Blocktix : Decentralized Network for Event Hosting & Ticketing Using Ethereum’s Blockchain

Blocktix is a novel, decentralized platform for ticket distribution and event hosting. The platform operates via Ethereum’s smart contracts, which enable verification of authentic tickets rendering it almost impossible to counterfeit them.

Blocktix is aimed at providing a decentralized network for distribution and sales of tickets. Individuals as well as companies can buy and sell tickets via means of cryptographic digital signatures stored on Ethereum’s blockchain. Via this approach, Blocktix simplifies the process of selling and buying of tickets and omits the need for centralized servers. Accordingly, either parties can enjoy the lowest possible fees and downtime due to the decentralized nature of the network.

Any individual who owns sufficient tokens can arrange events and sell its tickets online without having to worry about any of the complexities that are usually encountered. Blocktix offers a friendly user interface for management of smart contracts, thus, offering their intuitive capabilities to the public through an innovative application. The great thing about this approach is that it alleviates the complexity that associates interacting with smart contracts, while providing an added security layer which minimizes the possibility of malicious or fraudulent activities due to the standardization of smart contracts.

Why Do We Need Blocktix?

Based on data from Meeting Professionals International, the American events and meeting industry generates almost $1 trillion a year while providing more than 6 million jobs. However, event hosting and ticketing is currently a rather cumbersome and expensive procedure. In most cases, event promoters hire distribution companies such as Ticketmaster to simplify the process. Distribution services add an average of 15% to the original ticket price, as they advertise the event via various media channels. Technically speaking, the advertising costs of an event can exceed 40% of the event’s overall budget. Ticket counterfeiting leads to over $1 billion per year, which urged the need for trusted third parties in the peer-to-peer aftermarket transfers. These third party intermediaries charge an added amount that can reach 20-25% of the overall value of the ticket.

An Overview of Blocktix:

Blocktix is created on Ethereum’s blockchain, because it is by far the ideal blockchain that provides a practical and efficient toolset for management of smart contracts. Ethereum is the default payment method for Blocktix, so tickets are purchased using Ethereum by default, yet other payment methods such as wire transfers and credit cards can be added via third party services.

Blocktix incentivizes all crowdfunding participants with Blocktix tokens (BTX) in exchange for the amount of ethereum they transferred to Blocktix. Initially, the price of 100 BTX will be equal to 1 ETH, this price will be only valid for the first week, then price will rise by 5% a day for the following 2 weeks. Whenever the desired capital is sourced, issuance of tokens will take place. These funds will remain locked until development is completed. In case the target is not met, all ETH and bitcoin sourced to Blocktix will be refunded to their owners, minus the transaction fees.

Any individual who owns BTX is a token holder that is granted some benefits over those who don’t own tokens. Through participation in the process of event verification, the token holders will be incentivized for the work done. Initially, the reward will be in the form of BTX which is used to back the event.

Anyone can purchase the advertising right for any event on Blocktix. These funds will be divided on all token holders who participated in the process of event verification, in a manner proportional to the amount of BTX tokens owned by each token holder. The system tracks all ongoing events and displays them in the event feed and the chance of appearance of an event in event feed is directly proportional to the amount of funds sent to the advertising contract of the event.

The user interface will be created using HTML and Javascript. The below image shows a mockup of Blocktix’s event page that allows users to buy tickets and vouchers. Blocktrix will use Solidity as a programming language for smart contracts. Solidity is the flagship language of Ethereum’s blockchain and is currently the most commonly used language for scripting smart contracts.