From Maple Finance’s entanglement with misrepresented financials on a market making loan to Orthogonal Trading, to an African motorbike financing company’s creditline default, the RWA space has had to deal with several defaults over the years. In this blog I will explain how learnings from these defaults have informed OPNs RWA module design and philosophy.

This is part 2 of our RWA series going into details on the mechanics of OPNs event financing module. The premise is that OPNs ticketing companies have the ability to lock in large deals by offering financing based on onchain tickets as collateral. If you missed part 1 be sure to check it out!

OPN RWA Series: Bringing back the Bowie Bond

The juice should be worth the squeeze

That at times a loan isn’t completely repaid is an anticipated risk in the lending business, factored into interest rates. Following several high profile defaults some pose that the yields returned to lenders don’t sufficiently compensate for risk. This doesn’t undermine RWA’s potential but emphasizes the need for protocols allowing for proper and reliable up and downside alignment.

This isn’t solely about charging borrowers high yields. If the loan results in a high payout for the borrower, this should be reflected in the yield. However, if the business outcome is disappointing, the yield should be adjusted to not burden the borrower excessively.

For borrowers (event organizers): Finance event for a reasonable base yield that will not threaten the continuation of the business in case of disappointing event results. Also giving the organiser the tools to tokenize and sell value flows that will yield if the event is a success (like sell resale rake fees forward).

For RWA lenders: OPNs onchain tickets ensure reliable data from the business venture while OPNs onchain value flows (both from primary and the secondary market) allow for dynamic and low cost dynamic yields/returns on loans while keeping control.

Seeming risk reward mismatch

Often, defaults reveal that borrowed funds were used differently than agreed, altering the loan’s risk profile and potentially leaving the yield insufficient for the risk incurred. My thesis is not to abstain from financing such loans onchain but to accurately account for their risk in the yield.

We feel that we can protect lenders and reward them appropriately for risk taken using the following pillars of our OPNs RWA module.

Why OPN can lead in RWA

1. Onchain ticketed events = onchain collateral: Every event ticket is issued and sold onchain, which enables real-time tracking and trading of these assets. This transparency allows lenders to gauge the progress of ticket sales and understand the status of their investment at any given moment.
2. Onchain billing & revenue tracking: OPN doesn’t just tokenize the tickets and turn them into collateral, but also processes value flows onchain in real-time as event tickets are (re)sold. This ensures immediate repayment to lenders but also a reliable data source on the health of the business(important for follow on financing).

These two pillars work together to provide lenders with a more secure and transparent RWA proposition, ensuring they are appropriately compensated for the risk they take.

No shade, progress comes from experience

Our reference to other RWA protocols with defaults aren’t a critique, but an acknowledgment that refinement comes from real-world application. We highlight these to stress the unique challenges of the RWA business. Unlike onchain lending and borrowing, RWA borrowers finance offchain businesses handling regular FIAT, increasing complexity and potential risk for lenders.

Example 1: The default of Maple Finance and the role of Orthogonal Trading

In 2023, Orthogonal Trading defaulted on its loans from Maple Finance, totalling around $36 million, when its trading inventory got embroiled in the now-bankrupt FTX exchange. This default impacted roughly 30% of active loans in the Maple Finance protocol (at the time).

Although Orthogonal Trading had previously reported healthy trading inventory levels, they suddenly disclosed a significant loss of principal. This appears to stem from a minor misrepresentation that snowballed into a substantial default. It reveals a common mindset among borrowers to distort facts, believing it will eventually allow them to repay their lenders.

In the Orthogonal Trading case, borrowers deposited USDC with the expectation of achieving an 8% APY. The source of this APY was to provide market makers with inventory for ‘delta neutral’ trading(this means very low risk in normal english). However, following FTXs black swan event, there was speculation that the funds borrowed between December 10–12 were instead used to trade themselves out of the hole and recoup losses incurred in Novembers FTX collapse.

This ordeal revealed that Maples liquidity providers (LPs) were taking on significant directional trade risk in return for an 8% return on their stable coins. LPs would have been inadequately compensated for this risk, even if Orthogonal had managed to recoup the losses.

In conclusion, while borrowing for effective hedge funds isn’t inherently problematic. However there needs to be certainty that funds cannot be rerouted or ‘reused’ for a different purpose. The Orthogonal case highlights the risk-reward balance issues associated with this type of financing — but these types of issues will be present in all loans to businesses that incur unexpected losses. Sources: 1,2,3 & 4.

It might seem difficult to use this ‘black swan’ triggered default as an improvement framework for loans to events.

However, it’s important to note that in both cases, humans were the ones making the decisions.

Disappointing sales moving the repayment goalpost

Consider a festival organizer borrowing $50,000, expecting $500,000 in ticket sales revenue(and having good data and past performance to back that up). The agreement is made that the organizer can borrow for single digit yield on the requirement to pay the loan off after the first 10% of the tickets are sold.

Come the initial sale only and 15% of tickets are sold, far below expectation, generating $75,000, a lot less then expected. The organizer might be tempted to invest all revenue into a marketing campaign rather than using $52k(50k principal + 2k interest) of this to repay the loan as was agreed on legally. The borrower, fearing losing money themselves with such little sales, could convince themselves that this approach would even be a win/win as increased ticket sales is more ticket service fees for OPN and the ticketeer(that underwrites the loan legally).

Of course doing this would be in breach of the loan agreement and when provable grounds for a lawsuit. However bank accounts are not public record making it hard to prove — also the borrower is also your client fuzzing the line even more.

The result; insufficient compensation for risk

If the loan’s interest rate was calculated based on the case that at least 10% of tickets to be sold, not repaying the loan after reaching this target increases the lender’s risk. Now, 25% of tickets need to be sold in order for there to be enough money for repayment. That is assuming the organizer doesn’t repeat this behaviour(after all it worked before). Allowing such deviation from agreed upon terms eventually leads to lenders being under-compensated for risk.

OPNs RWA module ensures with smart contracts and PSP integrations that such deviation is not possible to begin with — how we do this will be explained in the final section of this blog.

Example 2: Goldfinch 7 million dollar motorbike default

When Goldfinch, a decentralized credit platform, lent money to Tugende, an African motorbike finance company, they expected the funds would be used to finance motorbikes — a business model they had vetted and a model the interest was calibrated on. Later it turned out that Tugende used the borrowed money to support a struggling subsidiary company. After this company failed it led to a significant default costing Goldfinch’s LPs 7 million dollars.

When people and companies fear losing money, they often make decisions aimed at avoiding that loss at all cost instead of accepting it and writing it off. Unfortunately, these choices often lead to even bigger losses down the line. Sources: 1,2 and 3.

Utopian blockchain solutions for these default cases

In a perfect world, technology could have prevented the two real-world asset defaults. The Maple market maker loan could have been avoided if smart contracts had been able to access centralized exchange trading inventory and position PNLs. No trader would allow such a feature even if it where technically possible — but lets entertain.

As for the Tugende motorbike loan default, where funds were misused, it could have been substantially reduced by issuing a revolving credit line based on the onchain proof of motorcycle financing. If onchain data of a motorbike loan and its repayments were onchain in a reliable way, additional funds would have been automatically made available to finance more motorbikes. This approach would have safeguarded the principal and prevented the funds from being diverted for other purposes.

For onchain ticketing RWA utopia is now

While these proposed technical solutions might seem ideal, the reality is that our society and technology have not yet evolved enough for such solutions to be implemented seamlessly and effectively. This means that managing these types of RWA loans currently requires substantial manual work and human involvement, a process that doesn’t really scale.

However, the scenario changes when considering onchain event financing. In this context, even though events are real-world businesses that generate value, the primary asset generating revenue, the ticket (represented by a QR code, which is sort of a private key), is actually a digital asset and is even traded as such by non-crypto people. This creates a unique situation where these ‘utopian’ solutions might not be so far-fetched after all.

How we account for human loss avoiding behaviour

In both default cases, the common thread is businesses acting in their self-interest and an unwillingness to accept or take on losses. This mindset is represented by thoughts like “we will recover all costs,” “the war will end soon,” or “the stablecoin will re-peg.” In the context of onchain financing for events, we address these issues with the following features:

1. Waterfall repayment guaranteed. Because OPN integrates with the Payment Service Provider the first revenue of ticket sales will go towards repayment.
2. Principal protection. Smart contract enforced revolving credit line based on onchain ticket sales targets. Only release the next tranch if early bird sales confirm consumer interest.

In the final sections of this blog, I will delve into more detail about the design of these aspects of the financing module.

OPNs waterfall payment structure

This structure means that when a consumer purchases a ticket with their credit card, the payment service provider (PSP) processes and then settles this transaction with the bank of the ticketing company, not the event organizer (which is generally the standard). Once the loan is repaid, the PSP payment settlement flow will be rerouted or automatically forwarded, depending on the capabilities of the PSP.

With this mechanism, the borrower cannot use the incoming revenue for other expenses as they will not receive this until the loan is fully repaid. This ensures repayment seniority/priority. The diagram below illustrates this mechanism.

Still frens, but just frens based on tokenization

Despite the strictness of the funding process, it’s important to understand that the lender and the borrower (event organizer) maintain a mutually beneficial relationship. The lender is not just providing a loan, they are partners in the success of an organizer. The tools OPN offers, such as real-time data on ticket sales and targets, empower this relationship by providing a foundation of trust and understanding.

For instance, if an event organizer can demonstrate that a marketing campaign will likely turn a $100 ad-buy into $1000 of ticket sales, the lender might be willing to allocate more capital towards such a venture. This creates an opportunity for the event organizer to express certain marketing campaigns as investable opportunities for the lender. The lender, in turn, can track, understand, and scale their investment based on real-time data and reliable targets. This dynamic is not about imposing strict rules, but about facilitating business growth through transparency, mutual understanding, and trust.

John Collison on Twitter: "Crypto is back. @Stripe will start supporting global stablecoin payments this summer. Transactions instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat. Join the waitlist https://t.co/hws2OsU3Id and watch the demo (h/t @Solana) from Sessions. pic.twitter.com/zGKYW2FM6i / Twitter"

Crypto is back. @Stripe will start supporting global stablecoin payments this summer. Transactions instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat. Join the waitlist https://t.co/hws2OsU3Id and watch the demo (h/t @Solana) from Sessions. pic.twitter.com/zGKYW2FM6i

OPNs revolving credit line based on (onchain registered) ticket sales

In the case of the Tugende default, the borrower used the funds for a completely different purpose than what was agreed upon. This is difficult to prevent because the funding usually needs to be converted into FIAT to support the RWA opportunity. Although solid underwriting and counterparty due diligence are crucial, it is essential to design with the assumption that such incidents may occur.

Opportunity is the mother of cooking the books

The primary reason a significant portion of the loan was diverted is simply because it could be. Prior to this event, Tugende (founded in 2012 with 500+ employees) had a solid company revenue/investor record, suggesting they intended to repay the loan until the very end. They diverted the loan to a different purpose because they could do it without lenders immediately spotting it. If the loan hadn’t defaulted, we would have never known, which was precisely their plan.

OPN’s onchain ticket inventory and value flows

With OPN, tickets are issued by smart contracts, so their sales are reflected onchain in real-time. Check out our Dune dashboard, onchain ticket explorer or OPNs worldwide usage as onchain ticket fuel.

