[hunter2_]

An actual transfer is needed when selling to someone you don't know/trust. But for the moms in your example, handing over the ticket just means temporarily handing over the account: share the password (assuming no password reuse habits), send over the MFA OTP, whatever it takes.

It's not ideal, but it avoids the scalping that comes from more streamlined transfers; scalpers can't easily sell burner accounts if account creation needs a non-VoIP phone number or similar.

[ssl-3]

That doesn't work, either. We can't assume that mom-passwords aren't being reused. We can't assume that mom-phones are secure. We can't assume that the requisite moms are even aware of the same kinds of things that we here on HN are aware of.

We can't assume anything, except this promotes a new friction.

But even then: So we're letting anyone in with a valid ticket-holding account on a pocket supercomputer, without verifying that they are who they say they are?

Great! This means that the scalpers have moved on from just selling tickets, and pivot over to selling entire ticket-holding accounts.

(This is just more theatrical burden.)

[hunter2_]

> We can't assume that mom-passwords aren't being reused. We can't assume that mom-phones are secure. We can't assume that the requisite moms are even aware of the same kinds of things that we here on HN are aware of.

Fair enough. So rather than mom1 telling mom2 how to use mom1's account on mom2's device, mom1 lets mom2 borrow mom1's device for the show. Not her main phone where everything is logged in, but a tickets-only device where the only thing she logged into was the ticketing app.

> this promotes a new friction.

Yes, but again, the alternative is letting scalpers have their way.

> So we're letting anyone in with a valid ticket-holding account on a pocket supercomputer, without verifying that they are who they say they are?

Yes, this is how tickets work. If you show ID, it's to be able to drink, and you're doing that with a different employee than the one who takes your ticket. Note that I'm not talking about will-call or guest list entry, I'm talking about arriving with a ticket. The shift from "dumb" paper/email/PDF tickets that can be shared freely to "smart" tickets that require an app that mixes something TOTP-like into your ticket isn't for the venue to know your identity, it's to prevent multiple people from showing up with the same ticket following improper duplication.

> This means that the scalpers have moved on from just selling tickets, and pivot over to selling entire ticket-holding accounts.

No, because creating an account requires a non-SIP phone number.

[ssl-3]

Jesus. So mom1 now has two phones, just in case she gets sick and can't take the kids to the party.

I stopped reading after that. I'm not sorry.

[hunter2_]

I was fine with the earlier method which doesn't need that. I only concocted an alternative to address your disgust with it! The ID verification part that you skipped is much more interesting anyway.

[haritha-j]

Reminds me of how there are people selling single game steam accounts now, to take advantage of regional pricing.

[maxboone]

That doesn't solve anything, you can just create event-specific accounts as a scalper (which you can reset after the event has happened).

Non-transferable tickets are bound to a specific name iiuc.