Have you ever bought a ticket to an exclusive event from a secondary seller, at double or triple the original price? Did the ticket turn out to be fake? Well, we can understand the pain you must have gone through. However, the advancement of technology into Web3 has offered a unique solution to all these problems related to traditional tickets. Non-fungible tokens are rapidly turning the world of paper-based tickets upside down. Let’s explore how NFT tickets are changing the event scapes for good! 

What are NFT Tickets?

NFTs or non-fungible tokens have become the talk of almost every crypto community. They act as such a great proof of authenticity and ownership, leading people to turn more assets into NFTs and launch collections. Similarly, when NFTs are combined with tickets, it gives birth to a brand new concept of NFT tickets. 

Now you may ask what is the need for turning tickets into NFTs when these paper-based tickets have been sold for years, just like that! Well, we will answer that question later in this article. Let’s first look at the mechanism that drives the whole system of NFT tickets and makes them so much desirable.

How do NFT Tickets Work?

The core foundations that rule the working of NFT tickets are NFT minting, smart contracts, and crypto-wallets. Let’s understand the role of each of them in a bit more detail.

NFT Minting

The first step in creating NFT tickets is the minting of NFTs on the blockchain. The issuing organization and companies chose their preferred blockchains to mint the tickets to their events as NFTs. The companies may decide on minting the tickets in batches, depending on the number of seats left in the event. In addition to minting the NFTs, the companies prepare smart contracts that regulate the sale and purchase of NFT tickets.

Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are just like traditional paper-based contracts, the only difference here is that the smart contracts are digital contracts stored on blockchains. These contracts outline all the basic information about the NFTs such as the selling price, auction price, the royalty fee, and any other condition that the seller may need the buyer to fulfill.

Once the buyer meets all the conditions mentioned in the contracts and pays the price, the smart contract executes itself, leading to the transfer of the NFT in the buyer’s wallet. Similarly, if the buyer wishes to sell the NFT and there are royalty fees included in the smart contract, the initial seller will receive a royalty fee payment in their wallet whenever the NFT is resold. This is why earning from royalties is one of the easiest ways to earn passive income from the NFTs that you already own. 

Crypto Wallets

As mentioned above, crypto wallets are necessary for you to store your NFTs. Think of having precious metal jewelry and no pouch to store it. It is prone to get stolen, right? Similarly, NFTs are digital assets that need to be stored in crypto-based wallets. Whenever you buy an NFT ticket and make a payment from your wallet, the ticket will get deposited in your wallet. 

You can also stake these NFTs at dedicated platforms by connecting your wallet to the platform and start earning passive income. To know more about NFT staking and how you can earn money from it, read this blog here. 

Need for NFT Tickets

There have been several issues with the traditional ticketing systems that led to the introduction and hence, the rise of the NFT ticketing system, making tickets much more useful to the organizers, stakeholders, and fans. Here are some of the major problems with the paper-based ticketing system.

1. Fake Tickets

Over the years of printing forged tickets, the counterfeiters have become pretty skilled at this art, making it almost impossible for the buyers to identify the fake tickets from the genuine ones. By the process of NFT ticketing, the buyers can easily check the details of the tickets and see if they have actually been minted on the blockchain, getting proof of authenticity.

2. No watch over data: Need for NFT Tickets

Now, with the traditional ticketing system, the organizers sell the paper-based tickets out without having access to the details of the buyers or any other data that may be helpful for the organizers to make more informed decisions. But with the introduction of NFT tickets, the organizing companies can easily keep a track of the attendees and gather all the relevant information since everything is stored on the blockchain. 

3. Elevated prices due to hoarding

Thirdly, many “intelligent” minds buy the event tickets in bulk and then sell them out at higher prices. This neither benefits the organizers nor the buyer. It is because the sellers do not gain any portion of the profits that the secondary sellers make.

In addition to this, the buyers have to pay a higher price for the tickets. If the tickets are minted as NFTs on the blockchain, the sale and purchase of the NFT will be visible at every step, making it easy for the sellers to keep track of the tickets and earn value wherever possible. 

4. No access to the additional revenue: Need for NFT Tickets

As mentioned above, the hoarding of tickets offers no value to the organizers of an event. This problem can easily be solved by using the NFT ticketing system where the organizers can feed the royalty fee within the smart contracts so that every time the NFT is resold, the organizers automatically get paid the royalty fee. 

Benefits of NFT Tickets

There are several benefits that NFT tickets offer in comparison with the traditional ticketing system. Some of these benefits include:

1. Hassle-free production

Unlike paper-based tickets which need time and resources to be printed, NFT tickets are easy to produce. There are several marketplaces that allow organizers to mint NFTs free of cost. For example, you can mint POAP NFTs on the dedicated platform within 5 minutes. All you have to do is enter the event details, a short description, and the number of links you need and that’s it. 

2. Additional perks for the buyers

As given in the example of POAP NFTs above, the organizers can mint NFT tickets and add additional perks to it like access to meet and greets, early access to the upcoming events, insider information, and so on. While the inclusion of such perks is difficult in traditional tickets, NFT-based tickets make the task quite easy. 

3. Eliminates the problem of counterfeiting

Since the whole system of NFT tickets is governed by blockchain technology and smart contacts, it is impossible for anyone to forge the tickets. This eliminates a big problem of the sale and purchase of fake tickets as the buyers can easily verify the authenticity of the tickets. 

4. Streamlines the distribution system

In contrast to traditional tickets, where there is absolutely no structured system for ticket distribution, NFT ticketing streamlines the production as well as distribution of the tickets among the fans. In addition to this, the event organizers can overlook the flow of tickets and identify any loopholes. 

5. Open additional revenue streams

The event organizers can enter the royalty percentages and benefit from them whenever an NFT ticket is resold to a new buyer. This opens an additional revenue stream for the event organizers and prevents the scammers from taking advantage of them.

Future of NFT Ticketing

Given the array of benefits that NFT tickets are offering to the event organizers as well as the fans, it is quite evident that the future of NFT ticketing is bright. SeatLab NFT is one such company that is working hard to establish an NFT marketplace, completely dedicated to NFT tickets. 

The company is driven by the aim to provide artists, event organizers, and fans a platform to connect with one another and fight against ticket hoarders and scalpers. Also, the platform is allowing organizers to gain control over the secondary ticketing markets and engage with their audience by providing them with incentives and rewarding them for their loyalty. 

Conclusion

If we look at the numerous pros of NFT tickets and the scope of solutions that they offer to the problems faced by organizing companies and ticket buyers because of the normal ticketing system, we can say for sure that more companies will be switching over to NFT ticketing. What we must look out for is which company will step up first. If you are that company, know more about minting event tickets here!