The registration and transfer of revenue-generating assets onchain make it easy for OPN’s RWA module to issue revolving credit based on ticket sales. This could be as simple as unlocking the next $50k of credit line once 5000 early bird tickets are sold. This approach is sensible because evidence of demand for an event underpins the value of the ticket inventory, helping lenders assess risk.

Therefore, the RWA collateral/assets issued by OPN provide lenders or pools with real-time, reliable data on their potential for revenue generation. Not only is the amount of tickets traded onchain visible, but OPN’s onchain economics and value/fee splitting also enables RWA asset owners to directly receive fees or value the moment tickets are sold. I do apologize but I compulsively have to drop one of my impossibly complex diagrams(yes i will go into rehab for this habit, soonish).

In future editions of the RWA series we will go into more detail on how these tokenized fee NFTs work and are issued (hint you can buy them with OPN only).

What is next?

In the past we have done several pilots of the event financing module. At the moment we are gearing up for a more continious permanent deployment but we are still working out final details of a new legal structure for the counterparty of the lenders (as RWA assets have a legal component as well).

In the next RWA blog of this series we will go deeper into the role of the OPN token within the RWA module. Stay tuned!

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

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OPN RWA Series: Autopsy of a bankrupcy was originally published in Open Ticketing Ecosystem on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Get ready for an exciting journey! Over the next few weeks, I’ll be unveiling a series of blog posts that delve into the transformative power of our new OPNs RWA module. This innovative tool is set to revolutionise both the Real-World Asset (RWA) landscape and the event and ticketing industry.

These upcoming posts will provide you with an in-depth understanding of the mechanics of our RWA product. You’ll gain insights into the technical aspects, the underlying business logic, and the token economics that make this module so unique.

If you’ve been following my previous writings on this topic(here, here) — don’t worry! I’ll be recapping key conclusions to ensure everyone’s on the same page.

• GET Event Financing Update — Turning tickets into DeFi collateral
• GET Event Financing Update — Mechanisms to price risk
• Death by a thousands cuts: Using Moneyball thinking to strike out Ticketmaster

Our 4 key learnings

To save you on some reading, I will summarise the four main insights about onchain event financing in this blog. These learnings inspired us in the design. More technical and the role of the token in this all will be explained in subsequent blogs following in the next weeks.

1. Killing the ticket monopolies by a thousand cuts

Financing is key to securing high-profile deals and events in the entertainment industry, a fact often overlooked, leading to dominance by a few large ticketing companies. A few years ago, we began developing an RWA module for onchain ticketing, sparked by the need to provide substantial funding for large-scale events, a complex and unpredictable area traditional lenders often avoid.

This wasn’t a whimsical decision, but a response to a market need. Large-scale ticketing is less about QR codes, a solved problem, and more about adequate financing. The power of entertainment giants lies in their ability to fund major events, not in generating QR codes.

Our RWA module, OPN, aims to disrupt this status quo. Using onchain NFT tickets and DeFi, we’re creating tools to compete with large companies like Ticketmaster. Our goal is not to replicate Ticketmaster but to improve upon it using onchain incentives and enabling third-party developers to build on our protocol. We aim to democratize event financing, creating a more equitable, efficient, and transparent ticketing industry.

2. Onchain tokenization and fractionalisation remove the need for massive balance sheets

Large ticketing firms like Ticketmaster finance major events, using their financial strength to secure more events and set ticketing fees. They turn loans into bonds and distribute these in investable forms, a process known as tokenization and fractionalisation.

We use the same concepts with our OPN RWA module but execute them entirely onchain, removing friction, allowing real-time settlement, and facilitating wider investment. This democratizes event financing, traditionally dominated by big entities like Ticketmaster.

Our aim is to disrupt this by offering a more efficient and accessible event financing alternative.

3. Collateral: Tokenized onchain ticket inventory

FTX and 3AC’s defaults left many creditors unpaid, most still embroiled in bankruptcy court. However, DeFi creditors like Aave and Compound were fully repaid due to the unambiguous nature of onchain transactions.

OPN’s model similarly settles ticket sales and their value flows onchain in real time, eliminating room for dispute or delay. The loan is repaid, or there are certain consequences, such as tickets becoming un-scannable. While there is some flexibility, a hard limit exists, after which agreed terms are enforced.

Despite seeming rigid, such strict loan terms increase repayment likelihood. Protecting the principal(initial loaned amount) is crucial in loan management. In RWA protocols, entities sourcing and verifying borrowing opportunities are ‘loan originators’. In OPN’s case, we call these ‘Inventory originators’.

OPN advances further by tokenizing ticket inventory and associated value flows, such as secondary market fees or reseller profit shares. Every ticket (re)sale includes a token transfer that can be split, with these tokens serving as collateral.

4. Empowering artists and creators; Bringing back the Bowie bond

Our RWA module empowers creators and artists by providing innovative financing capabilities. This allows creators to fund their projects while offering fans the opportunity to directly support their favorite artists. An interesting example of such a financing model is the Bowie Bond, where David Bowie sold the cash flows from his albums to large registered investors way back in 1997.

Today, our RWA module enables onchain tokenization and fractionalisation. This advancement allows artists’ future income streams to be invested in by anyone with a crypto-wallet, bypassing traditional financial intermediaries. This approach could have not only increased Bowie’s earnings from the bond issuance but also provided his fans the opportunity to own part of his legacy.

While the Bowie bond was backed by music royalties, we also see potential for bonds backed by future ticket sales or other onchain assets. This new direction opens up exciting opportunities for artists and their supporters, changing the way we invest in creative projects.

Closing thoughts: Overcoming LiveNation’s Unbeatable Edge

Over the last 40 years, tens of thousands of articles and videos have expressed frustration over LiveNation. A common sentiment is, ‘how can a company with such high fees, taking advantage of fans and artists, continue to dominate without competition?’ In any other industry, a company as opaque and self-serving would have been replaced by a superior alternative long ago.

What these authors fail to understand is that LiveNation’s monopoly isn’t rooted in technology. They dominate because when you need to finance an 800-million-dollar stadium, LiveNation is the only available financier. The condition that Ticketmaster must be the ticketing partner, thus potentially exploiting your visitors, is a difficult concession. However, it’s better than not having a stadium at all.

While it’s premature to declare their reign over, we believe that the rollout of our RWA module is a significant step towards loosening their grip.

Upcoming blogs we have lined up

1. Why onchain ticket inventories are a natural fit as RWA collateral
2. How onchain value flows ensure we are the first creditor that is paid back
3. The role of the OPN token in our RWA module
4. Onchain Tickets x GambleFi: Issuing 12 conditional tickets(validity is outcome dependent priced by sports books) for 1 actual ticket for this year’s biggest event

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Follow the OPEN Ticketing Ecosystem:

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OPN RWA Series: Bringing back the Bowie Bond was originally published in Open Ticketing Ecosystem on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

On the Event Horizon

A big change is around the corner.

A lot of momentum has been brewing since the start of this year and we are very excited to update you on the progress made behind the scenes.

Following a period of internal deliberation & strategic discussions with our stakeholders and investors, the plan for a rebrand of the GET Protocol brand & token has taken shape.

This past month we put it to the community for a sense check, and you overwhelmingly voted in favor. Shout out to the 1 contrarion who prevented the 100% — you do you ;)

Whilst we’ve been refining our plans for this year along with new positioning, the final alignment was the approved consensus from you, the community which gave us the reassurance to continue our exploration and ultimately develop what this new positioning can look like.

This process has been progressing a lot quicker than expected and we are more than happy to give you a little tease of what’s to come so hold onto your hats & bags!

The Rebrand Plan

The rebrand launch means new branding and a strong, well defined positioning that’s centered around one core goal, to establish the onchain ticketing industry and us as the leaders of it.

We are the project that is taking ticketing onchain.

The tech is ready, the industry is ready and we’re the seasoned vets ready to take on the next leg of this journey with the experience to make it happen. Along with our already well established presence and the infrastructure to make it happen, there are additional developments and partnerships underway that will further cement our position as the leader of onchain ticketing.

In an industry that’s estimated to reach 100 billion in yearly revenue by 2030, our goal is to build the rails in which all of this global value can eventually flow through. To begin however we’re aiming for 1% of the global ticketing industry to be brought onchain in the next five years.

To do this, we’re going to work on releasing key infrastructure across the entire event lifecycle, from launching our hotly anticipated event financing hub, to the onchain secondary market and all the way up the ticketing stack. To lay this vision out, we’ll release a newly established roadmap during the rebrand launch window that showcases all the incredibly exciting primitives we’ll bring onchain along the way.

This is a new, untapped onchain industry waiting to blossom to life, with the potential to not only shift the value flows of the whole events industry onchain through our smart contracts, but onboard millions into their first wallet, NFT and token ownership. All it takes is a ticket.

From Single player to Multiplayer

‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ Our ambitions are bigger than ever. We have largely been operating on our own for these past seven years, but we know that collaboration is key if we want to deliver onchain ticketing for the masses.

We’ll go multiplayer in several key ways, the first is by properly establishing the onchain ticketing industry as a legitimate new industry and narrative, similar to the rise of GameFi, DePin and other sectors. To do this we’ll kickstart the onchain ticketing industry through a big partner group currently being put together called the onchain ticketing coalition with many key players from across the industry focused on access, experiences and technical infrastructure.

This coalition will be the defacto market leaders for onchain access and ticketing, with us leading the way. Just like how Beam and Immutable built the on-chain gaming industry and showcased its value, we are going to define the on-chain ticketing industry together.

The coalition will launch around the rebrand date and will serve as a perfect co-marketing moment that will broadcast together with a manifesto laying out the thesis for onchain ticketing and why now is the right time to strike. To Web3-ify the experience, we’re working with a great studio to create a free mint NFT that shall be widely shared across the breadth and depth of Web3 socials.

Protocol > Ecosystem

This is also the moment in which we go from being a protocol with just one central development team, to our team and a body of community builders creating an ecosystem and flywheel that values and rewards ticketing infrastructure built. This will be a big step in enabling permissionless ticket lego that integrators can plug into depending on their needs.

To start this, we’ll be looking to leverage the full power of builders in the Web3 space. We aim to fuel this, through a structured DAO-driven builder grant program in collaboration with ecosystem partners.

The initial period will contain a modest grant treasury that we’ll look to gain approval from the DAO through a vote tomorrow, the 1st March. We’ll be modelling the grants program closely inspired by Base, with the north star of: bringing new ticketing inventory onchain.

Into the Amusement Park

Along with both the coalition and developing an ecosystem, is the plans to abolish strict product naming and eventually, set liner product offerings entirely.

We see our ticketing infrastructure as lego, some will want the whole suite, others may want just issuance and some issuance, wallets and financing.

That means no ‘White-Label’ and ‘Digtal Twin’ rather a ecosystem that offers permissionless ticket lego to suite integrator needs. We’ll also be looking to get new integrators onchain as easily as possible, ‘into the amusement park’ as the first step and upgrading their experience and level of functionality as time goes on. This removes friction, removes direct competition where integrators see the protocol or ecosystem as a ‘competitor’, rather the ecosystem is a neutral party to integrators helping to facilitate and level up their ticketing.

That doesn’t mean that the ecosystem won’t be opinionated however. We plan on being more rebelious, more heard and bigger and brighter than ever. There’s a reason we’re bringing ticketing onchain, to disrupt, to empower and to make a lasting, meaningful change with next level technology — that happens onchain.

Token migration & vastly improved token availability

New brand = new token.

