GET October ’22 — Its All About Alignment
Greetings one and all to another GET Protocol monthly blog!
In October’s edition we’ll dive below the surface of an eagerly awaited staking system & rise above the clouds to get a birds eye view of the events and partners working with GET Protocol around the world. With a bountiful selection of content for you to tuck into this month, we hope you enjoy what’s in store, here’s a little sneak peak:
- A message from our founder & CEO, Maarten
- A deep dive under the hood of the hotly anticipated staking system
- Claiming NFT Tickets just got a whole mechanism revamp
- A collaboration with POAP
- An Event Financing update with blockchain wizard Kasper
- Moonlighting the terminology NFT, introducing Digital Collectible
- A DAO update: How Staking impacts DAO Governance
Excited to tuck into it? As always, keep up to date with GET Protocol through our Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. Curious to join the mission in building an open data standard for the global events industry? Visit our career site here!
To kick things off, we’d first like to address some of the concerns raised by a number of exceptional community members that have seen GET Protocol grow from its inception to where it is today.
A word from founder & GET Protocol CEO, Maarten:
We are on a mission to bring a trustless ticketing infrastructure to the masses. This meant we could not just digitize conventional tickets or build a simple web 3.0 tool for the few attendees that know about crypto. We needed to deliver on both, and we have. The fact that we’re being imitated on both fronts is a true compliment and testament to the above.
Over the last six years we’ve dealt with many challenges, cycles, global pandemic, good weather and bad, but one thing remained true — our dedication to the mission at hand and our drive to succeed to become the open data standard for ticketing.
Through this time we’ve built best-in-class products, smoothly ticketed events that have stunned the hundreds of thousands of goers, and developed the most scalable NFT ticketing infrastructure APIs available on the market. Period. We are exactly where we need to be at this point, and now we need to transition into becoming a market leader. We are 100% committed to making that happen.
We have proven and battled tested our concepts on all levels (GUTS, Whitelabel, Digital Twin) and we will continue to do so. The only question is at what speed. Not only is the protocol resilient but so is the organization. We’re looking forward to showing you what is possible in the next phases of GET Protocol.
Monthly Recap
With another month of bustling ticketing activity in the books, let’s gander over to the statistics for October 2022 and cover some notable events & happenings with GET Protocol’s NFT Ticketing infrastructure.
For October 2022:
NFT Tickets Sold: 163,000
$GET Fuel Used: 19,350
Highlights:
October is also the month in which Amsterdam became host to a lively gathering from across the events space, from organisers to booking agents, artists and of course the fans. Amsterdam Dance Event or ADE unites roughly 400,000 visitors per day in Amsterdam to enjoy & share in the latest dance culture. With the event occurring on home turf, we couldn’t possibly pass up on the opportunity to share and learn insights from events industry veterans.
On Wednesday 19th we hosted a Round Table which brought 10+ industry professionals together to discuss their thoughts on the impact NFTs and Web3 are having on the events industry and the artist to fan relationship. This gathering gave rise to a number of insightful discussions across the themes of education, event specific usecases & overall strategies that creators should be looking to employ to make the most of NFTs and Web3. For us at GET Protocol this gave us food for thought on how our NFT Tickets can be made better accessible whilst of course giving our business & sales divisions a great way to keep the finger on the pulse of innovation within the events industry.
There was even an NFT to prove attendance:
Whilst ADE was taking place there were also a number of events powered by GET Protocol:
Blend Realities at ADE
Ticketeer: GUTS Tickets
‘Blend Realities created by Ravel in partnership with ADE aimed to extend the creative spirit of the festival from Amsterdam’s narrow streets into the bytes of data that conform the metaverse. The partnership aims to future-proof the ADE Pro conference and, by using the latest metaverse technology, to blend the experience of online and offline visitors into a smart hybrid event.’
NowNow Presents Lee Ann Roberts
Ticketeer: XTIXS
‘Lee Ann Roberts presents NowNow ADE22, inviting Aida Arko, Frazier and OGUZ for a hot night at Amsterdam Dance Event 2022. All artists having released on her label NowNow Records, this night will be a true family affair.’
Mike Williams Presents Storylines
Ticketeer: GUTS Tickets
‘Mike Williams returns to the Amsterdam Dance Event in full force again with a brand new solo show! After 4 successful years of hosting his own sold out events, he’s returning with a very special edition.’
Our Digital Twin partner Yourticketprovider also hosted an event & experimented with their Collectibles:
Revealed — ADE
‘Revealed will be back during this years’ Amsterdam Dance Event on Saturday, October 22nd, at the Hotel Arena, brining together a selection of new talent and their roster of artists!’
