A Blockchain-Based Ticket Sales Platform

Concerts or fan meetings usually attract lots of attention, generating huge demand for tickets for these events. But, existing ticket purchase systems are unable to efficiently and transparently accommodate this. We often hear scandals of bot-controlled clients gobbling up tickets within seconds after sales open or celebrities acquiring prime tickets exceeding individual quota. These problems arise because existing systems are centralized. This can be a single point of failure and the controlling authority can ban or give privileges to certain users. This work sets out to remedy these problems using a blockchain-base solution that, by nature, is highly decentralized. We have created and deployed EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine)-based smart contracts for ticket sales platform on two EVM-compatible blockchains, Ethereum (ETH) and Avalanche (AVAX). These contracts inherit heavily from the ERC-721 standard for NFT (Non-Fungible Token). The platforms on both blockchains engender the desirable transparency. However, the platform on Avalanche is much more efficient and economical to deploy and utilize. We have open-sourced the code for our platform on Github. Visit the following link to fork or check it out: https://github.com/JesperBerben/TicketNFT In addition, you can now interact with our platform on Avalanche which has been deployed and verified at the address linked to below: https://snowtrace.io/address/0x17fd3f6cf6cbff75604b63f1ca12c6db29730a9c

I. Introduction

The entertainment industry encourages interactions between artists and fans. Some popular activities include fan meetings and concerts, both of which require tickets to access. As the industry grows, the demand for such tickets soars. However, the platform for ticket distribution has not changed much. It remains a centralized platform that often fails at prime time. Worse yet, such a platform lacks transparency. We regularly hear news about a ticket purchase system crashing a few minutes after the opening of a sale [1]. Or, buyers queuing up overnight just to earn the rights to purchase the tickets. Scandals arising from privileges the organizers grant to VIP members are not uncommon [2]. In addition, there is a follow-on problem of counterfeit tickets in the second-hand markets where tickets are resold[3].