existing platforms. With blockchain becoming a way to engage in trustworthy peer-to-peer transactions it is predicted that the demand for blockchain developers will only continue to rise. To learn more about the development process for blockchain and virtual contracts be sure to reference this blockchain developer info page.
The ticketing industry now has an opportunity to solve the frustrating issues that exist around ticket purchases today. Perhaps the best advice for ticketing companies and early startups is to highly consider integrating their platform on the blockchain. Not only would these companies see a rise in customer usage of their services, but also a rise in customer satisfaction as well.
To learn more about how blockchain-based ticketing systems can be used to crowdfund events have a look at our article “Crowdfund Events with Ethereum Smart Contracts and the Power of the Blockchain”.
Thanks for the post. I think I experienced the issue with train tickets back in nineties.