There will be a clear migration flow with a loooooong migration window, so no need to cancel your holidays. We are delivering significantly more accessibility for the new token and have already taken steps to ensure this.

What’s more we’ll also be looking towards a multi-chain future, where we can delegate both token and ticketing activities across chain, not only as an onboarding and user aquisition app layer, but as a thriving network that taps into all the communities native to each chain.

To begin with, we’ll be concentrating on ensuring the new token is off to the races on Ethereum as that’s naturally where the deepest liquidity, the largest lindy and network effect can be found. From there, we’ve naturally got Tezos in our sights, plus even others beginning with S and ending with A 👀

Zooming in on the tokenomics further, there are various layers of incentivization being considered for rewarding contributors & early users of the protocol over these last few years and expanding the network effect of new participants to the token.

What’s more, we are also taking into consideration some tokenomics tweaks that could spice up the flow for GET.. is it getting hot in here?

Any updates to tokenomics flows will of course be subject to DAO vote before implementing — so rest assured we’ll cook together.

A New Look — Sleek, Sexy, Rebellious

A new brand needs a new look. We’ve already made huge strides in preparing design assets that will pack a punch. More bold, more rebellious and much more sexy. A brand worthy of shouting to the roof tops and whilst we can’t wait to reveal the full vision, perhaps we can give you just a little tease if you squint hard enough.

Memories

With the new rebrand, we’ll be temporarily pausing the memory distributions from March onwards as we get everything setup. We’ll also likely be adding a little polish here and there to make the new memories even more compelling for a larger audience.

To immortalise the last GET Protocol memory, you’ll be able to claim February’s memory from tomorrow (1st March) until the rebrand commences. Its only fitting that we pay homage to the GET Protocol brand one last time as a keepsake for the community after all.

What do you need to do now? Prepare & vote!

We are working tirelessly to get the rebrand across the line and have good news — by this time next month the rebrand will be out into the world.

You can expect the full announcement sooner than you think, so it’s time to strap in and get ready because.. We need you ✊🎟️

To kickstart this flywheel and take the huge step in bringing ticketing fully onchain, we need your assistance to maximise the potential we know the rebrand and new launch moment has.

That means taking up arms, with content, with memes, with your best shill material and putting the new movement out into the world.

We are bringing ticketing onchain, together.

This is a new industry that’s simply uncharted, much like GameFi of the past two years, DePIN this year and so on and so forth. There’s 100 billion reasons for everyone to get behind putting ticketing onchain which means we need to let the wider Web3 space know.

In preparation, there are a couple important DAO votes for stakers which will go live tomorrow, proposed to help maximize the visibility of the rebrand.

• Vote on a rebrand shilling budget. Influencers, podcasts, PR — everything to get the word out about the new project once it’s live.
• Vote on setting aside an initial grant treasury for our DAO builder program

If you want to take further steps in getting ready for the rebrand and spreading the message, join the discord, check out the GALXE and help us make this rebrand a firecracker.

In conjunction with our community manager Nate & other community O.G.’s we will be looking for ways to push out messaging around the rebrand — which could earn you some nice rewards along the way…

That’s it! Are you excited yet? We certainly are. The time is ready, let’s get it!

Make sure you are ready for the next blog, whenever it arrives…

GET February ’24 — On The Event Horizon was originally published in Open Ticketing Ecosystem on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The new year has kicked off strong over here and we have plenty of exciting developments to go over, including an important new proposal that needs your vote!

Number go up

No dry January for the protocol, as we saw lots of tickets processed, with significant GET top ups as a result.

GUTS Tickets had 4 GET-topups this month, purchasing a total of 56.861,1 GET from the open market, worth $62.954,18.

These top-ups took place to facilitate some big sales:

ETH Bucharest:

ETH Bucharest on Twitter: "We're so excited to present you #ETHBucharest Ticketing Partner, @GetProtocol 🎟️@GetProtocol is the leading on-chain ticketing infrastructure with over 5 million on-chain tickets issued around the world to date. Wanna check them out? 👇https://t.co/mFXWm9JfIt 🎟️Make sure... pic.twitter.com/v8Z0RWcA3Z / Twitter"

We're so excited to present you #ETHBucharest Ticketing Partner, @GetProtocol 🎟️@GetProtocol is the leading on-chain ticketing infrastructure with over 5 million on-chain tickets issued around the world to date. Wanna check them out? 👇https://t.co/mFXWm9JfIt 🎟️Make sure... pic.twitter.com/v8Z0RWcA3Z

Bankzitters

who had big shows & went on sale with a new show slated for 2025:

Brom / 0xbrom.eth ✊🎟 on Twitter: "Some footage of an event with #onchain tickets provided by @GetProtocol via @GUTSticketsIt's great to see the token being used in the wild. Two events today for #Bankzitters at @AFASLive that has used circa 12,490GET as fuel for its tickets. pic.twitter.com/tBnpfCn3Iu / Twitter"

Some footage of an event with #onchain tickets provided by @GetProtocol via @GUTSticketsIt's great to see the token being used in the wild. Two events today for #Bankzitters at @AFASLive that has used circa 12,490GET as fuel for its tickets. pic.twitter.com/tBnpfCn3Iu

Son Mieux:

Ziggo Dome on Twitter: "We Can't Get Enough of Son Mieux😍 Wegens groot succes staat de Haagse band namelijk naast zaterdag 1 februari ook op vrijdag 31 januari 2025 in de #ZiggoDome 🙌 Mis het niet🤩 De kaartverkoop start aanstaande woensdag 24 januari om 10:00 uur 🎫Meer info👉 https://t.co/vnFc0j7L0v pic.twitter.com/dbteqjyhOH / Twitter"

We Can't Get Enough of Son Mieux😍 Wegens groot succes staat de Haagse band namelijk naast zaterdag 1 februari ook op vrijdag 31 januari 2025 in de #ZiggoDome 🙌 Mis het niet🤩 De kaartverkoop start aanstaande woensdag 24 januari om 10:00 uur 🎫Meer info👉 https://t.co/vnFc0j7L0v pic.twitter.com/dbteqjyhOH

In total the protocol processed a grand total of 205,411 tickets this month.

Of course stakers have been enjoying this uptick in sales & events, as they’ve been seeing the rewards come in:

GET Protocol ✊🎟️ on Twitter: "The more 🎟️ are issued for live events, the more rewards go to stakers! Find out how #onchainticketing works:https://t.co/6vXwSZm8aK#RWA #Web3 #Blockchain $GET pic.twitter.com/c44hcH8P3t / Twitter"

The more 🎟️ are issued for live events, the more rewards go to stakers! Find out how #onchainticketing works:https://t.co/6vXwSZm8aK#RWA #Web3 #Blockchain $GET pic.twitter.com/c44hcH8P3t

Web3 Follow-through

Picking up on the plan to grow our Web3 presence, we have been developing further internal alignment on our biggest opportunities and where we are headed. You may have gotten a hint at that direction from our CEO’s recent cast on this topic:

https://warpcast.com/flowers35/0x817831c9

If you’re not already using Farcaster, the decentralised social media with a LOT of unique on-chain features, then we highly recommend doing so, we’ll be ramping up our presence there this year and showcasing the power of onchain ticketing through a number of wider channels.

Declaring Web2.5 Completed

You may be wondering, why are we wishing to ramp up our Web3 presence so eagerly?

Well, the answer lies in our decision to make the move and declare Web2.5 completed and to go guns blazing in bringing on-chain ticketing and more importantly on-chain events to life.

When we set out with GUTS many moons ago, we were first movers in a number of categories. Rotating QR codes and mobile verified tickets were novel innovations at the time. The same applied for built-in secondary marketplaces and dynamic resale systems which are only now coming full circle with large ticketing companies either completing or building their own.

During this process, its become abundantly clear that winning the Web2 ticketing game would be a sure fire race to the bottom that would make us no better than the ticketing monopolies we aspire to disrupt.

At the same time, the last year’s worth of development has given us the crucial bedrock we needed to push forward with our vision of on-chain ticketing. Our embedded wallets and Wallet UI allows for us to make on-chain features accessible to the average everyday person and by marrying this back end rails infrastructure with new upcoming products (hint event financing), it’s time to come together with a renewed vigour make the next move in bringing down ticketing monopolies once and for all.

Unleashing On-Chain Magic

Anyone that has been reading these blogs over the years is innately in tune with the benefits of NFT Tickets. Whether it’s the inherent transparency, the lasting connections post-event or simply the added layer of accountability during the sales process.

But truthfully, NFT Tickets are just one just one ingredient that makes up the tri-fecta of on-chain ticketing. The two other pieces are Wallets and Crypto transactions.

As Frans our resident architect puts it:

• NFTs are the source of truth
• Wallets are the identifier and authenticator
• Crypto is the value transfer

Until very recently, we were 1/3 of the way through the ingredients list to make on-chain events a reality but now with embedded wallets, we unlock the identifier and authenticator of an attendee on-chain. They can now safely receive and access their NFTs and in the future, even make and receive value directly 👀

The final piece remains in enabling on-chain value transfers, which we hope to crack this year. In the mean time, we’ve got enough of the fire power to start this renewed mission and open up the protocol to let the fly wheel truly begin.

By mixing these three ingredients together, you create event rails that usher in a new paradigm of event facilitation that spans across the entire event lifecycle:

For more context on why on-chain will be the key to disrupting ticketing monopolies, perhaps our Intern said it best:

GET Protocol Intern ✊🎟️ on Twitter: "This week I've spent time mulling over my thesis for why #onchain ticketing is the ONLY way to break up the $16.2 billion a year, walled garden of ticketing monopolies 🧐Here's why @GetProtocol is best positioned to break it once & for all (capturing huge value in the process) pic.twitter.com/hsaXHroiec / Twitter"

This week I've spent time mulling over my thesis for why #onchain ticketing is the ONLY way to break up the $16.2 billion a year, walled garden of ticketing monopolies 🧐Here's why @GetProtocol is best positioned to break it once & for all (capturing huge value in the process) pic.twitter.com/hsaXHroiec

2024: A Positive Flywheel

To take the ticketing revolution a step further, 2024 is the year in which the flywheel will begin to spin by ensuring every party that taps into protocol is incentivised, whether its external developers tapping into our infrastructure layers to bring new ticketing volume on-chain, partners realising the potential of decentralised event financing, artists and organisers having the capability to make their events a success without being at the mercy of large corporations looking for shareholder value.

This is Year 1 of a new events industry and we can’t wait to share more.

DAO picking up steam

Following up on our new years resolutions we have made some decent progress on the DAO this month:

A New Community Manager

→ A community manager was hired following this vote. Long term community member Nate was chosen to take on the role.

A few words from Nate:

I am thrilled to be taking on this new role with GET Protocol. After being onboarded, I can more fully appreciate the creativity and discipline of this team, and my confidence in what I already believed to be a great project has only grown.

I am looking forward to more innovations, particularly those that stimulate involvement from the community. Along with the many newer narratives we can capitalize on this year (RWA, DEPIN, DEFI), one narrative remains the same: topple the outdated and corrupt monopolies that have plagued event ticketing for decades! Because our community members all share this desire, it goes without saying that we have some great potential to grow the GET ecosystem and educate the wider Web3 community and beyond at the same time.

