The start of 2017 for Blocktix was highlighted by announcing the plan that is Blocktix and subsequently joining the ChainTech meetup and EDCON to talk about our project and the idea behind it. Since then we have been busy further developing and hashing out Blocktix. Now April is nearly over and done with it is time for us to start moving forward with the actual Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and start getting the Blocktix technology in the hands of event organizers, users and of course investors.

First and foremost though we need Blocktix to get known by the broader public and start creating a real community around the project. Not only as investors into the project but also to create a stepping-stone for a succesfull launch of the Blocktix technology, Foundation and having a succesfull ICO. For this reason we have contacted an old acquaintance of ours, someone whom we have worked with before.

Rob ‘Soepkip’ Schins has started his career in the cryptocurrency sphere as the Community Manager for BlackCoin, the first big Proof of Stake coin back in 2014. Subsequently he has worked together with some of the team on the ShadowCash project after his involvement in BlackCoin ended and has served as a Community Manager there also. Known for his neutral stance, problem solving skills and overall trust he has always worked diligently to convey the teams message in a fair and equal way towards the communities that he has built in the past and we as Blocktix trust that he will do the same for our project.

A little interview:

Welcome back to the crypto community Rob, how are you and how did you get to learn about Blocktix?

Thanks, excited to be back in the crypto community. For the past two years I’ve been busy with non-crypto projects and followed crypto mostly as a hobby. After turning 30 earlier this year i’ve been having more time lately and getting back into the amazing world that is cryptocurrency. Much has changed since my BlackCoin days and it feels like a really exciting time to be involved in crypto once more.

I first heard about Blocktix in the ShadowCash slack, right before they announced their change into the Particl platform. I was immediatly caught by the User Aquisition plan for Blocktix — finally a tokenbased platform that could get real world usage — and when Ryno contacted me to join the team for Blocktix to built out the community and get the message out to as much people as possible I jumped at the chance. Especially since I have a big love for festivals and concerts and because i’ve had much fun working with him and the rest of the team in the past and secretly wanted to be involved in a cryptocurrency project again.

A big love for festivals and concerts, so you have quite some experience with ticketing systems and events?

Yes, in the past two years i’ve visited probably over 40 different events. Not only as a visitor, but I have also worked as a volunteer at some events in the Netherlands. It is a real fun (and different) world to see from both the front and the back of such events. I think I personally have paid over 200 euro’s in ticketing fees alone in that time.

Blocktix removing around 90% of that in the future would be amazing and I personally think that event organizers will be pretty interested in creating events and festivals where they can offer cheaper tickets that are more secure. I experienced ticket fraud myself and amongst my friends in the past and it’s certainly no fun to be excited for an event only to stand at the entrance being denied entrance because you bought a fake ticket. Blocktix’ blockchain technology will prevent these things from happening and create a beter user experience overall.

You say you were caught by the idea of the User Aquisition plan for Blocktix, what makes it so interesting in your mind?

Yes exactly, the idea of doing tickets via the blockchain is not new persay. I’ve seen companies around that are creating products where ticketing will go via blockchain technology. However Blocktix is the first with an actual real world plan to get the end user, whom mostly have no clue yet what bitcoin, ethereum or other cryptocurrencies are all about.

By creating our own events, sponsoring current events and working together with experienced event organizers Blocktix will be able to start growing a new userbase in one of the fields that is always growing and always evolving. People in general love to go to events, be it concerts, festivals or other meetups where tickets are needed to gain entry. In the US alone it is a 1 trillion dollar industry, and that’s just the United States.

Blocktix creating a Foundation in the SoCal area where we will organize concerts that people will want to see and enjoy and where people can only join by buying tickets via the Blocktix system will quickly grow the userbase. The initial hurdle of buying cryptocurrency can be easily taken away by offering an easy to use portal for users joining the system and I believe that people will want to see their favorite artist more than anything. The revenue of those events will be put back into the Blocktix Foundation after the event and thus creating more and more growth in both users and cash on hand for future events, to the point where other event organizers will want to use the system to both sell their tickets and advertize their events. It’s a no-brainer in my mind.

Seems like you are really excited to join the team, anything else you’d like to add?

Oh yes, oh yes (as Carl Cox would say), I am really excited to bring this technology to the real world and start organizing events and growing the user base. But first things first, getting this plan out to investors and growing the community.

So if you have questions, join the Slack, follow us on Twitter and of course like us on Facebook.

Let’s disrupt the ticketing industry together!