SeatlabNFT is taking the event ticketing industry by storm
Introduction
We are proud to introduce our partnership with SeatlabNFT, an NFT-based project that promises to shake up the event ticketing industry.
Built on the NEAR blockchain, SeatlabNFT’s ticket marketplace is designed to keep artists and event organisers in full control of secondary market sales. The current system has been broken for a long time with fraud and scalping (using bots to purchase tickets only to later resell them for profit at inflated prices) ravaging the industry.
Thanks to the clever use of NFTs, SeatlabNFT offers a unique solution to these issues whilst also incentivising fans with rewards for attending events. Everyone’s a winner.
Who we are
Cetacean Capital is not your average capital vehicle. Our ethos is built on the philosophy of the POD power as a coordination mechanism for our whale members. We are proudly structured as a DAO, valuing a flatter business model, decentralisation and a libertarian outlook.
The Market Opportunity
The online event ticketing market was valued at $28.49 billion in 2021, and is expected to reach $94.92 billion by 2027. It’s crystal clear that this is a growing industry and one that is ripe for disruption.
Through the powerful combination of digitalisation, NFTs and blockchain technology, SeatlabNFT can undoubtedly solve the many problems plaguing the industry today. The often-quoted success stories of AirBnB and Uber demonstrate creative destruction in action: even the most ossified industries like hospitality and transportation cannot escape innovation. From their proven track record, SeatlabNFT is on a similar trajectory when it comes to the event ticketing space.
Who are SeatlabNFT
This isn’t the first rodeo for the team behind SeatlabNFT. They first stepped foot into the event ticketing industry with their Web2.0 product, Seatlab, which was founded in 2019. Seatlab processes over £5million in ticket sales per year and over 1,000 individual tickets per day for thousands of different events. With the substantial experience the team have gathered, they are now taking advantage of NFT and Web3 technologies to combat ticketing fraud, rescue the secondary ticketing market from exploitation, as well as change the ways in which artists can reward fans for attending their shows.
By turning event tickets into NFTs, SeatlabNFT is setting a shining example for the use-case of NFTs in the real world. The user experience is seamless since attendees store the purchased NFT ticket in their mobile wallet and generate a unique QR code that expires after five seconds by tapping the ticket. These timestamped dynamic QR codes stop people from being about to send screenshots to others in a bid to resell them.
SeatlabNFT’s value proposition
Having a competitive edge is crucial. Below, we’ve summarised the four main ways SeatlabNFT’s offering stands out:
1. Create a more immersive and interactive experience for fans
By allowing event attendance to be recognised and rewarded with airdrops of exclusive, unique collectibles and access passes, events become more immersive for fans. Artists and performers can airdrop collectibles before or after an event or in real-time directly to ticket holders’ wallets in the middle of the event. These can be things like images, videos or live audio recordings that attendees can keep as mementos or trade on the open market, allowing them to extract genuine value from event attendance.
NFT passes can also be airdropped to guests, giving them permission and instructions on how to access special areas in the venue. These could be VIP areas or interactive ‘adventures’ to encourage engagement.
2. Fraud eradication
Ticket-reselling platforms offer fraud prevention as a value proposition. SeatlabNFT takes this to the next level. With NFT tickets, it is impossible to copy a ticket and sell it as an original due to the immutability and traceability that is hardwired into blockchain technology.
3. Scalping reduction
Fraud has plagued the ticketing industry for years, forcing fans to pay higher prices while presenting security threats for event organisers. Through misuse of technology, ticketing bots cause havoc by purchasing tickets in bulk and selling them on secondary markets at exorbitant prices. SeatlabNFT endeavours to fix this issue by introducing a cap on resale value which will be enforced by smart contracts.
4. Royalty splits
Another way to curb scalpers is through NFT royalty splits. This is when a set percentage of resale revenue is sent to a royalty beneficiary specified when an NFT is minted. For example, if a seller sets a royalty split of 20%, then 20% of the secondary resale revenue would be sent to a specified royalty beneficiary’s wallet.
