Chinese researchers develop Blockchain project for the preservation of cultural heritage

A team from Tsinghua University in China presented to the respective offices a patent application in which they describe a product designed with Blockchain technology for the protection of cultural heritage.

In the application submitted during the month of April and published today, three faculty members of the university report that they developed a proof of concept for a system in which digital versions of objects of cultural importance can be stored and shared through a block network.

Tan Jiajia, a postdoctoral researcher, and Lu Xiaobu, director of the Academy of Art and Design of Tsinghua University, explain in the respective document that the system under development consists mainly of two parts:

The first part involves the use of 3D digital models, in which an object of cultural importance can be scanned to create a virtual representation of it. In the second stage, the system automatically stores the data of each object in a private block network by using hashes ".

By including other institutions as museums as node operators, the Blockchain platform could become a kind of consortium in which each participant would gain access to a database that contains information on the shared cultural heritage of the country, taking into account the possibility to update it with the data they handle at the institutional level.

In addition to the above, in the presentation of the patent it is read that the system will generate a hash in the Blockchain network every time an update is made, data that will later become part of a public block network so that other people can access information later.

The team reports:

Based on the unique design of the Blockchain networks for the exchange of information, the digital identity of each object considered cultural heritage can be transferred between the different participants at a very low cost, guaranteeing total efficiency and promoting economic and social values ".

Although the document does not disclose further details associated with the development of the private Blockchain network, the researchers indicated that the initial tests made use of Tencent's Trust platform, a product that had been announced last year by the Internet service provider. .