GET December ’23–2023 wrapped

We have a lot of amazing things to look back on in 2023, and -perhaps even more exciting- we can already look ahead at what the new year is going to look like. Dive in!

End of 2023

As all the songs go, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.. Which means we’ve reached the very last blog of the year and whilst we can’t promise a white Christmas, what we can promise is a comprehensive wrap up of the 2023 journey for GET Protocol.

So whether you’re reading whilst tucked up by the fire with a nice blanket and a warm drink, or having ChatGPT summarise the top five points of the article, we welcome you to this final blog of the year and look forward to reflecting on the last twelve months together whilst planting the seeds for a promising harvest in the year to come.

GET Protocol Wrapped!

Just like plenty of brands across the world, we’ve been inspired by Spotify’s addictive wrapped series and have looked to take it up a notch for ourselves this year. Given there’s been plenty of exciting events and projects put out into the world, let’s take a dive back through the highlight moments:

Let’s unpack it, shall we?

The Big 5 Million

The BIG 5 million milestone was smashed through in November off the back of a heated Ziggo Dome ticket sale from Suzan en Freek. Each year brings the number ever higher but 5 million really felt like an iconic moment for showing the continued traction of the protocol in bringing on-chain ticketing to everyday people around the world.

How long will the next 5 take? Well, we’re gearing up for it to be in quicker succession than the last 5!

Thousands of Events

A grand total of 4,488 events took place over the last twelve months with on-chain event registration through GET Protocol! That includes GUTS, the White-Label and Digital Twin integrators.

A Year of Shipping

Development impact was felt on both sides of the spectrum this year as the protocol and TAAS (Ticketing as a Service) teams shipped critical infrastructure that has shaped our product offerings through the year.

On the protocol side, the big talk of the town was the Wallet infrastructure that released in October and has brought with it a huge change to the accessibility of the native on-chain benefits of NFT Tickets, including direct creation of a behind the scenes wallet for each ticket holder, a Wallet UI for accessing and interacting with collectibles and all the crucial elements to pave the way for accessible token gating and on-chain revenue..

For the TAAS team, there were a flurry of releases, including the dynamic secondary market for the EU and UK markets which allows organisers to set their own upper and lower bounds of resale and receive payments for secondary sales, plus improvements to the dashboard with the Cashier 2.0 ‘Box Office’ feature and an Orders tab.

These improvements have helped flesh out our Web2 ticketing suite to where we can confidently say the future of the infrastructure now rests on building up the core Web3 components of the system, with more information to be revealed in 2024.

Let there be (Accessible) Active Wallets

As mentioned for the development updates, our behind the scenes wallets are the bedrock for empowering on-chain experiences for attendees around the world and we’re just getting started with the potential on offer on this front!

Zandvoort Grand Prix

The pinnacle of racing met the historic track of Zandvoort in August as the F1 came to town and with it some gripping fan engagement through ‘Unlock the Track’ collectibles in collaboration with the Dutch Grand Prix. These track linked collectibles were accessed direct from the F1 app by ticket holders and required zero complexity — just an exceptional campaign put on by the Dutch GP team which led to 25,000+ claims and a wealth of beneficial engagement for their team. 75 lucky fans also received a limited edition version, a physical copy and tickets to the Historic Grand Prix — not bad hey!

Check out the usecase video:

Efteling’s Spookslot

In May of this year, we finally took the hood off a closely guarded project that we fell in love with during the creationary process as together with Boldly we assisted the Efteling in giving access into a re-creation of the beloved Spookslot attraction in a digital environment.

GET Protocol’s infrastructure was used to issue a ‘Digital Key’ to all employees which unlocks access into the interior of the environment which is exclusive to Efteling employees. Fans can walk outside, but once you get close to the door you need a Spookslot Key!

Web3 Events

A number of Web3 events took place with tickets through GET Protocol integrators, highlights including:

NFT Paris

In the first half of the year, Paris hosted the aptly named NFT Paris conference which was ticketed through GUTS, the event was a smorgas board of the whose who in the Web3 space and even had a surprise appearance from the first lady of France!

MET AMS

November’s wet and wind swept weather didn’t stop the MET AMS show from going on as plenty of creators and Web3 enthusiasts met in the halls of the Westergas in Amsterdam for a beautifully produced conference that blended artistic empowerment with future proofed technology.