And finally a few quick facts about me:

• Favorite event to watch live? Seattle Mariners baseball games
• Best live concerts? Tool, The National, and Arcade Fire
• Favorite thing to consume at an event? Hot dog and a beer
• Best part about GET Protocol (besides event financing, of course)? Exploring the community dashboard

Thanks everyone, and here’s to a fruitful 2024.

New DAO Reps

→ An exciting election vote resulted in the appointment of three new DAO reps: Brom, OliverP and Sjors. A message from them:

*As the DAO community reps we wanted to say a big thank you to all who voted us to this position. We are extremely excited to help facilitate the growth we all want, and work with Nate to empower the community to do just that. There is an opportunity presenting itself, and the Ticketing Revolution DAO is placed incredibly well to be a voice for fairer ticketing in web2, web3 and IRL.

Just under two weeks ago we had a meeting with Colby to discuss the upcoming direction of things from the foundations end and began thinking about DAO alignment alongside this. This was an exciting peek behind the curtain… and it did not disappoint.

With all this in mind, we once again want to say thank you for your support. Keep bringing suggestions, keep on tweeting (X’ing?????), and keep on shouting about fairer ticketing and the disruption of an industry that is on the verge of revolution!!

We are here as reps to help bring this to the fore, and further enable you to shout about the role of GET as the DAO in this coming period. So find us around as we work to build this alongside, and as part of this brilliant and forward thinking community that is the The Ticketing Revolution DAO.*

A Renewed Telegram

→ Do it for the ‘gram; following another vote this month we have reinstated the GET Telegram channel! Drop in and go crazy.

A New Open Position

We’re hiring for a new protocol team lead to take the charge in onboarding the next many millions of event attendees into Web3 and ensuring GET Protocol becomes the global access protocol for event attendance!

If you’re passionate about blockchain technology and want an exciting real world challenge to help GET protocol scale into an even more open and thriving ecosystem, then we are looking for you!

Apply via the posting below or if you know someone that fits the criteria then make sure to share this with them!

Protocol Tech Lead

We need your vote!

Since we’re all warmed up on the voting front… Behind the scenes we have been exploring the potential for improving the GET (business & token) brand.

It’s no secret that there are some downsides to the existing branding — it’s often perceived as quite technical and not representative of the kick-ass usecase, adoption and tokenomics the project has. Not to mention we are crypto dinosaurs that can use a new lick of paint and fresh positioning to grab the attention of the modern day crypto space.

We have been floating the topic with various stakeholders and partners of ours, who seem to unanimously agree that there is significant upside in a repositioning of sorts. Of course this is not a novel idea; the topic has been discussed in the community in various degrees. (With some beautiful NSFW ticker suggestions as a result!)

Since an update in branding for the project and token is no small undertaking, we want to be sure that the DAO & community is behind the initiative. That’s why today we are putting up a temperature check for you to vote on.

The premise is quite simple:
Are you in favor of a rebrand for the GET Protocol brand & token?

The vote will run for ten days and is live right now:

https://snapshot.org/#/ticketing-revolution.eth/proposal/0xeb2efd878e6b26fb3ae09e085705809115a33f2ba62e1398c7dc719eda54d767

January 2024 Memory

With January almost in the history books, we’ll be releasing the next memory for your collection which will look back on our Sonic Future event at Eurosonic Noorderslag! You’ll be able to pick it up tomorrow until the end of February so make sure you’ve got some GET staked already!

That’s it for this month — we’ll just leave you with something to think about, straight from ‘mister CEO’ himself.

Maarten Bloemers on Twitter: "People should hold on to their collectible NFT's of old events from @GetProtocol. They might be worth something in the near future. / Twitter"

People should hold on to their collectible NFT's of old events from @GetProtocol. They might be worth something in the near future.

As always you can stay up to date via the GET Protocol twitter & we’ll see you back here for next month’s blog — adios!

GET January ’24 — Declaring Web2.5 Completed was originally published in Open Ticketing Ecosystem on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

End of 2023

As all the songs go, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.. Which means we’ve reached the very last blog of the year and whilst we can’t promise a white Christmas, what we can promise is a comprehensive wrap up of the 2023 journey for GET Protocol.

So whether you’re reading whilst tucked up by the fire with a nice blanket and a warm drink, or having ChatGPT summarise the top five points of the article, we welcome you to this final blog of the year and look forward to reflecting on the last twelve months together whilst planting the seeds for a promising harvest in the year to come.

GET Protocol Wrapped!

Just like plenty of brands across the world, we’ve been inspired by Spotify’s addictive wrapped series and have looked to take it up a notch for ourselves this year. Given there’s been plenty of exciting events and projects put out into the world, let’s take a dive back through the highlight moments:

Let’s unpack it, shall we?

The Big 5 Million

The BIG 5 million milestone was smashed through in November off the back of a heated Ziggo Dome ticket sale from Suzan en Freek. Each year brings the number ever higher but 5 million really felt like an iconic moment for showing the continued traction of the protocol in bringing on-chain ticketing to everyday people around the world.

How long will the next 5 take? Well, we’re gearing up for it to be in quicker succession than the last 5!

Thousands of Events

A grand total of 4,488 events took place over the last twelve months with on-chain event registration through GET Protocol! That includes GUTS, the White-Label and Digital Twin integrators.

A Year of Shipping

Development impact was felt on both sides of the spectrum this year as the protocol and TAAS (Ticketing as a Service) teams shipped critical infrastructure that has shaped our product offerings through the year.

On the protocol side, the big talk of the town was the Wallet infrastructure that released in October and has brought with it a huge change to the accessibility of the native on-chain benefits of NFT Tickets, including direct creation of a behind the scenes wallet for each ticket holder, a Wallet UI for accessing and interacting with collectibles and all the crucial elements to pave the way for accessible token gating and on-chain revenue..

For the TAAS team, there were a flurry of releases, including the dynamic secondary market for the EU and UK markets which allows organisers to set their own upper and lower bounds of resale and receive payments for secondary sales, plus improvements to the dashboard with the Cashier 2.0 ‘Box Office’ feature and an Orders tab.

These improvements have helped flesh out our Web2 ticketing suite to where we can confidently say the future of the infrastructure now rests on building up the core Web3 components of the system, with more information to be revealed in 2024.

Let there be (Accessible) Active Wallets

As mentioned for the development updates, our behind the scenes wallets are the bedrock for empowering on-chain experiences for attendees around the world and we’re just getting started with the potential on offer on this front!

Zandvoort Grand Prix

The pinnacle of racing met the historic track of Zandvoort in August as the F1 came to town and with it some gripping fan engagement through ‘Unlock the Track’ collectibles in collaboration with the Dutch Grand Prix. These track linked collectibles were accessed direct from the F1 app by ticket holders and required zero complexity — just an exceptional campaign put on by the Dutch GP team which led to 25,000+ claims and a wealth of beneficial engagement for their team. 75 lucky fans also received a limited edition version, a physical copy and tickets to the Historic Grand Prix — not bad hey!

Check out the usecase video:

Efteling’s Spookslot

In May of this year, we finally took the hood off a closely guarded project that we fell in love with during the creationary process as together with Boldly we assisted the Efteling in giving access into a re-creation of the beloved Spookslot attraction in a digital environment.

GET Protocol’s infrastructure was used to issue a ‘Digital Key’ to all employees which unlocks access into the interior of the environment which is exclusive to Efteling employees. Fans can walk outside, but once you get close to the door you need a Spookslot Key!

Web3 Events

A number of Web3 events took place with tickets through GET Protocol integrators, highlights including:

NFT Paris

In the first half of the year, Paris hosted the aptly named NFT Paris conference which was ticketed through GUTS, the event was a smorgas board of the whose who in the Web3 space and even had a surprise appearance from the first lady of France!

MET AMS

November’s wet and wind swept weather didn’t stop the MET AMS show from going on as plenty of creators and Web3 enthusiasts met in the halls of the Westergas in Amsterdam for a beautifully produced conference that blended artistic empowerment with future proofed technology.

Artist Highlights

There were stellar performances from highly revered artists in the Netherlands and beyond this year, here’s a couple noteworthy mentions:

De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig

The Netherland’s quirkiest collective were back with a passion in 2023 and boy were the fans ready for it! These melodic and at times eclectic performances put De Jeugd over the 30k ticket mark and left a serious impression for attendees!

DI-RECT

DI-RECT held events both at the beginning of the year and at the end of December, selling over 50,000 tickets in 23 for their euphoric performances in the AFAS Live and Ahoy venues.

Suzan En Freek

Iconic Dutch duo Suzan en Freek let the Ziggo Dome feel their passion and the fans returned the favour at multiple sold out shows this year, their exceptional connection to fans not only resulted in the highest ever check-in rate for a single month of over 100,000 tickets but also resulted in MULTIPLE 99.5% check-in rates before the show had even began — if that’s not fan dedication then we don’t know what is!

Talking Tokens

All of this activity meant plenty of traction for token usage, with 423,759 GET used as fuel for ticketing activity in 2023. That’s over 2% of the entire supply used as fuel and shows the real world asset nature of GET as a driving force for ticketing activity!

Stake, Rattle and Roll

Off the back of the GET usage comes the juicy rewards for stakers. Once all tickets were scanned, a total of 295,354 GET went to stakers on both Ethereum and Polygon, you love to see it!

Out with the old…

There’s nothing like the start of the new year to take stock of where things stand and make changes where needed. We have taken the time to reflect on our progress & strategy, leading to some insights and intentions for the new year.

Positioning Clarity between Web2 <> Web3

One of our challenges in the past in terms of outward facing communication was serving two masters with GET Protocol: The Web2 ticketing prospects as well as stakeholders in the Web3 space.

While this allowed us to steadily develop on both sides, it was also limiting in other ways. After all, a prospective ticket seller requires different messaging from a crypto enthusiast. Quite a split from a marketing & branding perspective.

Over the last 8 years we have fleshed out the ticketing system that we feel solves a lot of the problems plaguing the ticket industry. We are declaring the Web2 development complete and doubling down our focus on Web3. This has already begun with initial internal alignment, but will also result in an updated public approach and development focus.

What does this mean tangibly?
Going forward, ticketing related sales and marketing will be conducted through the GUTS brand and outbound networking channels. This is beneficial as the GUTS ethos of Honest Ticketing typically resonates the most with prospects and due to the maturing of our White-Label product, we require potential clients to conduct their first events through GUTS to showcase the product suite and test a good market fit before committing resources to a full White-Label integration.

For GET Protocol, the stuck in the mud positioning of the past between ticketing and the Web3 space will be changed and GET will become a solely Web3 facing brand that can appeal to our core stakeholders on this front, such as the community, industry experts, VCs and blockchain infrastructure companies. Our goal is to get as much exposure in 2024 as possible and showcase GET Protocol as the ultimate on-chain ticketing protocol that serves as a massive opportunity for the space to onboard everyday people and provide them with an accessible way to interact with on-chain applications & value.

We believe the power of Web3 already brings massive improvement to the world of ticketing, but we are far from done with pioneering what’s possible with on-chain ticketing.

We are excited by the opportunities this unlocks, and to use the momentum going from a split into a high kick.

(Rough metaphor, we know. It’s the end of the year.)

…In with the new!

