Smart Contracts: The New Ticketing Frontier
Speaking at Elev8CON in Las Vegas, Sandy Khaund, the VP of blockchain products at Ticketmaster, unveiled a vision that could flip the ticketing industry on its head. With the ticketing market poised to hit a staggering $6.23 billion by 2025, Khaund argues that treating tickets as smart contracts could be the ticket—in a punny way, of course! Who wouldn’t want to ride the blockchain wave into profitable waters?
Tokenizing Tickets for a Better Experience
Khaund emphasized how smart contracts can enhance scalability, integrate seamlessly with other service providers, and unlock a treasure trove of revenue opportunities. “We want to support 400-500 million tickets using smart contracts and blockchain technology,” Khaund proclaimed, and let’s be honest, that sure sounds ambitious—yet achievable!
Unveiling Ticketmaster’s Ticket Tales
Just this year alone, Ticketmaster sold a whopping 73 million concert tickets—yes, you read that right! That’s a 4 million increase on the year, landing them a not-so-tiny role in the 475 million tickets they manage annually. With numbers like that, who thought we’d ever need a pint-sized concert calendar?
The Blockchain Bellwether
Khaund claims that blockchain isn’t just a tech buzzword; it’s the magic wand for creating value for ticket buyers while ensuring those much-desired tickets find their way into the hands of the fans—not the scalpers! According to Khaund, “Blockchain is the only technology that can do this by using smart contracts.” Pretty neat, right?
How Smart Contracts Work: Pearl Jam’s Real-life Use Case
To sprinkle a little real-world flair into technical jargon, Khaund shared the incredible “Pearl Jam” use case. During Pearl Jam’s series of altruistic hometown shows benefitting homeless populations, the intention was to keep tickets at an affordable $150. But, as is often the case, dreams of affordability collided with market demand. Tickets started flying out the door for way more than the initial price!
Now, what to do? Ticketmaster whipped up a smart contract that created two types of tickets. One was strictly non-transferable, ensuring that ticket scalpers didn’t snag them up, while the second could be transferred once. All of this technical wizardry was pulled off in just 15 minutes! Talk about cutting-edge speed!
Keeping Blockchain Invisible to Fans
Here’s the mic-drop moment: Khaund voiced something critical—using blockchain technology shouldn’t feel like rocket science to everyday concert-goers. “We want people to like our products. It’s not about the technology for the end-users,” he said, reinforcing that innovation should enhance, not complicate, the customer experience.
Three Pillars of Success
As Ticketmaster charts its course through the blockchain seas, Khaund pinpointed three stellar goals: integration, performance, and extensibility. “Our job is to make sure the integration process for tickets is seamless with other systems, like SafeTix,” he asserted. And if you think that’s ambitious, they’re also targeting a future with millions of lag-free tickets at scale and endlessly creative use cases. The future is bright, folks!
