16 Dec 2022
Soteria fights for fair festival prices
When Levi Bouman wanted to go to the Cercle festival with his friends, something struck him. After a pre-registration and a second round of sales, the festival was sold out within one minute. Immediately after the sale, the tickets were placed on other sites. Not for 65 euros, but for 1200. "That can't be the intention, can it?"
According to Levi, buying tickets and then selling them for a higher price is not only annoying for the visitors.
"Festival organizers are not happy about that either. The reliability of your festival is affected because people find tickets on all kinds of shady sites. Scammers make a lot of money with it, while festival visitors suffer from it.”
Slumbering plan
The failed Circle Festival adventure was not the immediate reason for the foundation of Soteria.
“The idea lay dormant for a while,” Levi explains. “Until I became interested in blockchain. I am not going to call myself an expert, but I feel that blockchain can solve all the problems of festivals.”
Soteria is an app in which people can buy and sell tickets, but the tickets cannot leave the system. What does that mean in practice?
“You can no longer resell the tickets for tenfold, you are no longer bothered by lurid sites, festivals can earn royalties from the resale of tickets. Only benefits!”
By selling the tickets via blockchain, you sell them in the form of a Non Fungable Token (NFT).
“That is a digital certificate of ownership that you cannot replace. In the app we link this to a digital ticket by registering it on the blockchain. A database that can best be compared to a transparent safe: everyone can see that it is your ticket, but cannot change the registration.”
A money world
“In my head I had already completely worked out the app, but I just didn't know enough about blockchain and NFTs to put it all into practice. That's why I first talked to all kinds of experts. Developers, blockchain developers, festival organizers, I have asked everyone about it.” That validation actually went surprisingly well. “Everyone was enthusiastic and that was the sign for me to continue.”
Soteria is currently under development.
“Soon we will present a prototype with the team to a number of organizers with whom we are now in contact. If that appeals, we will look for investors. In July 2023 we want to launch the beta version of our app. We will test that version together with a small festival.”
The idea is to use the data from that first test run to complete the app.
According to Levi, the market for ticketing systems is very special.
“Many of those systems are very strong in the market and generate a lot of money, so innovation is not that interesting. We probably have to really fight to get in, because our competitors are a lot bigger and richer than we are.”
Blockchain, crypto coins and NFTs: they are not easy subjects. Levi is aware of that.
“The chance that NFTs will scare people is quite high, so we keep all that at the back of the app. People simply buy their tickets via iDEAL, they don't need anything extra. They only notice that the system is fraud-proof, but they have nothing to do with blockchain personally.”
Levi often hears that the system he designed can also exist without blockchain.
“That's right, I'm not going to make a fuss about that. But blockchain is a proven, secure technology that works very efficiently. Then why wouldn't you use it?"
There is much more possible with blockchain in the future.
“We have to finish the app first, but I think it would be really cool to add tokens for the cloakroom or lockers. Then you never have to walk around with those tickets again. Or that we link the catering industry at the festival to our app. You are at a stage, order a beer and when you are at the bar, it is ready. That's great, isn't it?"
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