Cryptix, a scam-free ticketing platform, has won a prestigious Harvard Business School sponsored student startup award.
Cryptix is a ticketing platform that uses blockchain technology to deter fraud and scalpers.
The New Venture Competition is an annual competition organised by the Technology Management Program to encourage student-run startup companies. First place is awarded $10,000 (€8,900/£7,750) to invest in the growth of its company.
Nick Martitsch, a fourth-year economics major and Cryptix team member, said he was inspired to start the company after a bad ticket-buying experience.
Martitsch said, according to the Daily Nexus website, that he saw a resale site marking an Outside Lands Music Festival ticket for $500. The seller then made 10 copies of the exact same ticket and sold it to 10 different people.
“So every day, for the next three days of the festival, it was a race to be the first in line. Only the first ticket would show up as valid, and the other nine would be invalid,” Martitsch said. “So needless to say, this was a terrible experience for me.”
Last week, another technology startup Aventus, which is linked to Imperial College’s Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering Centre, unveiled a blockchain-based event ticketing solution it believes can repair what it describes as a “broken” sector.
In a white paper, Aventus said the ticket sector is doomed to failure as both primary and secondary market platforms “actually profit from some forms of unethical activity, often at the expense of fans and event organisers.”
Aventus believes its Aventus Protocol, an Ethereum blockchain-based protocol, can implement a “fairer, more secure and transparent event-ticketing industry, practically eliminating counterfeit tickets and unethical touting.”
The Aventus Protocol is a database that gives organisers control over the creation, managing and promotion of their events and ticketing.
They can enforce resale prices (minima and maxima) and even receive a portion of secondary market sales-revenue. Changes to identities associated with the ticket can only take place if the ticket is resold through the approved secondary market.
Image: Geralt
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