A Look Under The Hood — Staking
For those keeping an eye on the socials you may have seen that we’ve started to release some information about the principals, features, and mechanisms of how it’ll work. The staking system has been designed to align all ecosystem participants around a common commitment to the protocol, and offers us a new token primitive that can be used in all other areas of the system. Welcome xGET!
What the xGET!?
When depositing your GET into the staking system you will receive a token in return, called xGET, that represents your share of the assets within the staking contract. GET has two ways to enter the staking contracts, either via deposits or via rewards, meaning xGET is worth the assets you deposited plus the rewards you earned. Because of this xGET can only ever increase in value on top of GET, and you will always be able to withdraw the same amount of GET as you deposited or more, never less.
xGET has been designed as a transferrable token, meaning it can be traded, sent to friends, or new wallets. This transferrability unlocks new potential that we wouldn’t have with GET alone and offers new token-economic models that weren’t previously possible for all actors involved in the GET Protocol ecosystem. Integrators could receive a discount on their rate if they stake a certain amount, event organisers borrowing through the upcoming event financing module may use it as part of a trust score to show lenders their comittment to the protocol, and converting ticket buyers to GET holders could also be a reality if xGET can be distributed with their ticket. To keep our feet on the ground; all of these are ideas, but it should hopefully show the token utility possible with a staked token.
Rewards
Depositing into the staking contract will represent a commitment to the long-term outcomes & success of the protocol, and finding ways to reward holders of xGET is vital to the success of the staking program. With that we are looking at launching with three on-chain reward streams:
NFT Ticket Fees. Each NFT ticket requires some GET fuel to be minted, of which a percentage can be held as staking rewards.
Uniswap Trading Fees. The Protocol Owned Liqudity program that completed earlier this year can be put to use for the benefit of stakers, by transferring the GET earned to the staking contract as rewards.
Instant Withdrawal Fees. The lockup mechanism of the staking system allows for instant exits in emergencies. Consider this the fire-escape for those that need it. The fees taken from stakers exiting instantly will be shared among remaining stakers.
Over time we want to identify and capture new fee sources to further decentralize the reward streams offered to stakers.
Governance
As the GET Protocol DAO continues to mature and evolve, building an alignment between DAO participants and other actors is crucial for the long-term success of the protocol. And because GET Protocol has always offered a chain-agnostic stance, this means that staking will go where the tokens live. Right now launching on Ethereum and Polygon.
Voting weight has been configured to use the amount of GET you hold within the staking contracts, meaning rewards can be used for voting as soon as they are earned. Not only that but this will use the Compound governance token standard so that this will be accessible to all governance platforms the DAO cooses to operate on.
Mechanisms
Much like other staking systems xGET will utilise a lockup mechanism to align holders to a longer term goal. Since xGET has been designed to be transferrable (therefore fungible), all depositors will be subject to the same withdrawal conditions, but will have multiple ways to express their preference on how they with to withdraw:
Instant Withdrawals will be subject to a 15% fee, but will be available immediately.
Standard Withdrawals can be made with a 26 week unlock time.
A blend of both can be chosen, e.g. 13 weeks & 7.5% fee.
These specifics will be configurable by the DAO to match the time horizons expected of the participants and the severity of the lockup. It’s important to remember though that this is meant to represent a commitment to be rewarded, if you wish to continue to hold GET as you do already, then this will always be completely fine. xGET will not be a competitor to GET and GET will remain the fuel of NFT ticketing.
The Deep Dive
For those that want to know a bit more, there are a couple of additional references you may be interested in:
- The DAO funding proposal for auditing the contracts passed last week.
- The GET Protocol reference documentation has been updated to include staking.
- The Github repository for the contract code has been made public.
The development team are currently hard at work to wrap up the remaining features and are now coordinating the smart contract audit with yAcademy. Further information will be provided as we approach the release, but if you wish to stay engaged, check the #dao-discourses channel on Discord.
A Change To NFT Ticket Distribution — The Direct Claim
In the last few weeks, we’ve released a new feature that we call our Direct Claim functionality. Simply put, with the Direct Claim an NFT ticket is no longer distributed to a ticket holder when their ticket is scanned, but instead is distributed to a ticket holder shortly after they enter their wallet address into the ticketing system, pre, during or post-event.
This change allows event organisers or artists to give a ticket purchaser access into Web3 experiences before they attend the event such as pre-show content, gamified experiences that unlock exclusive perks during the event or just a friendly introduction into their digital community.
Importantly, NFT Tickets distributed before an event are in a ‘Locked’ state, meaning that whilst they give access to Web3 experiences, the NFT holder cannot trade or sell their NFT. The NFT only becomes fully unlocked when the corresponding ticket is scanned at the event.
