GUTS.tickets, the blockchain solution for ticketing, is ready to take its technology to the next level after a successful trial of its services at this year’s Here Comes The Summer festival in the Netherlands.
The trial took place thanks to a partnership between event facilitator Innofest and GUTS.tickets, with the technology used for the accreditation of the crew catering at the festival, which took place on the small island of Vlieland in late April.
After its successful deployment, GUTS.tickets co-founder Tom Roetgering told The Ticketing Business that the blockchain service can simplify ticketing and payments at events. As well as playing a role in the fight against scalping and fraud, blockchain can also revolutionise customer data tools.
The trial was also backed by Innofest, whose head of communication Henk Rigter told The Ticketing Business: “Their blockchain solution for ticketing, has the potential to change the way tickets for events are being sold.
“Testing on a festival, specifically the crew catering, gave them the opportunity to see how their new product behaves in the real world, on a small scale. Thanks to the direct feedback they received from users at the festival, they are able to adapt their product where needed.
“A festival is a miniature society with people who move around, eat and sleep there. This makes it perfectly fit for trials with new ideas, prototypes and cutting edge techniques.”
Q&A with GUTS.tickets co-founder Tom Roetgering
TTB: Could you tell us about the trial at Here Comes The Summer?
TR: “It was a test of the latest version of GUTS.tickets at a festival. GUTS.tickets is a ticketing system; GUTS makes ticket fraud impossible. The ticket can only be (re)sold at a fixed price, so there would be no more disgraceful prices for secondary tickets.
“Tickets for Here Comes The Summer (HCTS) on Vlieland were sold out already, so we tested our ticketing system from a different angle. We used it for the accreditation of the crew catering. Normally every crew member has to hold coupons for getting their meal, now they had GUTS.tickets for getting their meal.
“Innofest is focused on innovation and have many different kinds of festivals where we can test our application. Innofest is for us a perfect partner to work with, because they want to innovate and have a great network!”
TTB: Could you explain blockchain and GUTS.tickets’ service?
TR: “Blockchain is a decentralised database best known for hosting the bitcoin network. But apart from processing micro payments in near real-time, a blockchain can also store information, host applications and facilitate all sorts of transactions in a safe, encrypted, manner.
“Blockchains regularly store all this encrypted information in connected blocks, hence the name, and thereby create an archive that can serve as proof of ownership and authorship for all time.
“GUTS.tickets create a smart ticket by registering it in the blockchain with a unique code, the Hash. The ticket for getting a meal has properties and a unique owner, and is constantly checking if those properties are still in order and whether the owner is still the same. Crew members couldn’t buy or resell their tickets, they only could get tickets which were provided by the organisation of HCTS.
“Normally tickets can be resold with GUTS; the data that GUTS can harvest is amazing. Using GUTS as a promotor, you receive great userdata from the actual attendees, this makes future promotion an easy task.”
TTB: Was the trial a success?
TR: With HCTS we had in total 1,060 test moments where GUTS smart tickets were used. The system worked very well. Vlieland is a remote island in the Netherlands, so for GUTS it was also a perfect test how our system worked on a remote place with bad internet connection and backup internet. We didn’t have any problems during the pilot with our ticketing system.”
TTB: Do you have more tests lined up?
TR: “Ofcourse, this is ongoing process. Our ticketing system is now actually running and we are doing all kind of concerts, events and festivals. This is at the moment still on a small scale, so we can make our ticketing system very stable.
“We wrote our software not only for one specific blockchain, so if tomorrow a new one is better than what we’re now using we will of course change it. For now, it’s really important to register on the blockchain because it’s completely transparent and people know exactly what is going on.
“Our portal is a medium to send your ticket to the blockchain, in the future if everybody has a blockchain wallet, with some cryptocurrencies, the GUTS tickets will also be stored in the wallet. Not many people have a wallet yet, so that’s the reason we made an application to approach the blockchain.
“At the moment, we are looking to hear from artists, promotors and event organisers who love their fans and who like to use and test our system. Let us together fight against ticket fraud and disgraceful secondary ticket prices.”
TTB: How important will blockchain become for festivals/events and in ticketing?
TR: “The great thing about the blockchain is, that it allows us to give certain properties to the ticket, like the maximum amount of tickets [that can be sold to one person] and the maximum price. The price cannot be changed, of course, so it will never get higher if a ticket is resold. So if something came up, ticketholders can sell their tickets via GUTS at any time. They just can’t make a profit by doing so.”
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