Artist Highlights

There were stellar performances from highly revered artists in the Netherlands and beyond this year, here’s a couple noteworthy mentions:

De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig

The Netherland’s quirkiest collective were back with a passion in 2023 and boy were the fans ready for it! These melodic and at times eclectic performances put De Jeugd over the 30k ticket mark and left a serious impression for attendees!

DI-RECT

DI-RECT held events both at the beginning of the year and at the end of December, selling over 50,000 tickets in 23 for their euphoric performances in the AFAS Live and Ahoy venues.

Suzan En Freek

Iconic Dutch duo Suzan en Freek let the Ziggo Dome feel their passion and the fans returned the favour at multiple sold out shows this year, their exceptional connection to fans not only resulted in the highest ever check-in rate for a single month of over 100,000 tickets but also resulted in MULTIPLE 99.5% check-in rates before the show had even began — if that’s not fan dedication then we don’t know what is!

Talking Tokens

All of this activity meant plenty of traction for token usage, with 423,759 GET used as fuel for ticketing activity in 2023. That’s over 2% of the entire supply used as fuel and shows the real world asset nature of GET as a driving force for ticketing activity!

Stake, Rattle and Roll

Off the back of the GET usage comes the juicy rewards for stakers. Once all tickets were scanned, a total of 295,354 GET went to stakers on both Ethereum and Polygon, you love to see it!

Out with the old…

There’s nothing like the start of the new year to take stock of where things stand and make changes where needed. We have taken the time to reflect on our progress & strategy, leading to some insights and intentions for the new year.

Positioning Clarity between Web2 <> Web3

One of our challenges in the past in terms of outward facing communication was serving two masters with GET Protocol: The Web2 ticketing prospects as well as stakeholders in the Web3 space.

While this allowed us to steadily develop on both sides, it was also limiting in other ways. After all, a prospective ticket seller requires different messaging from a crypto enthusiast. Quite a split from a marketing & branding perspective.

Over the last 8 years we have fleshed out the ticketing system that we feel solves a lot of the problems plaguing the ticket industry. We are declaring the Web2 development complete and doubling down our focus on Web3. This has already begun with initial internal alignment, but will also result in an updated public approach and development focus.

What does this mean tangibly?
Going forward, ticketing related sales and marketing will be conducted through the GUTS brand and outbound networking channels. This is beneficial as the GUTS ethos of Honest Ticketing typically resonates the most with prospects and due to the maturing of our White-Label product, we require potential clients to conduct their first events through GUTS to showcase the product suite and test a good market fit before committing resources to a full White-Label integration.

For GET Protocol, the stuck in the mud positioning of the past between ticketing and the Web3 space will be changed and GET will become a solely Web3 facing brand that can appeal to our core stakeholders on this front, such as the community, industry experts, VCs and blockchain infrastructure companies. Our goal is to get as much exposure in 2024 as possible and showcase GET Protocol as the ultimate on-chain ticketing protocol that serves as a massive opportunity for the space to onboard everyday people and provide them with an accessible way to interact with on-chain applications & value.

We believe the power of Web3 already brings massive improvement to the world of ticketing, but we are far from done with pioneering what’s possible with on-chain ticketing.

We are excited by the opportunities this unlocks, and to use the momentum going from a split into a high kick.

(Rough metaphor, we know. It’s the end of the year.)

…In with the new!

The talk about this renewed positioning has already brought forward several initiatives for the new year. Here is a list of some new year’s resolutions to start us off:

• Our position as the leader in on-chain ticketing is at the core of our story, but there are other trends to latch onto that will support our mission and expand our visibility within the Web3 space. (Real World Assets being a good example, especially relating to our event financing feature.)
• The design, visibility & appeal of the GET brand & token will be re-assessed.
• We will spend more time supporting efforts related to the Ticketing Revolution DAO and its mission to spread awareness and education around the disruption of the ticketing industry.
• We will spend more time engaging and facilitating the onboarding of new community members from the Web3 space.
• We will work with the new community manager to create more touch points & dialogue between community & team.

We are currently fleshing out the above into actionables and will share more in the new year!

That’s a wrap on 2023, we thank you for being a part of the journey and look forward to the fireworks that 2024 will bring.

Happy holidays and see you in January!

P.S. This month’s ‘Memories’ drop will happen early January and be claimable throughout the month.