Visible and untouchable Digital collections "invade" the real world

Physical collections are not only costly, but can also be damaged and lost over time, in contrast to digital collections that exist only in the digital world at a close price and can be preserved permanently.

From news digital collections, museum digital collections to the digital torch of the Hangzhou Asian Games, digital collections have become a hot topic in the field of digital cultural creation. With the continuous development of information technology, the traditional cultural and creative industry is also undergoing new changes.

How did the digital collection come about?

To understand the digital collection, first understand NFTs. The full name of NFTs is Non-Fungible Tokens, or "non-homogeneous tokens". Technically, NFT is a digital credential for contracts based on blockchain technology. For example, buying a house in the real world will get a real estate certificate, and buying a virtual product in the virtual world will get an NFT.

When an NFT meets a work of art, a picture, a song, a video, or even an avatar can "spark" with a string of code, and the value of the body skyrockets geometrically. In the past year, celebrities, big V, and enterprises have built and launched their own NFT products, and digital collections have become one of the fastest application scenarios for NFT landing.

On the basis of the NFT, the digital collection is both financial and compliant, which is its compliance development path in China. Conceptually, digital collections originated from NFTs, which are digital works, works of art and goods that use blockchain technology to uniquely identify the ownership of rights and interests, and can mark their owners in the blockchain network and trace subsequent circulation, including but not limited to digital pictures, music, videos, electronic tickets, digital souvenirs and other forms.

According to the "Report on the Development and Application of Digital Collections" released by the Gyro Research Institute, at present, there are more than 200 digital collection enterprises in the mainland, which can be divided into copyright owners, distributors, underlying technology providers and trading platforms from the industrial chain, running through the complete life cycle of casting, trading and circulation of digital collections.

The copyright owner mainly provides the original IP of the digital collection, including record companies, movies, animation, TV series and other producers, game producers, freelance designers, artists and other categories, located in the upstream of the industrial chain. Distributors, on the other hand, are primarily for the distribution of digital collections, which can be copyright owners or licensors, through the re-creation of works, the presentation of prototype designs and digital products.

News Digital Collection "Breaking the Circle" The museum's digital collection is very popular

What digital collections are currently available in the domestic market?

In the field of copyright, Xinhua News Agency, Finance and Economics, Jiefang Daily, and CCTV have all launched digital collections. Among them, Xinhua News Agency cast a selection of 2021 photojournalism reports in China's first set of "news digital collections" at 20:00 on December 24, 2021 through blockchain NFT technology, which was distributed in limited quantities worldwide. The "News Digital Collection" has a unique identity and ownership information on the blockchain, which has a special commemorative significance and collection value. The first batch of 11 products is pre-released, each limited to 10,000 copies and all free. At the same time, a special edition of only 1 copy has been launched, and the digital collection of Olympic champion Jin Yangqian has been given away in a targeted manner. The product obtains a unique hash data identification through the winding of photojournalism works, realizing the confirmation of the collection, and the collector can also track and query on the zhixin chain, ensuring the special line of the collection.

Spend 9.9 yuan to buy a copy of the "Sun God Bird", 19.9 yuan to have a "Eastern Han Pottery Dog", 29.9 yuan can enjoy a "Qinling Painted Copper Car Horse No. 1 Car"... Numerous museums are also pouring into the craze for digital collections. According to incomplete statistics, more than 30 museums in China have issued digital collections of their collections. Many well-known museums such as the National Museum of China, Hebei Museum, Hunan Museum, Hubei Museum and so on are among them. This year's Spring Festival, at least 24 museums have issued cultural and creative digital collections: Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum has specially launched the "Celebrating the Year of the Tiger" series of collections of the Year of the Tiger limited edition, with three sets of statues of stone tigers, bronze tigers and bronze birds inlaid with ornaments of thousands of years of treasures; the Eastern Han Pottery Dog of the Sichuan Museum is cute and interesting, spanning the millennium to stage the story of loyal dogs following; the bronze statue of the tiger head of the Poly Art Museum, letting you know who the king of the Yuanmingyuan really is... Major museums use digital technology to release 3D digital collections derived from "Tiger Cultural Relics", "Zodiac Cultural Relics" and "Treasures of the Town Pavilion", attracting more young people to understand traditional culture and join the ranks of collections. And, no matter which platform they are released on, these digital collections of cultural and bloggy items are sold out as soon as they go online.

