"The digitization of art assets is not a technology showcase — it is an upgrade of identity and institutional infrastructure."
Hong Kong Kowloon: An Industry Dialogue on Art Digital Assets
On April 22, 2026, the "Art Digital Assets Special Session" of the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Festival was held at the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The event was co-hosted by the China Social Economic and Cultural Exchange Association (Hong Kong), China Cultural Digital Identification and Certification Services Limited, and Hong Kong Art Real World Assets Limited, with co-organization by the Hong Kong Academy of Finance and Management and CITIC International Auction Limited. Running concurrently were the launch ceremony for the Beauty Scroll Commemorative Coin and the inauguration of the China Antique Art & Culture MA Code Global Certification Program.
Eugene Xiao, Chairman of the Global Digital Identity Alliance (DID Alliance), was invited to attend and delivered a keynote speech titled "The Deep Integration of DID Digital Identity and Art Digital Assets."
Eugene Xiao: Art Asset Digitization Cannot Bypass the Identity Challenge
In his speech, Eugene cut straight to the point, arguing that the core obstacles facing art asset digitization today are not about whether the technology can put assets on-chain, but about three unresolved foundational issues:
- Unverifiable identity. There is no unified identity anchor among artists, issuers, collectors, and licensors. The conflict between on-chain anonymity and off-chain real-name requirements makes access control and compliance review difficult to implement.
- Unconfirmable ownership. The authenticity of works, provenance chains, copyright ownership, and holding relationships cannot be uniformly mapped. Risks of duplicate authorization and ambiguous ownership persist.
- Non-interoperable compliance. Significant regulatory differences exist across platforms and jurisdictions. Cross-border circulation and rights redemption lack unified standards.
"Trusted identity is the key to scaling art digital assets, confirming ownership, and achieving cross-jurisdictional compliance," Eugene said. "Without identity infrastructure, art digital assets are nothing but trees without roots."
How DID Intervenes in Art Digital Asset Scenarios
Eugene then outlined how the DID Alliance specifically engages with the art digital asset space. He defined DID's role as "the pathway connecting people, works, and institutions." The core logic is to build a verifiable, controllable, and interoperable digital identity system for artists, institutions, collectors, and platforms, while mapping copyright, membership rights, licensing, and revenue distribution on-chain to create transferable and governable digital asset representations.
On the technical level, Eugene introduced a three-layer architecture: the Identity Mapping Layer, based on W3C DID/VC standards, enables trusted mapping between off-chain identities and on-chain asset rights; the Privacy Protection Layer leverages Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) and related technologies to achieve "data usability without visibility"; and the Compliance Verification Layer uses programmable identity contracts to automatically verify permission rules across different platforms and legal jurisdictions.
On the application level, he highlighted three core capabilities. First, asset confirmation and identity mapping — personal DIDs are bound to real-name information and creative credentials, while artwork DIDs are bound to provenance chains, copyright status, and holding certificates, enabling consistent on-chain and off-chain tracking. Second, compliance and permission governance — identity attributes and permission rules are encoded into smart contracts, automating processes such as access review, transaction limits, and geographic restrictions. Third, privacy protection and trust minimization — through selective disclosure and secure multi-party computation, user sovereignty is protected while compliance costs are reduced.
From "Assets On-Chain" to "Assets That Can Be Operated"
In the latter half of his speech, Eugene shifted the perspective from technology back to the logic of industry development. He argued that art digital assets are progressing through three stages of evolution: the first stage is putting works on-chain, focused on display, issuance, and trading; the second stage is making works operable, forming a closed loop around ownership confirmation, governance, licensing, and revenue distribution; and the third stage is DID becoming the universal global identity protocol for digital art collaboration.
He pointed out that DID endows art digital assets with more than just a compliance gateway — it provides four operational attributes: verifiable, transferable, governable, and accountable. "Authors, works, provenance chains, and copyright status can be continuously verified, with tamper-proof transaction histories; 24/7 issuance, licensing, trading, and cross-platform collaboration become possible; holders, platforms, and institutions can participate in governance around rules and revenue sharing; responsible parties are clearly traceable, making it easier to align legal frameworks and dispute resolution."
In other words, art digital assets are no longer static digital certificates, but value units that can be dynamically orchestrated and collaboratively operated within the global digital economy.
DID Alliance: A Global Collaborative Network Taking Shape
According to Eugene, the Global Digital Identity Alliance was jointly initiated by top-tier funds and industry organizations. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, USA, with regional hubs in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, the Alliance leverages three core pillars — the DID Strategic Development Fund, DID Labs, and DID DAO — to co-build an open digital identity infrastructure.
On standards and compliance, the Alliance is actively aligning with international standards including eIDAS 2.0, W3C DID, and GDPR, promoting global mutual recognition and compliant circulation of identities. In the art digital asset space, the Alliance serves creators, institutions, platforms, and global collectors simultaneously, with the goal of building a cross-border identity network spanning the Asia-Pacific, North America, and the Middle East.
Closing Remarks
This special session at the Hong Kong Web3 Festival advanced the discussion on DID digital identity and art asset digitization to a more concrete level — moving beyond the question of "whether to put assets on-chain" to directly confronting the real-world challenges of "how to confirm ownership, ensure compliance, and enable circulation after going on-chain."
As Eugene said at the close of his speech: "Decentralization does not mean the absence of identity. The essence of decentralization is the return of identity sovereignty. DID is the global passport for artworks entering the digital world."
About the Global Digital Identity Alliance
The Global Digital Identity Alliance was jointly initiated by top-tier global funds and industry organizations. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, USA, with regional hubs in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, the Alliance is dedicated to building a trusted, verifiable, and interoperable universal identity layer for Web3. Through its three core pillars — the DID Strategic Development Fund, DID Labs, and DID DAO — the Alliance aligns with international standards including eIDAS 2.0, W3C DID, and ERC-3643, driving the free flow of identity, assets, and institutional frameworks across chains, domains, and jurisdictions.
DID Official Media Channels
Website: https://didone.org/
X: https://x.com/didone_official
Medium: https://medium.com/@didone_official
Notion: https://didone.notion.site/Global-Digital-Identity-Alliance-2868a457d0868033a62bf0150639ebe8