The talk about this renewed positioning has already brought forward several initiatives for the new year. Here is a list of some new year’s resolutions to start us off:

• Our position as the leader in on-chain ticketing is at the core of our story, but there are other trends to latch onto that will support our mission and expand our visibility within the Web3 space. (Real World Assets being a good example, especially relating to our event financing feature.)
• The design, visibility & appeal of the GET brand & token will be re-assessed.
• We will spend more time supporting efforts related to the Ticketing Revolution DAO and its mission to spread awareness and education around the disruption of the ticketing industry.
• We will spend more time engaging and facilitating the onboarding of new community members from the Web3 space.
• We will work with the new community manager to create more touch points & dialogue between community & team.

We are currently fleshing out the above into actionables and will share more in the new year!

That’s a wrap on 2023, we thank you for being a part of the journey and look forward to the fireworks that 2024 will bring.

Happy holidays and see you in January!

P.S. This month’s ‘Memories’ drop will happen early January and be claimable throughout the month.

GET December ’23–2023 wrapped was originally published in Open Ticketing Ecosystem on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Welcome everyone to the November edition of GET Protocol’s update blog.

This month we’re diving into an ‘Events meet Tech’ edition of the blog with a primary focus on all the events occurring over the last month to take us over the major milestone of 5 Million NFT Tickets and doesn’t it just feel great to say that!

We’ll also hear from our co-founder and product wizard Frans on the behind the scenes process of wallets and what that means for the future of our on-chain vision..

First though lets take it over to the event activity that lead up to that magic 5 million moment!

King and Queen of the Ziggo — Suzan en Freek

Suzan en Freek brought their catchy pop tracks & infectious stage energy to the Ziggo Dome over four events in November. Each one filled to the brim with 14,000+ screaming fans that certainly matched the energy of the duo on stage.

Our team had the chance to help with scan management during the event which is always a big motivator to see so many fans handling the system and more importantly getting through the doors as swift as possible!

Our scanning system handled the 16 door and scanner setup flawlessly which ultimately led to a 98,5%~ entrance rate 10 minutes before the event even began! For context that’s a very rare occasion to have such a high check-in rate before the acts begin & cis a testament to how fast our system can get people through the door and also gives a good hint at the excitement and loyalty of Suzan en Freek’s fanbase — not a minute to waste!

Son Mieux at Afas Live

Across the street from the Suzan en Freek action, Son Mieux packed the Afas Live with soulful rhythm across two evenings.

Hier Festival at Rotterdam Ahoy

Hopping over to Rotterdam, Hier Festival graced the Ahoy with big acts such as Di-Rect, BLØF, Racoon and a plethora of other talents.

Hier’s catchy event banner design is also the source of this month’s memory — check that out further down the blog to get your hands on a free collectible!

AnyID — Heroes Den Bosch Season Tickets

The Heroes Den Bosch season is now in full swing having 7+ games now under their belts. We’ve been working with the Heroes organisation and their fan engagement app partner AnyID to provide direct access to season tickets from within their app.

In the future it will also become the hub for interacting with Heroes collectibles, which given Basketball’s flair for amazing moments, plus the energy Heroes brings to the atmosphere they build at events, we’re certain this will be a way for getting a large number of attendees looking forward to collecting across the season.

Check-In — Check Mate

Not only was this month the moment for the 5,000,000th ticket, but it was also the highest number of check-ins we’ve ever processed in a singular month in the entire history of both GUTS and GET Protocol.

The previous record was smashed by twice the amount, resulting in 113,000 check-ins in November — phew!

5,000,000

Naturally it’s impossible to not mention this momentus occasion in the monthly blog! After seven years, many amazing partners, exciting events around the world and the cause of bringing fans and organisers together, safely and accessibly — the 5 million mark tastes truly sweet.

Of course with all of the parties we can thank and celebrate, the community — you are a major part of the journey and this moment simply couldn’t have occured without the support, passion and perseverance of the members that make our community great.

Take a walk through time with us here:

GET Protocol ✊🎟️ on Twitter: "It's official... 5,000,000 NFT Tickets processed through GET Protocol ✊🎟️To celebrate lets take a step back in time & reminisce on highlight events facilitated over the years & the journey the protocol has taken to empower creatorshttps://t.co/ZCBt03yDyT1 / 10 pic.twitter.com/ZRLsQyu7hd / Twitter"

It's official... 5,000,000 NFT Tickets processed through GET Protocol ✊🎟️To celebrate lets take a step back in time & reminisce on highlight events facilitated over the years & the journey the protocol has taken to empower creatorshttps://t.co/ZCBt03yDyT1 / 10 pic.twitter.com/ZRLsQyu7hd

We truly thank you & cannot wait for the next 5 million to be just as exciting (if not more!) together.

Business Development

This month our VP of Business Development, Simon visited London for Sporting Crypto a business networking event held by Pet Berisha. Pet’s ability to report on the adoption & learnings of the wider sports industry has led to him developing a sizeable & quality network with forward thinking organisations. Simon’s attendance and continued networking with the SC community is a great opportunity to foster awareness of our solution with organisations that align with the benefits of our tooling.

Later in the month, Simon and Colby took to Sports Pro Madrid to bump shoulders with top associations in the sport, content and consultancy worlds. Even though Simon unfortunately broke his foot just a day before flying out, he troopered through the pain & we met a lot of exciting people that we’re eager to follow up with.

These sports conferences are ideal for refining our ICP and seeing the Digital Twin in a new light through the eyes of all the parties that make up the sports vertical.

Wallets for Everyone

A look behind the scenes of our Wallets, with co-founder & product wizard Frans:

Last month we launched wallets for everyone, served together with a dApp to beautifully browse all your event-collectibles and access additional (post) event utility. If you haven’t checked out the new event collectible Wallet app, check it out now or read more about it on our previous blogs here and here.

Although a lot was written about the “Wallet UI”, and it is already accessible for everyone (that ever bought a ticket through GET Protocol), there is much more to it then simply being a massive upgrade of “The Fridge” (RIP Fridge). Let’s dive deeper and learn what the magic of wallets will mean for the future of GET Protocol.

The past

Up until now tickets/collectibles (in the form of NFTs) where minted on the event-contract wallet if the ticket-buyer didn’t connect a wallet they owned in the purchase flow or their profile. These NFTs could be “claimed” in retrospect, but this obviously wasn’t an ideal flow. More importantly: it also limited further development of the protocol.

We want to onboard everyone onto Web3, even if you don’t know you even want to yet! Let’s take the chicken-egg debate out of the way and give everyone an egg to hatch a chicken.

The now

In short: for every user (account) in our integrators’ system (including white-labels), a wallet is created and linked. Any tickets purchased results in the corresponding NFT being minted on this user-wallet directly. And of course we are doing this on scale from the start: Over 60.000 wallets have already been created over the last couple of weeks!

Important to note: On the protocol level wallet owners are registered completely anonymous and users can still opt-in to connect their own wallet, obviously!

This is a massive step towards adaptation since there is no additional process to opt-in, no retroactive claiming needed, and we have laid the groundwork to build additional utility — not only for those web3 savvy people — for any of the millions that already bought a ticket through one of the systems that use GET Protocol. Which brings us to the next topic…

The near future (aka next steps already in development)

Using your wallet. Not just looking at its content, but actively use it. To connect to OpenSea and put your collectible up for sale, to access external token-gated content, to unlock membership status of your favourite football club, the list goes on…

All of the above examples are already accessible for people that have connected a wallet upfront, but… We are going to bring it to every ticket-owner out there. An SDK which gives users control of their wallets — straight from the web/mobile platform of the integrator/whitelabel they have used to purchase their tickets — is currently in development.

With everything web3 & wallets abstracted away we can offer frictionless UX as a simple drop-in to integrators, in an environment people are already familiar with, without major development overhead.

The vision

We dream of a world where ticket-holders sign a transaction to check (themselves) in at an event, preferably permissionless without central services in-between. Where tickets can be resold fully decentral, worldwide and using crypto or fiat of your choice. Where only the rules programmed on the smart-ticket are the limits. Not just those who understand the complex technological world that is Web3 (currently) — but for everyone. Wallets brings us a lot closer to that goal and we cannot wait to work on the endless possibilities they bring.

Streamlining the Scanner App

Our TAAS ‘Ticketing as a Service’ team also launched changes to the scanner app at the beginning of the month after feedback from event organisers — the app now intuitively nudges and shows the scanner when they’ve checked-in a user / privilege:

Bittrex Global — Wind Down

This month Bittrex also informed users that they are winding down operation of the platform. Whilst there is currently no date for the end of withdrawals — we encourage any GET token holders to withdraw their tokens from the platform to ensure the safety and security of their token ownership.

You can read more on the exchange’s homepage: https://bittrexglobal.com/

Memories — Hier Festival

We’re excited to launch the second memory for the community which is a Hier Festival replica collectible! With Hier being such a key moment in the autumn-winter months, we thought it would be the ideal way to cherish November’s hustle and bustle.

As always you can claim your memory by heading to the staking site and the claim will be open until the end of December!

https://token.get-protocol.io/memories

That’s it for November! As always you can stay up to date via the GET Protocol twitter & we’ll see you back here for next month’s blog — adios!

GET November’ 23–5 Million was originally published in Open Ticketing Ecosystem on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

GET’ October 23

Welcome all to GET Protocol’s October update blog, as the spooky season sets in we’ve got an exciting edition for you to tuck into, full of treats (and maybe a trick or two too!)

This month marks the eagerly awaited launch of our Wallet UI which we’ve nicknamed internally the ‘Loop Closer’ for it’s huge potential to accessibly unlock the underlying Web3 benefits of our ticketing infrastructure.

Curious to know more about the platform & kick off the launch with your very own memory to mark the occasion?

Let’s tuck in.

Notable Events through the Protocol

To kick things off as per normal, let’s take a look at note worthy events ticketed or scanned during the last 31 days by integrator partners.

De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig at the Ahoy

The Netherland’s most quirky creative group were back in action on Saturday at the Ahoy, performing in front of 6000+ audience members and sharing the eclectic soul of their music with each and every one of them.

GUTS had the honour of facilitating the ticketing for this event at the Ahoy, along with a string of other events taking place in the Netherlands over the next few months — check out the dates here: https://www.dejeugdvantegenwoordig.com/

Heroes Den Bosch

The coolest basketball team this side of the Atlantic ocean took to their home court for regular season programming this month with tickets through GUTS & new experiences unlocked by their app partner AnyID.

We’re keen to reveal more in this story but alas the time is not quite right, so stay tuned!

ADE Roundtable & Mike Williams’ Storylines

October always means one thing in Amsterdam — a time for event gatherings, partying and musical wisdom from industry professionals as ADE gathers in the city.

This year like last, we organised a roundtable with a diverse crowd from the music industry to talk creator control, deplatforming, Web3 accessibility, AI and all things that could impact creators and event organisers, we’re really happy with the people we met and look forward to continuing those threads.

Along with the roundtable, GUTS facilitated renowned house artist Mike Williams with his Storylines event playing to an amped up crowd at the Hotel Arena.

Redefining Access — Closing the Loop with the Wallet UI Release

In the summer of 2021 after months of experimentation and testing, we made a huge shift in our ticketing infrastructure moving away from blockchain registered ‘proofs of ticket activity’ to fully native NFT Tickets on Polygon.

With that launch, we looked to the future and envisioned a world where a ticket didnt just sit after use at the bottom of a trashcan (or the proverbial digital equivalent). Instead it could be used to connect fans, creators and organisers together.

Since those humble days, we’ve put to practice exciting usecases only made possible through NFT technology, from event financing with Lewis Capaldi to access passes for Efteling employees into a digital recreation of a beloved attraction and not to forget linking NFT collectibles to a racetrack with the Dutch Grand Prix.

