With a semblance of control over the spread of COVID-19 due to many of the population having already been fully vaccinated and countries having established guidelines to protect against the transmission of the virus, public gatherings like concerts and sports games are being allowed once again and the events industry is starting to recover.
The pandemic has also engendered online events, which are still being held by many. Live online concerts, plays and other events are the new normal, but smart ticketing systems have remained stagnant, fraught with many problems such as system crashes, fraudulent activities and ticket scalping.
Blockchain technology, an auditable public database that allows for the immutable storage of data, is gaining ground in global enterprise adoption, especially with the pandemic relegating most activities online. It has provided different industries with a means to improve systems and streamline processes by removing costly third parties out of transactions.
Blockchain technology not only makes everything cheaper, but also increases the general efficiency of many operations, resolving chronic problems like double spending, manual and slow updating of records, and fraud. However, not all blockchains have the capability to offer these solutions.
Ticketing on the BSV Blockchain
In order to resolve the issues that plague the smart ticketing industry, SmartLedger has built its ticketing platform TicketMint on the BSV blockchain, the only public blockchain equipped with the ability for limitless scaling.
Being able to continuously scale means that data blocks have no limit and throughput can be increased exponentially, lowering transaction fees as the network scales. To make the idea clearer, take BTC as an example. Because its blockchain cannot scale, data blocks are restricted to 1MB and throughput is at a maximum of just seven transactions per second (tps), currently charging from $2 to $6 per transaction, with an all-time high of almost $60.
Imagine buying a $15 movie ticket and being charged $6 for the transaction. Now, imagine if a ticketing system selling hundreds of thousands of tickets each year has to pay an additional $6 for every transaction it would put on the blockchain.
That would amount to a total of over a million dollars—something that is very impractical for businesses. And what if a global online event is selling tickets, at only seven tps, the ticketing system would only crash. It is, therefore, not a solution, but a liability to build a ticketing system on the BTC blockchain.
At present, a 2GB block has already been mined on the BSV blockchain, breaking world records for largest block mined on a blockchain. Early next year, the Teranode update will be released, effectively increasing throughput to up to 100,000 tps. The average price per BSV transaction is already at less than a penny; and this would even be lowered when update takes effect.
With transaction fees that could hardly be felt, ticketing on blockchain becomes a lot cheaper and more efficient. And by capitalizing on these powerful capabilities of the BSV blockchain, TicketMint is able to take ticketing to a whole new level, being able to offer tickets as collectible NFTs, properly secure intellectual property licenses, incorporate promotion and marketing campaign strategies, and provide incentives to influencers and fans.
“Until recently, it hasn’t been economically feasible to use NFTs or blockchain for real-world utility due to network congestion and high transaction fees. By utilizing a stable, secure, scalable and sustainable public blockchain with tokenization, micropayments, smart-contracts, and meta-infused NFTs, a whole world of new capabilities and efficiencies are now available,” Bryan Daugherty, Co-Founder, Chairman and Technical Advisor of SmartLedger, said.
Providing Innovative Events Solutions
TicketMint’s solutions that benefit both customers and events production companies are made possible through its collaboration with trusted technological service providers. With its partnership with Epic, a firm that produces and distributes branded content, TicketMint has access to its expertise of digital licensing and merchandise, as well as its roster of over 1,000 brands, celebrities and music artists.
TicketMint is also working with Transmira, developer of virtual app Omniscape XR, which is like a much more advanced version of PokemonGo. This allows brands and sponsors to place digital advertising and special offers in Omniscape XR that can be redeemed in the real world.
“There is a dramatic shift happening in several industries driven by blockchain and NFTs that we are only beginning to see. TicketMint is a great example of new business models leveraging technology for better user experiences and engagement. We are thrilled to help bring this to life,” Transmira CEO Robert Rice explained.
Promotion marketplace TonicPow allows production firms working with TicketMint to gain access to influencers through its incentivized system, having an in-house “virtual street team” to promote events.
“TicketMint will offer new ways for ticket issuers to promote their events and engage their fans including exclusively minted, redeemable and collectable NFT tickets for real-world and virtual events,” Gregory Ward, Chief Development Officer of Smartledger, said.
