Introduction

TIX is a new decentralized financial (DeFi) settlement layer for the live events sector, using onchain ticketing to enhance venue financing while simplifying payout structures.

Current State

So far, the TIX network has facilitated sales of over $8 million in tickets and secured around $2 million in financing for venues. All transactions have been conducted via KYD Labs, with a full launch on the Solana mainnet anticipated by mid-2026, as per information shared with Cointelegraph.

Technology and Functionality

TIX is spearheaded by veterans from Ticketmaster and Buildspace, presenting itself as the foundational settlement and financing platform for KYD Labs, which itself raised $7 million in funding led by venture capital firm a16z.

KYD Labs provides interfaces for venues and artists to sell tickets and manage events, while TIX ensures the underlying onchain structure that tokenizes tickets, and integrates financing, settlement, and repayment systems.

TIX plans to rectify the live events sector’s credit-and-debt practices, whereby venues and promoters typically depend on receiving financing ahead of any ticket sales. By converting tickets into onchain real-world assets (RWAs), TIX endeavors to open up avenues for venues to secure upfront capital from various sources, enabling artists to sell tickets more directly, as well as providing fans with lower fees and more transparent resale options.

Ticketmaster and Blockchain

As blockchain-based solutions challenge Ticketmaster’s stronghold on the ticketing world, it is worth noting that Ticketmaster has been engaging with this technology for several years.

They have been exploring blockchain since 2019 and selected the Flow blockchain in 2022 to bolster their initiatives surrounding non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in ticketing. According to a report from TheStreet, Ticketmaster has issued nearly 100 million NFT tickets, showcasing the ongoing integration of NFT technology across different applications, even amidst a reduction in hype since 2022.

Conclusion

Advocates of RWA-based ticketing argue it introduces significant advantages to the ticketing industry, such as the ability to create unique digital assets that minimize fraud while enhancing transparency and control in secondary resale markets. Though NFTs and RWAs can coexist, they represent separate concepts, with NFTs denoting a token’s format and RWAs reflecting the underlying asset or rights it represents. Within ticketing, an RWA can leverage NFTs to symbolize access.