These cases are just an exciting glimpse at what we believe the future will look like for the fan connection and how ticketing sits at the beating heart of this relationship.

But (and there’s always a but) — with these triumphs, we have had to look honestly at our approach and come to grips with the fact that accessibility still is the biggest crux to globally unlocking the benefits that we know exist with Web3 rails.

Those tantalisingly exciting possibilities mentioned above remained behind a thin veil of complexity for the majority of the industry.

It’s for these reasons above that we’re excited to announce the release of the Wallet UI which will give every event organiser the opportunity to tap into Web3 experiences with zero friction.

Much like how we showcased at Zandvoort that Web3 fan engagement can be utilised to excellence for everyday attendees, build excitement for an event and give attendees a new way to engage with their beloved communities and creators, we believe the Wallet UI and custom wallets behind the scenes will offer this potential for existing clients, new prospects and all the creators that wish to join the ticketing revolution.

The Wallet UI allows attendees to view all the collectibles they own and the collections that they’re apart of. Accessing the Wallet UI is as simple as an access link that can be provided to attendees via the communication method of choice or within the next month natively accessed directly via the WL app.

Behind the scenes our custom wallet technology creates a new wallet for each new user for the integrator, ensuring ownership of NFT Tickets and Collectibles comes with zero setup friction.

What’s more, event organisers can include direct call to actions in the Wallet UI, such as links to ticket shops, merchandise, community platforms and digital experiences.

Over time we see this being the next stepping stone towards frictionless token gating occurring at an integrator app level or within the Wallet UI.

As we mentioned in June, when putting this revelation into the context of the ‘Digital Twin 2.0’ unlocked via the custom wallets and wallet UI, here are the benefits going forward:

• A Digital Collectible direct in the hands of the attendee
• A Web3 wallet, that’s a new fan data point akin to a form of ‘Web3 cookie’
• Seamless onboarding to digital content direct from an integrated app or our Wallet UI

Along with accessing custom wallets via access links, attendees or community members can also connect their own wallet — should they wish, to view their self custodial wallet’s collectibles.

You can access the wallet below — but we recommend reading on a little first and then coming back to this link with a fun memory to view…

https://wallet.get-protocol.io/

Immortalising A Memory — The Memories Launch

‘You don’t know you are in the best moment until its simply a memory’

Poignant words don’t you think? We’re mentioning this quote as we believe we’re at an exciting moment in time too — at the new frontier of the internet and what better way to cherish it with our community than allow everyone to pick up a memory from this very moment and beyond. After all what would be an exciting launch without a memory to bind to the moment?

Well, you’re in luck as we’ve also been hard at work on our new memory project which allows any GET staker to claim a unique memory each month from protocol activity and developments.

Each memory comes as 1 of 4 rarity types — common, foil, rare and legendary.

If you’re feeling really lucky then maybe you’ll claim a legendary memory and snag some future goodies ;)

This month’s memory is a proper treat as we’re immortalising September’s Japan GP collectible activity which was originally distributed at the Honda Welcome Event and for On-Site collectibles to Japan GP attendees.

Will you be lucky enough to get a legendary Japan memory collectible?

This memory is a unique community replica collectible which is not tied to the original collection nor created directly with Honda. Head to the link below to claim and make sure to swing by the Discord to show us what you picked up!

Claim your memory by holding xGET and heading to the following link:

https://token.get-protocol.io/memories

Read further information on the project:

https://www.nft.get-protocol.io/memories

Digital Twin — Narrowing in on Fan Apps & Motorsports

Over the last year we’ve been in a consistent pattern of iteration and improvement in the way we present the Digital Twin offering to prospects. In the last 10 months our primary ICP has changed heavily towards parties that have the agency and capacity to bring creative fan engagement projects to life, that means the budget, the resource capacity and the creative ambition to make a statement.

By angling towards these parties, we can bring onboard the biggest and most ambitious projects that make a statement and importantly set a future blueprint in place to be replicated across smaller events with less effort needed.

This ‘blueprint’ system as we’re calling it, allows us to weigh up which aspects of a DT Collectible distribution make the largest impact on an event audience, across engagement, retention, activity levels and even app downloads.

Zooming in on the example at Zandvoort, we worked with DutchGP stakeholder, SportsVibes to combine their innovative marketing and creative strategy for the prix with our rails to engage the race audience in an entirely new way. This led to higher email open rates, marketing engagement and app activity across the board and ultimately a successful Unlock the Track campaign that led to 25,000 active claims and helped contribute to SportsVibes being nominated for their marketing awards in the Netherlands.

With Fan Apps, the DT becomes a potent tool for them to incentivise new users and retain existing profiles. Ticket linked collectibles accessed and interacted through fan apps lead to longer times spent in the app & as such a higher lifetime activity and hopefully — spend.

This leads us into the update from our BD, Simon on the last few months approach:

Simon Klinkenberg — Business Development

After the BD department returned to earth from a sky high celebration that was called the ‘Formula 1 Dutch GP’, we knew there is a lot to win in the near future.

With the outstanding work on the wallet creation from the development team and the successful F1 case under our belt, the future was looking exciting. It turned out that we were correct in our assumption as shortly after the Dutch GP we landed a lovely partnership with Honda and the Japan Formula 1 at Suzuka.

Together with ANIMOCA we helped to onboard 65.000 fans frictionlessly into Honda’s Web3 environment and ultimately build an exciting collectible progression campaign across their welcome event and on-site activations.

These activities included, a lottery collectible, prediction game, VIP ticket experience collectible and on-site rewards including a ‘Honda Engine’ and ‘Suzuka Racetrack’ collectible.

Whew, that was quite the journey and ultimately meant another exciting brand collaboration under our wings that now leads us to a very real possibility of working closer with F1, F1 promoters, Animoca and Honda.

At the same time that this collaboration occurred, I journeyed over to the WFS with Colby to chat with other exciting prospects and show them these exciting usecases. On the whole, fan apps, fan communities and marketeers absolutely loved these cases — for football clubs and agencies they’re in general still in the awareness phase, so showing them the potential and frictionlessness of the technology now feels like only a matter of time before their general Web3 adoption increases. Of course the two magnificent usecases over this summer gave us more insights and learnings for our roadmap and sales direction. If we onboard fans frictionlessly with a wallet and a collectible tied to their ticket, they should be able to see and interact with their collectible which is where the new custom wallet and wallet UI tech really shines.

On the whole, the Digital Twin is becoming a very mature product that opens up doors for exciting organizations. Of course the road to closing a deal with partners the size of F1 does take a while and requires a lot of advisory work but in general we’re in a good flow and are gaining traction from many different verticals at a stage that’s important for where the company is heading.

That’s it for October! As always you can stay up to date via the GET Protocol twitter & we’ll see you back here for next month’s blog — until then.

GET October ’23 — A New Era for Event Fandom was originally published in Open Ticketing Ecosystem on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Welcome one and all to another GET Protocol monthly blog, which is being written at this very moment from 27,000 feat in the air, heading back to Amsterdam from a successful IFF London trip. We’ve got plenty of interesting topics to cover in this blog that will hopefully make you feel sky high too — so buckle your seatbelts and let’s fly into it.

Ongoings around the protocol

To start, lets take a look at a few events occurring through GET Protocol by integrators this month and onwards into October.

Castagne Streghe E Dintorni — Wicket Tickets

First off we have Castagne Streghe E Dintorni faciliated by Wicket Tickets in Italy. The event combines two rather curious topics — chestnuts and witches! The aim of the event is to rediscover the area of Rovenna and its traditions in an event that directly involves the historical centre of the town. The event fascinates thousands of people every year ( with up to 8,000 visitors).

Shop Link:

https://app.wicketevents.com/g3adcg-castagne-streghe-e-dintorni?next=/g3adcg-castagne-streghe-e-dintorni/f34i1f

Ragers Night Show — DeFy Tickets

DeFy Tickets have a brand new event under their belts — Ragers Night which we’ve been told is all the rage with locals. Playing the hottest rap and hip hop tracks, this Los Angeles event is an exciting addition to DeFy’s roster.

Shop Link:
https://app.defytickets.com/f68rt0-ragers-night-show-3/x78e5l

Stats for September

During the month of September, a total of 83,536 tickets & collectibles were issued by protocol partners across 414 events. To fuel this ticketing activity, partners utilized roughly 25,034 GET which has been locked into event smart contracts.

A Message from our CEO, Maarten

Just like witnessing children mature and become independent, we are thrilled to announce that starting October 1st, GUTS will embark on a journey of self-reliance, moving forward independently from the User Growth Fund.

From the onset, our vision for GUTS was to flourish autonomously in one of the globe’s most competitive ticketing landscapes; the Netherlands. The proposition thus offered to potential white labels is not just strong — it’s a promising gateway to robust growth and development.

It is therefore why GUTS will organically source top ups direct from the open market for ticketing activity beginning October 1st!

White-Label Pricing

Furthermore, after two insightful years of testing and refining, we have optimized our SaaS solution to be more cost-effective, creating a win-win scenario for both GUTS and our White-Label partners. With our revised pricing, white-labels can anticipate enhanced profit margins as sales volumes increase:

Pricing resets each calendar year & importantly volume within the threshold is paid at the fee tier indicated above, meaning that even if volume goes above a threshold, then the volume below is still paid at the fee tier for that threshold. For example any volume below $500,000 would pay a 2% fee, any volume between 500–1 Million will pay 1.5% and so forth.

Our innovative pricing model is designed to foster partnerships with more white-labels, ensuring consistent earnings even if ticket sales fluctuate. Moreover, it champions transparency in pricing — a groundbreaking approach in the industry — while serving clients across the globe with unmatched dedication.

UGF

Exciting developments are on the horizon for the UGF, following the successful conclusion of our recent Seed round. Tokens are allocated to vesting contracts, with a linear unvesting period of 12 months, post which, investors are obligated to stake the tokens into xGET for a minimum of one year. This thoughtful approach ensures the tokens are secured, allowing ample time for our organization to evolve and adapt to a landscape where market demand determines the bottom of the token’s value.

You can view the token vesting contract below:

https://etherscan.io/address/0xc2d456b8dDf6ba5F38a09c252DAAe231C45200E9#readContract

Honda & Animoca — Japan Grand Prix Experiences

We had the pleasure of working closely with the Animoca team and their wallet provider Gryfyn, to design and distribute collectibles tied to Honda’s event experiences at the Suzuka Japan Grand Prix. At the race Honda held a VIP Welcome Event and an On-Site Booth & Experience to which we put together a creative concept that encapuslated the two events, Honda’s heritage and the race experience as a whole.

https://www.animocabrands.com/animoca-brands-japan-gryfyn-and-get-protocol-collaborate-with-honda-for-web3-fan-engagement

These Collectible were given over several distribution mechanisms. The primary being a lottery that users entered before the race weekend which if successful granted entrance into a VIP welcome event with Honda and Redbull. Those that were successfully chosen from the lottery received a Victory collectible and a further VIP event collectible distributed to attendees of the event that purchased a ticket through Honda. Lottery losers also received a consolation collectible. The final two collectibles were given out on-site by Honda and Gryfyn the wallet provider. The mechanism was done direct to attendees and their Gryfyn wallets.

Both Honda and Animoca were incredibly happy about the distribution and campaign with everything going off without a hitch. This event showcased not only how collectibles can engage active audiences but also create a touch point that Honda and Animoca can use to connect and engage the holder at later moments.