5. Cost benefits
Minting and selling tickets does not cost event organisers a single penny. SeatlabNFT doesn’t charge sellers any fees for creating events or selling NFT tickets.
With the above in mind, it’s hard not to visualise the bright path of success that lays ahead for SeatlabNFT. But like with any new technology, adoption can be slow at first before suddenly erupting. As Ryan Kenny, co-founder and CEO of SeatlabNFT, stated:
“We’re dedicated to educating the general public about the benefits of NFT ticketing to help speed up the adoption of this revolutionary new technology. Your favourite artist might not be selling NFT tickets, yet… We understand that most artists will want to see this technology in action before committing to transitioning, but SeatlabNFT is here to kickstart the ticketing revolution.”
$SEAT Token Utility
Following the long-awaited $SEAT token IDO, SeatlabNFT raised over $125,000 (at the time of writing) with the support of nearly 500 investors. There’s plenty more excitement in store as the SeatlabNFT team will shortly be announcing the platform/CEX where users will be able to exchange their tokens.
From a utility perspective, it’s worth noting that you do not need to hold any tokens to interact with the SeatlabNFT platform itself. Users are still able to purchase tickets or NFT assets using traditional currency on/off ramps, like credit or debit cards.
So then, why would an individual want to hold $SEAT tokens? The answer is threefold, to benefit from discounts to purchases, to earn a portion of the buyer’s fees and lastly, to access exclusive rewards:
- Discounted tickets: As a $SEAT token holder purchasing an event ticket, you can gain access to a reduced buyer’s fee structure and pay less for your tickets depending on the number of tokens you hold. This is accomplished by the fact that SeatlabNFT charges a 5% buyer’s fee on-top of the listed price for tickets. Half of this fee goes to SeatlabNFT’s treasury and the other half goes to stakers as staking rewards. To add to that, when a buyer is eligible for a buyer’s fee discount, this discount comes out of the Treasury’s cut of the fees, not the staker’s cut — hence it is clear that the SeatlabNFT team has carefully considered the token value capture.
- Staking: Holders are able to stake their $SEAT tokens to earn a cut of all collected buyer’s fees. As the platform scales organically, more tickets will be sold which will generate more fees. The income from these fees is collected and distributed among all stakers, who will collectively earn 50% of the platform’s revenue.
- Rewards Centre: If we had to choose a favourite utility aspect, it would be SeatlabNFT’s Rewards Centre. In this gamified part of the marketplace, users can claim free rewards like NFT collectibles, as well as tangible benefits such as event tickets, accommodation packages, flights, backstage access and meet-the-star experiences, to name a few.
The SeatlabNFT team have written some great articles on this topic, but to briefly summarise how the system works:
● You earn points in one of three different tiers: Sapphire (base tier), Gold (middle tier), and Holographic (highest tier).
● The tier you earn points in is dictated by the number of $SEAT tokens you hold.
● A user earns one point for every 30 days they hold a certain number of tokens. This point can be used to redeem exclusive rewards from the Rewards Centre. Some of the most valuable rewards in the Holographic tier will require several points in order to redeem them.
Conclusion
A new dawn has broken for the event ticketing industry: NFTs and blockchain technologies will radically change how users, platforms, artists and organisers interact with one another.
Whilst there may be other projects out there (such as Guts and Wicket) creating similar solutions, SeatlabNFT stands head and shoulders above the rest due to the years of experience backing them and a tirelessly dedicated team leading the way forward.
Even SeatlabNFT’s infrastructure, which is built on the NEAR blockchain, secures their potential to scale as NEAR utilises sharding technology and is 200,000x more carbon efficient than Bitcoin. For the reasons highlighted above, we couldn’t be more persuaded by SeatlabNFT’s ambition to solve real-world problems that will have mass-scale benefits. We are proud to support SeatlabNFT in their mission and look forward to venturing through the exciting future ahead.
At the time of posting this article, the SeatlabNFT team are currently at NEARCON till the 14th of September, held in Lisbon. If you’re there, drop by and say hi to the team located at booth 27.
