Ticketing has evolved with various kinds of methods. There are old-school-style physical tickets made of paper or plastic, digital tickets with QR codes, and now even NFT ticketing. Blockchain technology allows ticketing to follow the trend of NFT. But is it an upgrade or a downgrade of ticketing?
Sometimes, a ticket for certain events can be worth collecting. That means the ticket can be sold again to a collector. However, it isn't easy to keep a ticket in its prime condition or even ready to be purchased. For example, a physical ticket can get many kinds of abuse if stored incorrectly. In contrast, a digital ticket with a QR code is gone after the event is done since it is only used for verification or anything similar. Like other digital collectibles, such problems would not happen to a ticket NFT. A ticket NFT can be collected along with other things that are impossible to be provided by the traditional ticketing system.
The number of scammers in the world of ticketing makes the traditional ticketing system look as bad as it can be. Scammers can inflict a financial loss for event organizers and customers of certain events. Some people take advantage of the traditional ticketing system merely for their gains. They can purposely buy a huge amount of tickets, or even every single of them, for a certain event, then sell those tickets to customers for higher prices. It can also affect the event since more expensive tickets possibly mean fewer guests. It is almost impossible for event organizers to control who the guests of their event are, since the details of the actual guests are different from the people who bought the tickets in the first place. Event organizers cannot track any outside transactions, which makes those scammers reign supreme.
However, it is not the end of the world if those tickets sold by scammers are real tickets and just over-priced ones. It is not a rare occasion that fake tickets are offered by imposters who seem like real agents. It definitely can reduce the trust of some customers and would bring awful names for event organizers.
The transactions of the NFT ticketing are very similar to other NFT transactions. In this context, event organizers are the artists of ticket NFTs. They can mint those ticket NFTs in a certain amount on a blockchain. The price of those ticket NFTs can be fixed or as an auction for people to bid on.
People can buy ticket NFTs straight from the event organizers with the help of the smart contract system to ease the transactions. Therefore, once the payment is done, the buyer would get a ticket NFT straight away.
With blockchain technology, people can securely store their purchased ticket NFTs in their wallets. Moreover, they can also resell their ticket NFTs, as long as it is allowed by the event organizers, with the same method as when they buy the ticket NFTs without any aggrieved party.
Even though it would give more benefits to event organizers, using NFTs for ticketing purposes also gives some benefits to customers. The most important thing is that no one would be able to take advantage while hurting others on a blockchain.
The first tempting benefit for event organizers is that NFTs allow them to reduce the costs of both time and resources to produce tickets for certain events. It is nothing for the cost of minting and distributing NFTs compared to the production of common tickets. It only takes seconds for a ticket NFT to be minted and ready to sell.
NFTs also prevent scammers from selling fake tickets for certain events. The authenticity of ticket NFTs can be guaranteed as every transaction on a blockchain can be tracked, and the ownership history of the ticket NFTs. Therefore, it is safe to buy a ticket NFT from people who want to sell theirs.
Finally, when an event is over, the ticket NFTs for that event still has some value. They can be sold or collected as collectibles, and the collectors can get something for the next events from certain event organizers. Event organizers can also mint some post-event merchandise NFTs to earn more profit.
Some companies have already taken advantage of this phenomenon of using NFTs for ticketing purposes. These five companies, YellowHeart, GUTS, WICKET, NFT TiX, and Seatlab, are in charge of ticket NFT sales. The first company is YellowHeart, a ticket NFT marketplace purposely built for the music and entertainment industry and has worked with some big names in that industry. The marketplace company has a mobile app to ease the transactions for people.
The second company, GUTS, is the biggest ticket NFT provider in the Netherlands as it has sold more than half a million ticket NFTs. Unlike YellowHeart, which only focuses on the music industry, GUTS provides ticket NFTs for concerts, festivals, live streams, theaters, and other events. Similar to GUTS, WICKET is a ticket NFT provider that offers tickets for many varieties of events. The company is from Italy, which has a ticketing price problem among companies all over the nation. That problem allows WICKET to provide well-priced tickets for customers. It can be recognized from its name that NFT TiX is a company specializing in ticket NFTs. It is a versatile ticket NFT provider that can work on multiple blockchains.
The last company, Seatlab, is a ticket NFT marketplace that brings good news for event organizers. The company allows ticket NFT sellers to gain more profit from resales allowed by the secondary ticket marketplace, thanks to Seatlab.
In conclusion, NFT ticketing, with many benefits for all parties involved, is many times better than traditional ticketing. Still, people need to learn how blockchain technology works before diving into NFTs. There is nothing wrong with learning new things in this digital era anyway.
No Comment