Privacy-Preserving Tokenisation of Artworks (PABLO)

Distributed ledger technology enables artworks and collectibles tokenisation so that claims to these assets can be exchanged digitally without intermediaries.

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 Oct 2022
Duration in months:

36
Funding:

Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)
Principal Investigator(s):

Gilbert FRIDGEN

Peter Y A RYAN

About

Art and collectibles markets tend to involve lower liquidity and higher fees than public equity markets. Distributed ledger technology can tokenize artworks and collectibles so that claims to these assets can be exchanged digitally without intermediaries. Tokenisation offers investors access to a global market plus a digitised paper trail, as well as new options for the fractional ownership of artworks, art-collateralised loans, and yield-bearing art assets. The main challenge for tokenisation researchers and platform developers is to simultaneously satisfy regulators’ demands for transparency and auditability as well as art investors’ demands for privacy. New technological solutions are needed, so that market participants can disclose the absolute minimum amount of information that is required by regulators. We explore new concepts from distributed ledger technology, cryptography, and digital identity management that can help address this challenge.

Organisation and Partners

Applied Security and Information Assurance Group (APSIA)
Digital Financial Services and Cross-Organisational Digital Transformations Research Group (FINATRAX)
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT)