How can NFTs solve common problems with event ticketing

When going to a festival, a concert, or a theater, you’ll need a ticket to enter. But there’s common problems with old school methods with this kind of ticketing. NFT can solve that and Carolin Wend from Mintbase is explaining how.

The problems with traditional event ticketing

Interoperability, scarcity and ownership don’t exist on the internet, nor in traditional ticketing. Non-fungible tokens will shake up the ticketing industry and rival traditional companies like eventbrite and co.

Costs

Event organizers don’t have it easy nowadays. They face high upfront costs as well as high risks such as terrorist threats, natural disasters or counterfeiting tickets. On top of that, promoters have to wait until ticketing companies payout ticket sales after the event has finished. Companies like eventbrite take a high percentage of every ticket sold, which is usually between 2 and 3.5% on every sale, in addition to a set fee. What ticketing companies give in return is a digital ticket sales solution, marketing and sometimes – hardware scanners. 

Scalpers and Authenticity

Another major issue is that tickets are sold on secondary markets for a much higher price and it is difficult to control who is buying, selling, or redeeming a ticket. On average, 12% of people buying concert tickets get scammed (Source). In short, the whole ticket sales cycle is a mess.

Where do NFTs come in?

NFTs can add great value to ticketing companies and change conventional ticketing to smart ticketing. With NFTs, smart tickets are verifiable, interoperable and have clear ownership. A ticket does not die after being redeemed at an event but, lives on in digital wallets of the user’s choice.

Costs

The costs associated with building and minting non-fungible tokens is negligible, especially compared to traditional ticketing infrastructure. Structured correctly, hundreds or even thousands of NFTs (smart tickets) could be created for less than a couple of dollars. Take a look at Gods Unchained minting process where this is strongly proven and in-production. Not only do tickets cost less to produce, but they are also unforgeable – the event organizers can easily, quickly, and without a question validate the authenticity and history of ownership.

Scalpers and Authenticity

This is where the blockchain truly shines. Where re-sale is acceptable, using non-fungible tokens built on top of blockchain technology enables an end-user to verify and validate the authenticity of the ticket with absolute certainty.

Where scalping/resale of an event’s ticket is strictly forbidden, and the event organizers can enforce this without error. NFTs can be made non-transferrable in computer code and prevent the transfer of tickets.

Non-fungible tokens as event tickets in the wild

The first-ever NFT-exclusive ticketing event hosted by MetaCartel during Berlin Blockchain Week in 2019 recently announced that the tickets will unlock features for other events in the future. MetaCartel made over $6000 and all transactions can be seen on Etherscan.

The leading non-fungible token event called NFT.NYC has a live Web3.0 embedded script that can live on any website (Hubspot, WordPress, you name it). To see it, just go to this website and click register and buy with ETH.

There is still a long way to go, but NFT ticketing is clearly a very exciting path for the future. Mintbase is a platform where anyone can mint digital assets OR tickets as non-fungible tokens (NFT) on the Ethereum Virtual Machine by deploying and managing their own smart contracts.  

Some words from the Author

Users can embed their own Web3.0 shops and tickets on any websites or virtual worlds, like CryptoVoxels, where Mintbase has it’s virtual headquarters. Mintbase has teamed up with friends such as Gnosis, nonce, MetaCartel, OpenSea, Kickback, Matic, Portis, Gitcoin and many more to create an NFT Advent Calendar. They want to prove that NFT interoperability is real and that the NFT ecosystem works well together. Our biggest threat is not other NFT projects, but the slow mainstream adoption of non-crypto users. Check the calendar out in Mintbase’s HQ @Cryptovoxels. Every day starting from December 1st until the 24th at exactly 5PM CET ⏱,  go to the virtual headquarters or keep an eye on our twitter.

Make sure to check it out, NonFungible.com will also have some special surprises during the event!