As the first digital licensed product in the history of the Asian Games, the 20,000 Hangzhou Asian Games torches with the same 3D version of the digital torch were snapped up as soon as they were launched in September 2021; in December of the same year, three Hangzhou Asian Games mascot project sports modeling digital collections were sold at the same time, which was also "snatched" by enthusiastic users. As a new form of commemoration that carries the Olympic spirit in the digital era, the digital torch broadens the group scope of digital torch owners and realizes the spiritual transmission across time and space. With its unique identity, permanent depository, immutable and immutable properties, digital torch collectors have a unique Asian Games memory. Recently, the 31st Summer Universiade held in Chengdu also launched the same 3D version of the Universiade torch "Ronghuo" digital torch.

Users of the "Fireworks" collection co-create meta-universe artworks

In the consumer industry, digital collections are more widely used. Overseas, LV, Burberry, Coca-Cola, Pizza Hut, Nike, Adidas and other companies have launched brand NFTs, such as Nike launched digital versions of products such as Air Max sneakers, preemptively "occupying" users' minds in the virtual world. In China, Yili, ANTA, Xtep, Haidilao and other enterprises have also entered the game, and car brands such as Xiaopeng, FAW-Volkswagen, Auchan and SAIC Roewe are also accelerating their layout.

In the metaverse field, digital collections cover multiple categories such as avatars, art collections, and games. On January 25 this year, Aily Gallery signed a contract with algorithm artist "Daolong" to create a programmable NFT artwork "Metaverse Fireworks". Each meta-universe firework purchased by the user is unique, the product is not only a beautiful digital fireworks video, but also a programmable interactive NFT artwork built on the blockchain, driven by the user, and completed by invoking smart contracts. Through the programmability of smart contracts, users can purchase a meta-universe firework through the blind box for viewing and collecting, or synthesize multiple fireworks to get new and higher level fireworks. It is worth noting that all meta-universe fireworks that are purchased will fully open the commercial rights of the fireworks obtained by the purchaser, and the user can use them for any commercial activity and own all the commercial income they receive. At the same time, the fireworks held by all users will eventually be combined into a new large-scale digital art work, the Fireworks Universe. The purchaser of each meta-universe fireworks will become the co-creator of this work, sharing some of the proceeds of the work brought by the fireworks universe.

The purchasers are mostly Gen Z

Technical and regulatory challenges remain

Who is buying the digital collection? The study found that the majority of young people in Generation Z snapped up a digital collection on major platforms, even at the expense of several times the issue price, and received "transfers" on second-hand platforms. When posting a unique collection certificate on a social platform, I gained great inner satisfaction.

Today, digital collections are also at risk and challenge. The "Report on the Development and Application of Digital Collections" believes that the value of digital collections in digital cultural creation has gradually been accepted by the public, and the application cases around them have gradually landed, and their effects have begun to be shown in the economy and society. However, it is undeniable that this matter is still in the early stage of development, and there are still smart contract vulnerabilities and centralized storage at the technical level that need to be solved urgently. Moreover, looking at the digital collections that have been sold, the core of consumers focuses on the convenience of their transactions and whether they can "appreciate" in the future, focusing more on the speculative nature of transactions, and not paying attention to whether the digital collections are truly artistic. At the same time, due to the blockage in the circulation link, the appreciation ability of digital collections is also being questioned compared with traditional collections, which further enhances the compliance uncertainty of digital collection supervision.

In addition, the property rights that digital assets represented by digital collections should be granted in the current laws of the mainland have not yet been determined, and the protection of property rights and legal norms are still not perfect.

Text/Reporter Chen Si