Quote from: cupillar on August 24, 2017, 06:06:42 AM

i fidn this project really interesting. especially working blockchain on ticketing.

one question. in this situation, other than a cool backend and front end system. why is blockchain so necessary in the product? cant those features just be put into any old system and make it work better?

Thanks for the compliment!

This is a very good question and frankly a very important one. Therefore my answer will be a bit long!

The current system you observe in the sandbox and see in the screencaps in the original announcement is currently live and used by GUTS, a ticketing company. GUTS could, in essence, for the cost reduction reasons you mention yourself go without the blockchain registration without really losing the key benefits of this system. Going for a 'native' database registration by GUTS would make the system less transparent for consumers as GUTS could make these state-changes unavailable for the public or could (in theory) present false state-change data. This lack of transparency is what causes a lot of problems observed in the market at the present moment. With companies as Ticketmaster owning secondary ticketing markets and more sketchy business models that are allowed to exist due to this darkness/lack of transparency.

So up until now, I haven't explained why a blockchain is necessary to solve the problems in this industry, only why it would be 'nice' to have one. This is obviously not strong enough of an argument to go to market. So let's get into the real reason we need the blockchain and why the market will move towards a blockchain solution. First of all, it is important to distinguish the difference between GUTS Tickets (the ticketing company) and the GET-protocol, the protocol that will be run by an independent foundation/entity and that will build the open protocol for other ticketing companies to use so not only for ticketing company GUTS. GUTS will use the protocol as well but as just another ticketing company. By being an underlying protocol/API this initiative can scale quickly as existing ticketing companies with there existing clients can implement the GET-protocol and add smart ticket features without changing a lot of their business model and 'front-end'.

So in a sense, the blockchain is needed because it enables the smart ticket solution described and tested in the market by ticketing company GUTS to scale. The protocol will create wallets for every unique user (currently we verify by SMS, but we are researching other unique-ness measures, like social logins but also decentral identity solutions like CIVIC) With this unique account tied to the user they will still always have the same wallet address even if you are buying a ticket in a different country or from a different event organizer. For consumers this would mean they would only need one verified account with the GET-protocol, that has an ethereum wallet connected to it, to buy tickets with every event-organizers or ticketing company worldwide. Pretty cool. Apart from the standardization aspect the blockchain provides, there is the role of the GET and its distribution/economy of the token in the event ticketing value chain. Transferring the tokens among these actors also requires a blockchain, as you well know. Especially as it is our roadmap to eventually cover the whole value of the ticket instead of only the transaction costs. This would greatly reduce the transaction and processing costs in FIAT/crypto conversion that currently are present in the secondary market. More on the tokens role in this system can be found in the white paper.

So that is the fundamental reason we believe that blockchain is the solution to the problems in this industry. But we also believe that apart from solving the problems in the industry this protocol can actually add a whole new layer to the event experience. Currently, an event ticket is just a QR code on a piece of paper / on your phone. But with this tech + the blockchain, it can be much more. Beverage and drink tokens that belong to a certain event-organizer can be added to a wallet and used the next time you visit the event of this organizer! Or these beverage tokens can be transferred to your friends via the GET-protocol wallet etc. The days of entering an event with a piece of paper and buying plastic coins is over:)

I hope this answer is sufficient, I may have to edit it a bit as I am in a bit of a hurry. But I think the overall message is clear. In upcoming weeks we will add more information about our roadmap and future rollout plans of the protocol GUTS is a company that is live in the market with a ticket application and real event-organizers using our service. As such the team has their hands full with development tasks to make these customers happy. We have a big ticket sale coming up in a week after this more developer time will be available to put our future plans for the protocol into writing and tell you guys more about the ICO. I would strongly recommend reading our white paper in the mean time!