Preserving Cultural Heritage Onchain

Cultural heritage shapes the way people understand themselves and the world around them. From handwritten letters and invention blueprints to vintage photographs and personal reflections, historical materials offer more than information. They carry the energy, imagination and human depth of their time.

For decades, museums, libraries and archives have worked to protect these materials. Their efforts ensure that fragile artifacts survive across generations and that knowledge continues to flow with care. At the same time, access to these collections has often remained limited. Many items stay behind closed doors, seen by only a few. While digital archives have expanded reach, the experience still feels distant and more like browsing a file system than connecting with a legacy.

Today, a new model is beginning to take shape. Institutions are using Web3 infrastructure to preserve and share cultural memory in a more open and participatory way. The shift is subtle,  meaningful and culture moves from being static to becoming part of a living and verifiable network.

A New Format for Cultural Memory

At the heart of this shift is a format known as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). These digital collectibles act as containers for context-rich cultural artifacts, embedding not just visual elements but also provenance, metadata and the story behind the digital asset.

Each NFT becomes a traceable and durable record that is independent of any single platform and accessible to anyone. Ownership is verifiable and content is preserved without distortion. The cultural value it represents gains new relevance, as a piece of history with continuity and reach.

For institutions, this offers a trusted format to share archives with global audiences. For individuals, it creates a meaningful way to participate in cultural preservation. For developers and creators, it opens a path to build tools and experiences rooted in authenticity.

A Real-World Example: Tesla’s Legacy, Onchain

One of the most compelling demonstrations of this model comes from a limited edition NFT collection dedicated to the life and work of Nikola Tesla. Developed in exclusive collaboration with the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia, the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics - ICI Bucharest, Romania and Itheum, the Teslaverse brings a wide range of original materials including personal letters, sketches, rare photographs and distinguished recognitions of Nikola Tesla into a carefully structured set of data NFTs, all available on the world’s first institutional NFT marketplace ICI D|SERVICES.

Dr. eng. Adrian-Victor Vevera, General Director of ICI Bucharest, underscores the transformative role of blockchain in preserving cultural heritage: “Through projects like the Teslaverse, we are demonstrating how technology can safeguard humanity’s greatest treasures. Blockchain allows us to preserve authenticity, ensure accessibility, and build trust across generations. Our mission is to bridge the gap between tradition and innovation, so that cultural memory not only survives, but thrives in the digital age.”

Each edition explores a different dimension of Tesla’s legacy. Together, they form a digital archive that lives on blockchain and is accessible to collectors, researchers and anyone curious about the mind behind the modern world.

For Dr. Ivana Ćirić, Senior Curator and Senior Librarian at the Nikola Tesla Museum, the Teslaverse is “a bold and visionary step in digital heritage.” She sees it as more than digitization:“it reimagines the past for the future, turning archives into platforms for dialogue and empowering communities to help preserve the legacy of one of humanity’s greatest minds.”

What sets this project apart is the foundation it runs on. The Teslaverse is built on MultiversX, a high-performance and carbon negative blockchain designed for applications that require speed, security and permanence. It provides the infrastructure that allows cultural records to remain intact, accessible and verifiable without introducing complexity for users or institutions.

For Beniamin Mincu, CEO of MultiversX Labs, the mission goes beyond technology itself: “Blockchain has the power to redefine how humanity remembers itself. With projects like the Teslaverse, MultiversX shows a great use case in practice,  providing the infrastructure to preserve cultural memory at an international level, in ways that are open, verifiable and permanent. It’s about ensuring that the stories shaping our past continue to inspire the future.”

This vision shapes the infrastructure that keeps cultural records authentic, permanent and universally accessible, without introducing complexity for users or institutions.

MultiversX handles the logic, storage and distribution beneath the surface, allowing institutions to focus on what matters most. The priority remains preserving meaning, sharing knowledge and building trust with their communities.

Why This Matters

Preserving history has always required careful decisions about format, access and longevity. Web3 introduces a new alignment between these elements, where digital tools support both institutional needs and public engagement.

Cultural memory can now be shared without losing its source and support for public collections can come from networks of individuals who feel connected to the stories being told.

This creates value in multiple ways. Museums gain a secure method to distribute materials while maintaining authenticity and collectors gain access to historically significant pieces in a respectful and trusted format. The broader ecosystem benefits from the emergence of cultural infrastructure that carries human memory into the future.

See It in Action

Visit the Teslaverse and ICI Collections to explore how cultural institutions are using blockchain to make archives accessible, ownable and permanent. From collective memory to national icons, each collection shows what becomes possible when heritage meets open infrastructure.

All collections are powered by MultiversX and mark a growing shift toward long-term digital preservation through real-world, verifiable use cases and sovereign blockchain assets.

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