Empowering XR Heritage Through a Blockchain-Based Revenue Sharing System

Abstract

In today's landscape, numerous factors threaten diverse cultural heritage assets, whether they reside within museums and galleries or as historical landmarks. Current geopolitical challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, military conflicts, and food crises contribute to financial instability, reducing efforts to conserve and promote cultural heritage. However, with the emergence of blockchain technology, there is a potential avenue to address this situation. The system proposed in this research targets three key groups: the initial stakeholders, including museums, galleries, local and national authorities, and companies; investors, such as the general public, companies, and NGOs; and visitors. This system facilitates financing for cultural objectives through smart contracts, allowing investors to support curated lists of cultural assets provided by the initial stakeholders. These assets are digitized into unique digital forms and offered to investors during the initial “acquisition” phase. Regular visitors can then use an application to rate these assets during the exploitation phase. Based on these ratings, investors can receive an income proportional to the score given by visitors within the bounds of a portion of the entrance ticket proceeds. Through a case study, we have observed promising results: initial capital can be generated to preserve cultural heritage while investors become advocates for these assets, actively raising awareness. Visitors are incentivized to support what they enjoy, knowing that part of the funds directly benefits the owners, backers, or investors of those specific assets. Moreover, digital assets (e.g. digital twins, XR heritage) can be included within the proposed framework with no additional effort. Future studies will explore methods to reduce system costs, potentially leveraging technologies like Optimistic/ZK Rollups and integrating augmented/virtual reality to enhance this system further.