True Tickets, a blockchain-based digital ticketing platform, debuted on Broadway last fall in collaboration with New York’s Roundabout Theater Company. After successfully delivering digital tickets for Trouble in Mind play and Caroline or the musical Change, Matthew Zarracina, co-founder and CEO of True Tickets, talks about blockchain and ticketing with Cointelegraph.
When a potential theatergoer makes a ticket purchase on the Roundabout website and chooses digital delivery rather than picking up the ticket at will or printing it out at home, that’s a True Tickets signal to get in. Built on the Hyperledger Fabric platform. True Tickets runs on the IBM blockchain and is deployed on Google Cloud and provides an infrastructure that generates dynamic QR codes integrated with distributed ledger technology.
Broadway is back! And we had a great first fall season providing over 22,000 secure, blockchain-enabled contactless digital tickets for @RoundAboutNYC. We love seeing the real success of digital tickets for both venue and attendees: https://t.co/4GlieWEsUV pic.twitter.com/0jSi26yDeU — True Tickets (@true_tkts) March 1, 2022
Zarracina explained that the ticket is like a license, not an asset, with conditions that can “finally” be enforced in an automated and efficient way thanks to the blockchain. He said there had been a “significant operational improvement” especially when it came to ticket distribution and resale in secondary markets, saying there was a 90% to 99% reduction in authorized listings or fraudulent issues. Seats can also track ownership and contact the ticket holder in the event of a change or cancellation.
“Now theaters have this supply chain every time a ticket changes hands. They know where the money goes. And we want to be the layer of infrastructure that connects all ticketing systems to all of our venues.”
Related: Ticketing platforms use blockchain to interact with customers after the pandemic
Zarrachina also attributed the acceleration of the digital transformation of ticket sales to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to working with the Roundabout Theater Company, True Tickets also partners with the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami and the Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando, among others.
True Tickets recently raised a $5 million seed round led by Logitix, a ticketing platform that offers price optimization for venues, teams and promoters.