Check out some of the PR coverage around the activation here, here & here.

Recapping — International Festival Forum & World Football Summit

Over the last two weeks we’ve attended back to back conferences in Sevilla and London. For the WFS in Sevilla, we networked with industry professionals in the football and wider sports industry, showcasing how our Digital Twin and ‘Event Linked Collectibles’ can be used as a revenue, loyalty and fan engagement tool on top of their existing infrastructure and campaigns. The audience at the event mixed between football clubs, leagues, fan apps, communities and even scouts and bodyguards. Speaking with football clubs has always been very insightful to see where their overall digital strategy is heading and how Web3 plays a role within this. Where we currently see the most tangible opportunities is with sports marketing apps, fan apps and fan communities as these businesses are actively looking for new ways to bring attendees and fans into their ecosystem and work closely with existing clubs in a way that gives them agency to put new technology in place and interface it with shared IP from the club themselves.

Across the English channel, we arrived in London which housed the International Festival Forum for another year. Here booking agents, promoters, venues and event organisers gather to set new deals in place for the coming festival rotation. September and October is a prime time within the industry as it sits between a lul where the year’s festivals have mainly concluded and the ticketing sales for the following year have yet to begin, ideal for meeting new prospects!

Here we conducted a round table with a number of professionals from both ticketing, event organisation and artist management to discuss the latest technologies and their impact on the industry as a whole. Given the whirlwind of technological improvements over the last year, we picked up great insights from attendees and simultaneously gave them a look at how we’re viewing and interacting with innovation. Topics covered the relationship of data & artist control, the ever building need to build fan communities and understand who attends an event and of course AI & Web3.

As the festival continued we spoke to promoters and event organisers who showed great enthusiasm not only to our incredibly competitive pricing but also to the money they could make by controlling their secondary market — given the new pricing structure in combination with the controlled resale potential on offer, we’re incredibly enthusiastic that there’s a great product market fit in the sector and hope to report back in the coming months with fruits from these discussions.

Wallet UI

On the protocol development side, we’ve been hard at work putting the final touches into the Wallet UI to ensure it’s ready and raring for bringing mass accessibility to Web3 and Collectibles for the events industry. We’re gearing up for a launch in October which we’ll roll out to the community along with the first Memories launch, can you guess what the first memory will be? 👀

As for our approach to DT integrators, the White-Label and new prospects, we’re packaging the Wallet UI and overall approach for the DT into our ‘Event Linked Collectible’ proposition, which is resonating with new prospects incredibly well. Here we focus on three tangible pillars for revenue — as an advertisement canvas, a mechanicsm for ticket upsells and new post-event loyalty programs.

For the White-Label we’re taking a methodical approach to the way we link this into the user journey & once we feel ready on this front, we’ll be approaching existing clients and prospects to show them the possibilities first hand as part of their overall ticketing experience.

Gearing up for ADE & Beyond

As Amsterdam Dance Event is around the corner, we’re gearing up to showcase our technology to the brightest minds in the dance community. Firstly we’ll be conducting a roundtable with new prospects and warm contacts alike. We’ll also be planning a number of promotional opportunities, with a few hidden surprises up our sleeve which we’ll be sure to let you know about.

Along with ADE, we’ll be heading to Lisbon and Madrid in November for both Web Summit & Sports Pro Madrid, to meet and foster a relationship with new prospects and strengthen our network effect in the sports and events industries.

That’s it for this month’s blog, we hope you’ve enjoyed reading about all the ongoings of the protocol and look forward to welcoming you back here again this time next month.

As always make sure to follow us on Twitter and we’ll see you in October, until then!

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GET September ’23 — Keeping the Good Times Rolling was originally published in Open Ticketing Ecosystem on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Greetings everyone!

August is officially drawing to a close and despite the dreary wet and windy (not so summer) weather, there’s been rays of sunshine across the protocol this month as the Digital Twin officially gets its largest integration case study to date with the Zandvoort Grand Prix.

With plenty of background developments coalescing with this exciting usecase, we feel it’s the Digital Twin’s time to shine so let’s tuck into another update blog & showcase all that’s occurring with GET Protocol.

Stats

During the month of August, a total of 177,558 tickets & collectibles were issued by protocol partners across 333 events. To fuel this ticketing activity, partners utilized roughly 12,453 GET which has been locked into event smart contracts.

Psst, by the way, this month we crossed the magic milestone of 1 million GET used as fuel for protocol-issued tickets!

Own The Track — Zandvoort 2023 Grand Prix

On August 27th and the surrounding weekend, over 300.000 attendees eagerly made their way to the Zandvoort Grand Prix to experience the talent and adrenaline put on the line for victory.

This year’s race marked an extra special 75th anniversary of the Zandvoort track, which over the years has witnessed all that racing has to offer, from nail biting moments between stiff competition to pure euphoria in pursuit of racing excellence.

It’s safe to say that everything has been put on the line at Zandvoort over the years.

An Ambitious Plan
Given the uniqueness of this year’s race, the DutchGP team were keen to offer attendees an extra special way of capturing this historical moment & there was no better fit than to do so through Digital Collectibles.

We were fortunate to be tasked with helping the DutchGP team bring these collectibles to life, thanks to the scale afforded by the Digital Twin and it’s ability to issue collectibles tied directly to the Grand Prix’s tickets.

With the pieces of the puzzle coming together, that naturally left the biggest question — what would the collectibles revolve around?

As the DutchGP team were keen to center the campaign around the track itself, the idea was put forward to link each collectible directly to one of the 100,000+ co-ordinates that make up the track.

This was something we were incredibly excited for as it’s an exemplary way of showcasing what NFT Metadata can offer — that’s how the Trackside Treasure collectibles were born.

The Execution
From March of this year onwards we began assisting the DutchGP and a part of the CM.com team whom handled the ticket issuance and DutchGP app. The core ethos was to make the end user flow as simple as possible, which we aimed to achieve through a direct link to the ticket purchase & baking the collectible access within the app so that the flow felt as intuitive as possible for everyone no matter age or technical experience.

A week before the race began, the ticket personalisation process ended which marked the beginning of the collectible issuance process. Whilst the integration was capable of handling an issuance of collectibles to the entire attendee base, the DutchGP were keen on providing an active claim to gauage attendee interest in the feature. As such emails were sent out asking attendees whether they’d like to claim their collectible. Once confirmed, a collectible was issued onto a fresh wallet for the attendee, which was then accessible from within the DutchGP app.

To keep the campaign suspenseful, the collectible was not revealed until the day of the race and before hand was hidden with a ‘Loader Collectible’ that simply showed the Zandvoort logo. An hour before the race began, as fans eagerly awaited the countdown, an app notification was sent out to all, announcing to fans that they could unwrap their collectible. Take a look at the final design below:

Media
The campaign was given a warm welcome from press in both the Web3 space and traditional sports & events publication.

Some highlights from the coverage:

• Blackbook Motorsport — Zandvoort to offer ticket-linked digital collectibles at F1 Grand Prix
• NFT Now — F1 Dutch Grand Prix Unveils Ticket-Linked Digital Collectibles
• TicketingBusiness — Dutch Formula 1 Grand Prix attendees to receive digital collectible
• BeinCrypto — Dutch Grand Prix Adopts Term ‘Digital Collectibles’ as NFT Market Struggles
• NFT Evening — NFTs on the Racetrack: Zandvoort Grand Prix’s Cutting-Edge Collectibles
• SportsBusinessJournal — F1 Dutch Grand Prix offering ticket-linked digital collectibles
• TheCryptoTimes — F1 Dutch GP Introduces Ticket-Linked Digital Collectibles
• SportingCrypto — 🏁 Dutch Grand Prix is Using Digital Collectables

Follow-up
We’ve already received very positive feedback from this usecase, both at the Grand Prix itself from other organizations in attendance, and from parties around the world who have come across our approach. We’re confident the simplicity and straightforwardness of this integration will set the tone for many applications to follow.

You can expect a case study from the event to release in the following weeks, which we’ll showcase to the world & draw more attention to the project!

The Ticketing Revolution DAO Representatives

This month also saw the (re)ignition of the Ticketing Revolution DAO, with a vote around instating two community members as DAO representatives, in charge of fleshing out the first steps and processes that will allow all stakers of GET to participate in collaborative initiatives.

Snapshot vote:
https://snapshot.org/#/ticketing-revolution.eth/proposal/0x8967ba979a8eb55b302487fa7476f962e10f7c402ff6b7da6eda7831d228a1e7

Discord discussion channel: https://discord.com/channels/889431643494944768/1143462534427451466

After a seven day voting period, the proposal passed; meaning Brom and Kyozu are officially DAO representatives, starting September 1st, 2023. As promised in the proposal, the new reps were asked to share a message to the wider community in this blog:

From Brom:
‘I’m both humbled and excited to step into this role as one of the Ticketing Revolution DAO representatives alongside Kyozu. A sincere thank you to each of you for entrusting us with this responsibility.

For those of you who are not familiar with me, I’ve been a passionate member of the GET community for quite some time. From using the transparent data offered by ticketing on the blockchain I started my personal development journey by building the community website and dashboard. My commitment to this project is far from done. This hasn’t just been a mere venture for me, but a labour of love and belief in the success of the GET Protocol within the ticketing industry.

Also, being an active member of the Legion project, which was a beacon for community engagement gave me an understanding of the sheer dedication and collaborative spirit of the community… this should be rewarded.

Given the outlined pillars of the Ticketing Revolution DAO:

• Community outreach for widespread awareness.
• Amplifying internal community activities, particularly within our bustling Discord.
• Fostering educational endeavours about the Ticketing & Event industry.
• And encouraging the development of beneficial community tools and products.

I am committed to furthering these tenets. As representatives, we’re not just here to do a job, but to listen. We want to ensure that every member feels empowered to share their ideas, contributing to the growth of the Ticketing Revolution DAO and GET Protocol alike.

And as we aim to roll out the new rewards program this month, we’ll be making key decisions on the distribution of rewards like xGET, NFTs, GET Protocol Integrator Tickets, and exclusive merchandise. Your inputs, as always, will be invaluable.

Should you have any thoughts, concerns, or innovative ideas, please don’t hesitate to share them. Let’s not just change the game; let’s redefine ticketing for generations to come!’

From Kyozu:
I’d also like to extend the gratitude to the community for this opportunity.

Similarly to Brom, I’ve become very passionate about the mission from GET Protocol to truly revolutionise the ticketing industry on a deep level. Which, as we all know, is plagued by opaqueness and backdoor deals.
I’ve stuck around for a few years now and no other project has captivated me as much as GET Protocol. What started off as becoming one of the most active Legion members turned into researching the field and bringing in potential leads to the Foundation. I’ve no intention to turn my back anytime soon.

Updates from around the Protocol

Bridging xGET

One of the main overhanging challenges with the current staking system is the ability to keep the rewards aligned between networks and this presents itself both as a technical challenge and an economic one. The vast majority of GET is staked on Ethereum however certain rewards such as Uniswap trading fees are localised to a single chain and the fees collected aren’t as imbalanced as the staking ratio between Polygon and Ethereum. Or in other words Polygon currently receives a greater share of trading fee rewards than the share of staked GET across both the Polygon and Ethereum networks, causing an imbalance in the xGET exchange rates between networks.

