Crypto provides working solution to ticket fraud
ICOBox co-founder Daria Generalova on how blockchain is ensuring you get to attend the events you paid to see
The vast majority of tickets for music and sporting events are sold online these days. Although it’s convenient to buy tickets without standing in line, online ticket sales are a major source of fraud. This is especially true for “secondary” markets where tickets to sold-out events are offered by people who say they no longer need the tickets they bought. Nearly 5 million people a year receive fake tickets to concerts, sporting events, and theme parks according to MetLife insurance company.
It now seems that blockchain can propose a solution to this problem. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) recently completed a successful trial of a mobile ticketing app built with blockchain. With the stated goal (if you’ll pardon the pun) to make soccer ticket sales "simple and safe," UEFA tested the app at the Super Cup between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid held in Estonia.
The blockchain-based app is designed to provide secure ticket distribution and prevent forgery or duplication of tickets. The trial used iOS and Android devices in combination with mobile Bluetooth devices at the entrances of the football stadium. All of the tickets were managed using the app, following previous trials with smaller samples of fans.
Blockchain decentralized networks have the clear ability to prevent “double spending”. While this is most famously used for Bitcoins, the technology is perfectly applicable to ensuring you didn’t just buy a concert ticket that is just a PDF of a fake or a ticket which was also sold to other unsuspecting victims. That European football’s governing body trusted this technology for all of the tickets for its Super Cup is a great vote of confidence in blockchain’s real-world applicability.
In case you were wondering, Atletico Madrid beat their city rivals 4-2, but the real winner may be the millions of fans who will no longer get ripped off due to improved blockchain authentication of who really paid to watch their favorite stars.