This moment of scan then unlocks the NFT, providing full ownership to the holder to trade or sell the Collectible.
We see this as the ultimate form of proof of attendance, creating an ‘Attend to Own’ functionality that gives event organisers & artists clear insights into how their Collectibles are utilised for community building.
What happens if the ticket is re-sold on the secondary marketplace or the ticket is invalidated?
As we all know, a ticket’s lifecycle is not always as simple as a sale to a single person, so what happens to the distributed NFT in the event the holder sells their ticket or their ticket is invalidated?
Take for example this flow:
A person purchases a ticket from the primary ticket market, enters their wallet address into the system, receives their NFT & then decides to sell their ticket through the secondary marketplace.
What happens to the underlying NFT?
Thanks to the smart contract that mints the NFT Ticket, the transfer functionality is locked for the NFT holder but can be executed by GET Protocol. This means that when their ticket is sold on the secondary marketplace, GET Protocol transfers the NFT from the original ticket holder’s wallet, back to a custodial wallet owned by GET Protocol.
When the new ticket holder enters their wallet address into the ticketing system, the NFT is then transferred to their wallet.
It is only when the ticket is scanned does the NFT unlock full ownership for the NFT holder!
What happens if the ticket is invalidated?
Invalidations of tickets can happen for a few reasons, perhaps the ticket holder returns their ticket or the event is cancelled. In these cases when a ticket is invalidated, the distributed NFT is transferred to the burn address ensuring that no ticket or NFT exists without desired intention by the event organiser.
Direct Claim Usecases
Thanks to this new system, an event organiser or creator can bake in Web3 activities directly into the physical or digital event experience, some examples of what this could look like:
Collectible gated AR experiences outside the venue
Collectible gated scavenger hunt activities
Collectible gated pre-event merchandise
Collectible gated pre-event artist AMAs or behind the scenes setup content
The list of possibilities is endless, but one thing is for certain — Digital Collectibles give every artist a flexible way of curating deeper connections with their true fans across endless platforms. Thanks to Direct Claim, these experiences can begin well before an event begins and last many years into the future once an event ends.
Along Came Collaboration — POAP
The launch of the ‘direct claim flow’ has also opened the door for us to continue an integration that has been a long time coming: POAP!
We are in the midst of implementing a POAP claim functionality in our ticketing solution that emphasises what both POAP and GET Protocol do best, for event organizers who want to leverage the power of both services in their event’s attendance flow.
When rolled out this integration will allow GET Protocol and POAP to collaborate on bringing the best NFT-based event tech to attendees around the world.
Stay tuned for more on that front.
Event Financing Update — Mechanisms to Price Risk
Our resident blockchain & event financing wizard Kasper is back with another informative update related to our Event Financing system, which you can deep dive into through the following link, covering the inner workings of event financing, this time over the mechanisms to price risk.
Read more here:
Moonlighting ‘NFT’ — Hello Digital Collectible.
Along with the Direct Claim functionality & the improvements to wallet address entrance covered in the previous blog, there has never been an easier time for ticketing partners, event organisers and importantly creators, to utilise their NFT Tickets for community building, access to new revenue streams and fostering deeper fan connections with fans.
With that all being said, there still remains a friction barrier between what is possible with NFT Tickets and what is being utilised by those in the events industry, we’re always transparent when we say that the adoption of Web3 technology still remains in a nascent stage, but with the benefits readily apparent to those familiar with Web3, the question remains on how we can demystify NFTs for creators & everyday people
To further the rolling snowball of NFT Ticket accessibility, we’re also releasing sweeping changes to the ways that we discuss & educate around NFT Tickets, with new terminology in the form of Digital Collectibles & Ticket Backed Collectibles.
We believe these terms better encompass the active role ‘NFTs’ play between event facilitators and their fans, particularly now that NFT Tickets can be received by fans before attending an event.
These changes are being reflected across our internal partner guidance, claim education & other docs.
But what about notable upcoming usecases?
Dermot Kennedy at Afas Live
Date: 24th March 2023
At the beginning of October, GUTS Tickets sold an early access allocation of 500 tickets for Dermot’s upcoming Sonder event next year at Afas Live. With Dermot’s team incredibly receptive to exploring Digital Collectible usecases, we’ll be looking to bring together a usecase that helps show the value of collectibles for fan connection, particularly as these 500 tickets are in the hands of Dermot’s closest fanbase.
Expect to hear more details on the utility available with these collectibles in the lead up to the event.
