Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor and am merely presenting my opinion. Do your own research before investing into any ICO.
Introduction
The Blockchain revolution is moving at an accelerating pace. This morning, seven minutes after its launch, the Aventus ICO sold out within seven minutes.
In a few days' time, on September 13th at 17:00 hours UTC, EventChain, a service which will coexist as a marketplace alongside Aventus and others, will launch its ICO in a bid to fund its own proposal for a blockchain-based solution within the ticket management space, an industry which has an annual value in the region of $50 billion globally.
Ticket Issues
We are all aware of the issues associated with traditional ticket management, particularly for large events. Tickets are generally snapped up by online bots or ticket sharks buying en masse who push prices through the roof. Concerts and football games then become something less resembling a spectacle and more like something akin to a frenzied Far-West gold rush.
The end result is predictable. We have artists and performers who are frustrated by inefficiencies in the distribution of spoils and the rows of empty seats in the stadium. The recent show-down between McGregor / Mayweather was a case in point. In a television spectacle that attracted tens of millions, the actual arena in which the fight was staged saw one quarter of its pitiful 20,000 occupancy left vacant as result of exorbitant pricing arising from unscrupulous middlemen who were hoping to make a quick buck for themselves.
Fans and theatre-goers, however, often pay the biggest price - quite literally - by paying VIP-rates for standing-room only tickets.
Overall, then, we end up with a diminished experience for everyone except, of course, for those sharks who work themselves in between the event organisers and its attendees, bringing no value whatsoever to the equation exact that which lines their pockets by the end of the proceedings.
EventChain's Blockchain-inspired Transparency
So what if, instead, some-one came along and offered a revolutionary new approach to ticket management? What if you were told, for example, that price-tampering, counterfeiting and illegal ticket re-issues were now a thing of the past, all thanks to the power of the Blockchain?
And what would be your reaction if you were also told that inflated admin fees could now be eliminated altogether thanks to the Blockchain's transparency, with fees only corresponding to the gas consumed by the Blockchain transaction that relates to the actual ticket purchase?
Exploiting the inherent properties of Blockchain technology, EventChain are offering exactly this kind of solution. Those same inherent properties also bring a range of other benefits - anyone can become an event organiser, and the EventChain's trust platform will ensure that bad faith actors will be penalised whilst good faith actors will be rewarded with more ticket sales. Other services that the platform intends to offer are:
- Promotion Platform for Event Organisers
- A Ticket Resale Market
- Ability to Purchase Tickets with EVC and other crypto-currencies
- VIP Promotions
On top of that, we can also expect to have a Smart Contract-based mechanism which gives organisers the ability to offer bolt-ons - so now your ticket can be customised to incorporate a meal, some pop-corn or perhaps some Taylor Swift merchandise.
Execution
The idea in its abstract is, of course, fantastic - but more than that, it is feasible. As we have seen, EventChain are not the only ones who are pitching into the Blockchain-inspired event management space. There is also a general feeling out there that it may just be from this very specific market niche that the world will see the first mass adoption of a Blockchain-inspired app.
But for EventChain and others out there that are now pitching to be the new Blockchain TicketMaster, there are three specific areas that they will need to focus on if both their project and the token which derives from it are to be successful.
Firstly, the marketing aspect. A consultation of the EventChain white-paper - possibly one of the most coherent white-papers that we have probed here at icoexaminer - indicates that 8% of funds amassed from the ICO will be re-invested directly back into marketing. That percentage is enough in and of itself to indicate the determination of the project's pioneers to end up as the leaders in their field. It will simply be down to marketing to execute well here, and ordinarily they shouldn't be short on finances.
Secondly, engineering. The key question here, as ever, is whether their developers are capable of developing a solid, robust and - most importantly - intuitive product. The project team is, as is generally the case for any ICO, engineering-heavy. It incorporates, however, previous industry experience that will only inspire confidence - including a core developer from the Factom team. This reflected in our own play-around with the Alpha product release which gave the strong impression that they have their eye on the ball when it comes to simplicity and mass market usability.
Thirdly is, as ever, the inherent value of the token. In the case of EventChain, the token's functional value is that it is simply the fuel for EventChain's Ether-based, SmartTicket engine. To create, manage or participate in an event, users will need to get their hands on EVC, Event Chain's proprietary token. There will be no way around that. So simple enough.
In in the initial post-release phase, users will be on-boarded to the platform through use of their Ethereum wallets. But the boys and girls behind EventChain - a mix of established, heavy-hitting CEOs and a Silicon Valley billionaire - are aware of the key driver that will ensure mass adoption. The initial iteration will interface with Ethereum wallets only. But subsequent iterations of development will need to be geared towards bolting on the more traditional fiat payment gateways for both mobile and desktop platforms if the project is to have any chance of success.
"Don't worry," they tell us, "it's all in the pipeline."
Added Value
As we know, however, the success of any business model depends not only its ability to tick the boxes when it comes to execution. The product also need to have an edge. With EventChain, we think - crucially - that there may be more than just the one.
To begin with, the platform will be rendered from the outset in English, Russian and Chinese. That's a positive move for market coverage. Spanish wouldn't hurt, we tell them. That's coming, they tell us. The real clinker, however, is EventChain's white paper focus on data services. There are clear signs of forward-thinking in terms of how modern data science techniques can bring expansion to the business - think of all those event organisers who could use a hand in determining an estimate for how many bums on seats they might expect to get. Well, EventChain will have access to all kinds of meta-data that will allow them to generate statistical probabilities off the back of demographic and other data from their subscribers. How's that for value-added? Or think of all those users who might want to wire up their EventChain account to Facebook to organise their event photo albums. That represents very real potential for a self-perpetuating, positive feedback-loop.
Ultimately, we expect it to be a close-run thing between EventChain and Aventus for dominance in the smart ticket space. When reading their respective white-papers, however, it is the small details - particularly in relation to this kind of forward-thinking on added-value that we suspect will be the deal-breaker. Given that EventChain also ticks all of the standard boxes that any ICO should be ticking - e.g. a hard-capped currency that is ERC20 compliant and with a clearly defined road-map - we have shortened our odds on who we suspect to be the eventual winner.
As ever, however, we advise you to conduct your own research and to derive your own conclusions from the reading of the white-paper. For more information on the EventChain ICO, you can click here.
Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote the article up if you enjoyed my contribution! You can also follow me for future ICO insights.