Live events suffer from ticket fraud, price gouging, unreliable payments, and contract disputes. Xao provides NFT-based contracts, and DAO governance to create a fair, automated, and transparent system controlled by industry participants.

Key Issues & Xao’s Solutions

• Fake Tickets & Price Gouging – NFT-based tickets ensure authenticity and resale limits prevent scalping.
• Unpaid Artists & Cancellations – Escrowed payments guarantee payouts, and automated penalties prevent last-minute cancellations.
• High Ticket Fees & No-Shows – Venues sell tickets directly, avoiding third-party fees, and smart contracts ensure artist commitments.

DAO Governance – Industry-Owned

XaoDAO governs all protocol decisions, ensuring ** participants (fans, artists, venues, etc.) control ticketing, payments, and arbitration settings**. The community votes on policy changes, escrow terms, and platform upgrades, making Xao a self-regulating system.

Xao’s NFT contracts, and DAO governance create a fair, fraud-free system where venues, artists, and fans benefit equally.

The Xao dApp has been developed end to end for ease of use, abstracting much of the web3 to the background, focusing on the user's experience and natural ease of interaction within the dApp.

Contract Creation (Venue & Artist)

• Venues create a contract with event details.
• An NFT contract is minted to record the agreement.
• The venue deposits funds into escrow.
• The artist signs, finalizing the contract.

Data Flow:

• The contract is stored on-chain, linked to escrow for payment security.

Ticket Sales and Event Management (Venue & Fans)

• Venues sell NFT-based tickets with resale limits to prevent scalping.
• Fans purchase tickets via credit card or USDC.
• Funds are held and later distributed based on contract terms.

Data Flow:

• NFT tickets are minted and assigned to wallets.
• Smart contracts track ticket ownership and sales.

Event Completion and Payouts

• After the event, the escrow contract checks for disputes.
• If no dispute is filed, funds are released to the artist.

Data Flow:

• The escrow contract verifies event completion.
• Funds are distributed automatically per contract terms.

AI Arbitration for Disputes

• If a dispute is filed, funds remain locked.
• Users submit evidence (videos, text, links) through an AI-guided chat.
• AI reviews the contract and evidence, then issues a ruling.
• The escrow contract adjusts payouts accordingly.

Data Flow:

• AI verifies data and executes payouts based on the ruling.
• The decision and evidence are stored on IPFS for transparency.

Xao is a DAO-governed dApp for NFT-based event agreements, and ticketing. It eliminates intermediaries, automates payments, and ensures fair dispute resolution while keeping control in the hands of Participants (artists, venues, and industry professionals).

Architecture Overview

• Smart Contracts: Manage agreements, ticket sales, escrow payments, and arbitration.
• NFT Tickets: Prevent fraud, enforce resale rules, and ensure transparent ticket ownership.
• Escrow System: Secures artist payments, only releasing funds after event completion or dispute resolution.
• DAO Governance: Industry participants vote on platform policies, fee structures, and dispute protocols.

Core Functionality

1. Contract Creation: Venues create agreements, and artists sign via NFT-based smart contracts.
2. NFT Ticketing: Fans purchase and transfer verifiable, fraud-proof tickets.
3. Escrow Payments: Funds are locked and distributed based on smart contract terms.

Key Implementation Details

• Built on Base for scalability and low fees.
• Smart contracts execute payments and disputes trustlessly.
• IPFS stores dispute evidence for full transparency.

Xao empowers the live music industry by combining NFT smart contracts and DAO governance, ensuring a fair, tamper-proof, and community-driven event ecosystem.

Xao integrates multiple APIs and services to enhance user experience, streamline transactions, and ensure seamless on-chain interactions.

• Okto SDK – Powers social logins, embedded wallets, and smart contract interactions, allowing users to create and manage wallets effortlessly while enabling smooth, gas-efficient transactions through Paymaster services.
• Coinbase Developer Platform (CDP) Onramp – Enables users to purchase tickets directly with fiat, removing the need for prior crypto holdings and simplifying mainstream adoption.
• CDP Wallet Kit – Facilitates real-time smart contract transaction retrieval, allowing users to track and verify all on-chain interactions with full transparency.

By leveraging these integrations, Xao ensures a frictionless, Web2-like user experience while maintaining the security and efficiency of Web3 technology.

Xao is a decentralized smart contract platform that enables custom NFT agreements, AI-powered arbitration, and DAO-controlled governance for the live event industry. It eliminates intermediaries, ensures fair payments, and automates dispute resolution.

Key Features

• NFT Smart Contract Creator – Venues and artists generate enforceable NFT-based agreements with automated escrow payments.
• DAO Governance – Users (fans, artists, venues, and industry participants) earn reputation to vote on platform updates, ensuring fair, decentralized decision-making.
• NFT Ticketing – Prevents scalping and fraud with verifiable ownership.
• On-Chain Revenue Splitting – Automates payouts based on contract terms.
• AI Arbitration – Resolves disputes by analyzing contract terms and evidence, reducing legal costs and delays (did not get built).

How Xao Differs from Similar Projects

Unlike centralized platforms like Ticketmaster, Xao eliminates middlemen, lowering fees and giving venues full control over ticketing. Other NFT ticketing platforms focus on sales, but Xao creates legally binding agreements between venues and artists. Unlike traditional arbitration, Xao’s AI-driven system automates fair dispute resolution. Where corporate entities set rules in centralized systems, Xao’s DAO ensures the industry governs itself, making it the first Web3 event platform where stakeholders have true ownership and control.

During development, we faced several challenges that required last-minute adjustments and compromises, with plans for future optimizations.

• AI Arbitration Postponed – AI-driven arbitration is a core feature of Xao, but due to time constraints, its implementation had to be deferred. We plan to integrate it in a future update, ensuring automated, fair dispute resolution.
• Ethereum Storage Trade-off – Originally, we intended to use Ethereum storage, but the reliance on JavaScript conflicted with our TypeScript-based tech stack. This required a pivot to a different storage solution, which we will further optimize.
• Social Login Pivot – Coinbase Developer Platform lacked native social login, leading us to integrate Okto’s embedded wallet and authentication system. While Okto provided a seamless solution, it introduced new quirks that required additional workarounds.

Despite these trade-offs, Xao plans to enhance missing features in upcoming development phases.