Earning a Stake: An Exploration of How Staking Structures Impact Governance
With the broader introduction last month of GET Protocol staking we are effectively aligning the future of the DAO’s revenue with the DAO’s equal ownership, thereby creating incentivized and distributed ownership. Building this has been a long road and there’s still much to do, even before it is fully launched, but as we go off into that good night, exploring the fringes of what is possible with DeFi tooling, we also must find the time to take a step back and observe the direct impacts of what we are building so that we may course correct if need be. Consequently, we’ve been taking a considerable amount of time to think about the philosophy of staking and how it impacts DAO structures. In typical GET Protocol fashion, we like to live on the edges of technology, pushing what’s possible and that ethos carries forward into our approaches and underlying philosophy that guides our products. Today, we want to talk about governance.
Welcome to a new era. The era of staked GET.
In the past, we’ve likened DAOs to a mesh network, where each mesh can interact and commingle with other meshes. Part of the theory of what makes a DAO universally unique is the fluidity of membership, that is, the concept that membership and participation rights are granted by token ownership along and people may come and go as they please, working on projects that interest them, voting on matters of importance, and doing so across an ecosystem that supports their own goals and ideologies. But while membership within a DAO is capable of being perfectly fluid (and rightfully so), the DAO itself must still be capable of functioning as a working company, an entity that produces and builds. Even within a hypothetical future where DAOs truly are fully autonomous, run as miniature algocracies on chain, there would still need to be a core governing body of interested parties that are specifically invested in the health of the protocol. Even in this future, where governance is minimal, code is largely frozen, and other tasks have been automated away, some group would still be tasked with maintaining the integrity of the system.
Before staking, governance would work through a simple token ownership. If you own tokens, you get to vote and that vote cast would be proportionate to the total number of tokens held. This method of governance has many problems, but one of the biggest glaring ones is that there is no real incentive for any average holder of the token to vote in an ethical manner for the betterment of the DAO. The greater functioning of the DAO as an organization holds no factor in the vote as the only real incentive is to see positive token price action with little thought given to any other factor (and even then, this desired outcome is misaligned across holders due to differences in personal strategies). Staking counters this and introduces the first fundamental axiom that should be followed by any long term DAO: The task of governance must be undertaken by interested parties. This produces a sort of “nucleus” to the mesh model of the DAO, where the core is a set of smart contracts surrounded by a cluster of key, interested parties that prove their interest via staking holdings of a particular token. From there, the mesh becomes fuzzy, with the connections between nodes becoming weaker and blurrier. The closer to the nucleus you are, the greater your participation, reputation, and value within the DAO and the greater your interest towards its health.
Staking, as it applies to governance, can be simply defined as a way of incentivizing participation. You hold a token, stake that token, earn a reward for that stake over a set period, and in return for trusting the DAO you are given governance abilities. It’s a simple math, really, and these abilities are in turn safeguarded (in theory) through an incentive: Your token is now staked in the DAO and should therefore you should wish to see the DAO succeed. And so it would be assumed you vote and govern in a manner that reflects this. Of course, this is on paper and there are many outliers and reasons someone may attempt to subvert or undermine a system even with staking, but fundamentally, the concept of staking changes the general alignment of members that choose governance. Rather than open a door for governance to anyone that holds the backing token, governance only becomes possible at a secondary level for people that have locked away their tokens for an extended period of time (bringing you closer to that core nucleus). Staking adds the element of time to the mix and expects people to make calculated choices that would benefit the long term interest of their holdings (which in turn benefits the longevity of the DAO). This creates pure incentive alignment where wealth creation of interested parties can be done without owing a greater obligation to a corporate head.
In the case of GET Protocol, we want to use the concept of staking across a multitude of DAO governance operations, but to start, we will be implementing a traditional form of staking by the end of the year that uses a token lockup. This aligns with our goals of moving the DAO forward and will enable the Community at large to cast votes based on much greater long term interest in the protocol. We have more unique use cases planned that we can’t wait to provide a write up on, but for now, we want to encourage the DAO ecosystem more broadly to adopt staking as a methodology to enable greater longevity and interest.
Token staking will enable GET Protocol to begin to fully solidify its place in the ecosystem as an established DAO, broadening horizons for future projects by establishing a core, dedicated group of community members that hold key interest in seeing the protocol remain healthy and functional. We see staking as a key component toward future development, and a way of generating a fairer and more aligned form of governance from a community by way of incentive alignment. We can’t wait to explore this more with all of you. If you’d like to stay up to date on the future of staking within the GET Protocol DAO, be sure to join our Discord and connect your wallet to unlock future governance opportunities.
October is a wrap! Plenty to tuck into as we hope you agree & what better way than collaboratively with likeminded individuals in the GET Discord!
Until we see you again, hopefully this time next month with more exciting updates and happenings in the world of GET Protocol.
