BloxOffice

We created a platform based off ethereum that safely distributes event tickets -helping both organizers and customers

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Inspiration

As both of us are avid concert goers and sports enthusiasts, we have encountered the struggles of buying tickets on many occasions. We love going to events, but the persisting struggles surrounding acquiring tickets often holds us and many others back. Some of the the frequent problems that are encountered include:

  • Scalpers buying up all the tickets very quickly, leaving very few available for the majority of attendees
  • Overpriced tickets sold by 3rd parties, whose primary goal is to make profits off of selling in-demand tickets
  • Fraudulent/fake tickets when buying from 3rd parties. Some people sell the same tickets multiple times, leading many innocent event-goers to their rejections and disappointment at the entrance
  • A lack of transparency throughout the value chain from the event organizer to the customer. 3rd party resellers are incentivized to sell tickets through the profit making opportunities available, leaving the event organizers with none of the benefits of the overall profits made per ticket.
  • Resellers' interests are not at all in line with those of the event organizers we love events and hate scalpers ## What it does Bloxoffice aims to use the Ethereum architecture to ensure the safety and security of event tickets. In our model, each event ticket is an ethereum token/contract, representing one entry into the event.
  • Each account will be limited in the amount of tickets it can purchase at the discretion of the event organizer. This reduces scalpers' opportunities to buy a large amount of tickets right when they're released.
  • It is a platform for sales and resales of the event tickets
  • If a user decides to resell their ticket, the profit that they make on this transaction can be marginalized at a rate determined by the event organizer. This prevents the market from attempting to make a profit by buying tickets early.
  • Since all information is stored on the blockchain, ticket buyers can be confident that the tickets are real. Screenshots will not appear in their virtual wallets. The only way to transfer ownership of a ticket is through the blockchain.

How I built it

For the front-end website, we used bootstrap and html and css to create a responsive and simple design. In order to receive payments from customers, we implemented the Square API that was powered through Ecwid (an ecommerce tool that utilizes Square's payment system). We created a subdirectory on noahstotland.com to host our application. For the Ethereum processing side, we programmed in Solidity, using the Truffle Library. Web 3 and Metamask were used to help with testing and are the connections between the cryptocurrency and the web application.

Challenges I ran into

Coming to HacktheNorth, both of us had zero experience working with Ethereum or any cryptocurrencies at all. Therefore, understanding the architecture of it and its inner workings was extremely time consuming and frustrating, as we knew that our idea was possible. Additionally, we struggled with combining the Bloxoffice blockchain with the web interface.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are proud that we successfully implemented an ecommerce platform through the website. Although it can't be demoed, our knowledge and expertise with Ethereum and cryptocurrencies in general vastly increased...At least I hope, since I tore my hair out for hours trying to get it to work.

We are also proud to have experienced our first ever Hackathon in such a positive atmosphere and learned a lot from our peers.

What's next for BloxOffice

Learning more about cryptocurrencies (ethereum in particular) and performing a further business analysis to determine the validity of the idea and if there is any possibility of it becoming lucrative going forwards. Additionally, I must study calculus a lot now that I am now quite behind on work for next week.

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