For my thesis project, I imagined Ligo, a marketplace platform born out of the collaboration between UNESCO and WIPO, whose mission is to help indigenous communities combat cultural appropriation by giving them full control over their cultural heritage. To achieve this, it provides indigenous communities with a blockchain-based system to authenticate and protect their creations, create economic and professional opportunities, and raise public awareness of the cultural heritage of indigenous communities. An organization governed by the indigenous community authenticates the product and its creator according to predefined criteria. Once authenticated, it is protected under a collective trademark registered by the community and registered on the blockchain and associated with an NFT, a digital certificate gathering information on its design that guarantees its authenticity.
By scanning the NFC tag affixed to the label of the product purchased with his or her smartphone, the buyer is assured of the authenticity of the creation and has access to an NFT, a digital double of the product that will enable him or her to discover its history as well as its significance, and to benefit from exclusive access to cultural events dedicated to indigenous communities.