Perhaps the cleanest way to resolve this is to let the market handle it. Greater rewards on Polygon? Stake your GET there to receive the additional rewards, thereby also correcting the balance. However it would not be possible to bridge xGET directly as a standard ERC-20 token since xGET needs to operate independently on each network and doing so would only move the amount of shares for vault and leave the underlying assets within the staking contract. Taken to its conclusion this would mean that users could deposit tokes on one network and withdraw on another causing a permanent imbalance in the staked GET for other participants.

Solving this means that we must instead bridge the underlying GET and we do so by burning the xGET on the source chain and re-staking the bridged GET on the destination chain although this is slightly easier said than done. Over the coming weeks we will launch the custom bridge contracts on both networks as well as hold a governance vote to allow these contracts to be exempt from the instant withdrawal fee, allowing stakers to bridge between networks without paying the fee. [Technically the implementation requires that stakers perform a withdrawal and then a redeposit but since the GET is guaranteed to be re-staked on the destination chain no withdrawal occurs overall]

We hope that this release will have multiple benefits and not just the obvious that it allows existing stakers to capture better rates between chains but also to allow stakers portability of their xGET in case their preference for blockchains change over time.

Memories

The Memories project which provides a replica collectible reward to stakers for highlight protocol events is still ongoing & nearing the finish line, we’re aiming to have our first distribution by the end of September so stay tuned & have your xGET at the ready!

Wallet UI

Our Wallet UI system which provides a central hub for accessing digital collectibles is making steadfast progress. With the design & build now entering final stages, we expect to reveal more in the coming month & perhaps even give you an opportunity to use it!

That’s it for August! As always you can stay up to date via the GET Protocol twitter or through the Discord channel, and we’ll see you back here for next month’s blog — until then.

GET August ’23 — Off to the races was originally published in Open Ticketing Ecosystem on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Welcome everyone to the new chapter.

As you may have already seen this month, we were finally able to reveal the news on our $4.5 million seed round, backed by giants in the space with the network & support to help us achieve the goal of bringing the protocol to new heights.

This announcement marks a fresh new chapter, where our 7 years of effort in building best-in-class infrastructure & collaboration with thousands of event organizers around the world is unleashed through wider channels & an exceptional network that our VC partners offer.

Now you may be wondering more about this partnership & the all the specifics that come with it — let’s dive into it.

Notes on our funding round — Maarten Bloemers, co-founder of GET Protocol:

We are delighted to share this milestone achievement with our esteemed crypto community, as GET Protocol successfully secured substantial funds, despite challenging market conditions. This moment highlights our dedication to strategic planning and adaptability in the ever-evolving crypto industry.

The funding process was extremely time consuming, as we spoke to over 500 VC’s before landing on our final partners, who we believe are a perfect fit for the time ahead.

What did not help our plans was the drastic spending downturn the crypto VC’s happened to be in the midst of, as can be seen in the graph below.

All the more reason to be thrilled about our successful raise.

Our investors’ influence and extensive network within the crypto ecosystem position us for transformative growth. With their guidance, we are poised to capitalize on strategic partnerships and explore innovative opportunities that will shape the future of GET Protocol.

As we venture into this new chapter, we are committed to scaling what we have meticulously built and battle-tested over the years. Our focus lies in optimizing and expanding our robust foundation, paving the way for sustainable growth and solidifying our position as a leading force in the crypto space.

We won’t be doing this by trying to fit in and playing the game of others — but rather by emphasizing what sets us apart.

The overlap of NFTs and sports presents an exciting synergy, and we are thrilled to spearhead new solutions here. Leveraging the power of accessible blockchain technology, we aim to revolutionize the sports industry, redefining fan engagement, player experiences, and sports content ownership. We’ll be able to show you what’s cooking here shortly.

Another change will be more aggressive and flexible business development.

To bolster accessibility for our prospects across various verticals and regions, we have carefully considered pricing adjustments. Recognizing the importance of equitable participation, we have revised our white-label platform fees to 2% with possibilities for price flexibility depending on the turnover and integrator specifics, ensuring that GET Protocol tooling remains an attractive proposition for all stakeholders.

After we process the price adjustments we shall take GUTS off of UGF life support as soon as possible. This strategic move underscores our commitment to prudent resource allocation and long-term viability.

At the heart of our success lies the profound alignment of goals between our visionary investors and our loyal community. We share a collective vision for the future, characterized by innovation, collaboration, and mutual growth.

In tandem with the shared vision of adoption, our VCs also have an aligned economic incentive with the community via GET token ownership which will be vested via a two-stage process, firstly locked as GET for a fixed time period within a vesting contract before being converted and released as xGET. Ensuring that this GET is staked as xGET means that investors in the protocol will be aligned under the same staking rules and long-term vision as existing stakers.

The upcoming phase of GET Protocol represents an exhilarating chapter in our journey. We are enthusiastic about the challenges ahead, and our resolve to push the boundaries of the ticketing & events landscape remains unwavering. The doors that are opening for us now show a lot of promise for the future.

In conclusion, we extend our deepest gratitude to our community for joining us on this remarkable journey.

A Technical Note on the Announcement

With new partners come new possibilities to push forward our technical strategy, stabilising our core platform and ensuring that our NFT tickets are reliably distributed to all attendees on GET Protocol.

Launched in June 2021, the first version of the Digital Twin API proved that we can being the benefits of NFTs to the ticketing industry and currently accounts for 2.6M NFTs minted on the Polygon network. A year later we launched V2 of the Digital Twin, massively increasing throughput and operating costs of mass-minting NFT tickets. We are now approaching 4.3M tickets created on GET Protocol and are ready to show off GET Protocol multi-chain.

The blockchain industry moves at breakneck speed with new shiny technologies appearing week-in week-out. We’ve always tried to take a balanced view on which to pay attention to and which to wait on, but the landscape now in 2023 is vastly different to it was when V1 was being built in early 2021. Layer two blockchains have matured and so has their architecture and security properties. Despite a lot of technical battles we have managed to ensure that all of our tickets have been minted at a low cost on networks not designed for the throughput we can drive.

This has now changed and with our Tezos partnership we are able to work with their core developers in ensuring that their upcoming Etherlink L2 for Tezos is well suited to handle our requirements. Using a layer two sequencer ensures good latency, fast confirmation times, and cheap transaction fees with limited compromise on security. It’s these properties that help us to use Tezos as the future default chain for NFT ticket minting.

Staking? And Polygon? And bridging? And the wallets?

Well we’ve done a lot of work to stabilise and ensure that we are able to create NFTs on the Polygon PoS network at a reasonable cost and this will not go away, so see this as out first steps towards a multi-chain GET Protocol. Some of the specifics around the staking and bridging of the token will be discussed alongside the technical work to support Tezos Etherlink and will depend on the specifics of the rollout. But to be clear; we don’t wish for any network to win and we’ll continue to offer the best possible support for all services in which the GET token exists. No change there!

For the GET token to grow and thrive it is important for it to exist and support networks that have deep connections to NFTs, real-world events, a strong community, and more. We want to welcome these communities to the world of NFT ticketing and will ensure that we do as seamlessly as possible.

As for now, we’ll continue to update as the integration unfolds but hope you can look forward to the possibilities of working closely with an ecosystem partner with the technical delivery and caliber of Tezos.

Launching the Ticketing Revolution DAO

With funding secured, there is now renewed bandwidth and energy for booting up community efforts via the Ticketing Revolution DAO. Much like the vision we laid out in March of this year, the DAO will focus on the core goal of educating and promoting the ticketing revolution within the events industry & Web3 space.

As a leader within an emerging field of technology, education of the industry has always been one of our biggest challenges to adoption. Blockchain usage is growing steadily but ticketing by-and-large is a Web2 dominated industry and it is our job to educate, highlight, and demonstrate the benefits that Web3-native technologies can have on the broader ticketing industry at large. Whether it is Digital Collectibles, sponsorships, or token-gated access for dedicated fans, we are at the forefront of driving adoption of this distribution mechanism within the ticketing industry.

Put another way; educating the ticketing industry on the benefits of Web3 ticketing is no small feat but it is vital for the growth of the protocol and blockchain ticketing technology. Everything we do here as a collective will make a difference towards our long-term mission. The GET Protocol community is well placed to support this effort through a re-energized DAO effort, showing the ticketing industry what we can do!

The Objectives & Key Pillars

To achieve the ambitious but justified goal of being the go to market leader & expert in applying Web3 technology to ticketing and events, the DAO should revolve around key pillars that help direct useful activity in order to achieve sustainable progress.

These pillars are education, outreach, community building and tool development.

By keeping laser focused on these pillars, we’re confident the DAO can become an ecosystem where ambitious initiatives and strong community centric relationships can be formed. Whether participation by event or ticketing industry professionals, independent creatives or passionate Web3 community members, the DAO should be a home for all.

The Representatives

Like any good revolution, there needs to be a strong core group that can lead initiatives and champion community empowerment. As such the team plans to elect two representatives that will head up the DAO for a four month tenure. During this period, the reps will be in charge of leading outreach & community initiatives, establishing a rewards program, promoting educational content & general activity. Once the four months are concluded, a vote will be announced for the DAO to elect the next set of reps.

To kick things off, we’ll be polling activity community members to find & elect our first representatives after which an initialisation of the DAO will occur via a vote through a ‘Ticketing Revolution DAO’ snapshot space — stay on the look out for that in the coming week or two!

Musings from Paris — EthCC Insights

During July, Maarten & Colby set off for a short stint in the French capital to meet builders, VC partners & projects to get their insights into the crypto industries progress.

The trip was admittedly quite polarising, on the one hand we met amazing folk building all sorts of user apps along with our VC partners who have been nothing but supportive and opened doors that were previously not possible. On the other hand, there was a stark abundance of infrastructure layers that we had never even heard of, whom were able to raise multi-million VC rounds without so much as a testnet.

Whilst infrastructure is naturally a critical piece of the Web3 jigsaw we were nonetheless disheartened to see the lack of other critical user apps being built & showcased at such a pinnacle Web3 event on the calendar.

With that being said, to us this just drove home the point of our mission even further and the importance of having a killer Web3 usecase, that can reach the masses in a package that’s user friendly to the core — needless to say it’s driven a renewed vigour in our day to day work & we hope to not only prove to the industry that the killer apps do exist & are absolutely what the space needs more of, but champion outside of the Web3 space, how this technology can benefit everyday people.

We hope to see even more usable apps next year (including of course our own!)

Around the Protocol

Smaller updates occurring behind the scenes around the protocol:

Monthly Stats During the month of July, a total of 174,563 tickets were issued by protocol partners. To fuel this ticketing activity, partners utilized roughly 23,977 GET which has been locked into event smart contracts.

The Memories Project
The Memories collectible program is by now well into development, ensuring that we can reliably distribute memories each month to xGET holders. Expect next month to hold a memory worth cherishing..

The Digital Twin
After a month of positive networking at SEG3 & EthCC, we’re engaged in a number of positive prospect conversations and look forward to revealing some exciting DT news soon.

Event Financing
Event Financing continues to be refined on both a technical & business level behind the scenes, with added efforts thanks to the funding round being finalized. We’ll ensure to elaborate further when the time is right.

That’s it for this month’s blog! As always you can stay up to date via the GET Protocol twitter & we’ll see you back here for next month’s blog which is shaping up to be special.

GET July’ 23 — A New Chapter was originally published in Open Ticketing Ecosystem on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.