Blockchain in Cultural Heritage: Insights from Literature Review

Abstract

Cultural and creative products play an important role in helping local cultural prosperity and economic development. Today, the cultural sector presents itself as an elective field of application for the development of new investments in technologies. These investments are also facilitated by recent development programs promoted nationally with the aim of digitizing the sector using the integration between technology and artistic and cultural heritage. A review of the impact of blockchain technology in this industry is provided in this study. From this analysis, we identified three use cases of blockchain application: provenance and authenticity, tokenization and fractional equity, and rights management and digital protection. In addition, a future research agenda is developed, and new research questions are offered within three research areas: (1) expanding empirical research on the topic, (2) developing a guideline for cultural managers, and (3) analyzing the customer point of view.