Digital access pass
- Rights holder
- Cultural institution
- Transferable
- Yes
- Offer
- Festival bundle — film & live
- Valid until
- T + 30 days
- Scope
- Online · In venue
wc·pass·7f3a…e21c
Access rights that travel across platforms.
Open infrastructure for digital access rights.An open, interoperable and privacy-conscious protocol to issue, verify and recognise access across institutions, creators, venues and platforms.
A project by
The problem
Cultural access is locked into silos.
Access is tied to isolated platforms, proprietary accounts and subscriptions that don't interoperate. Audiences juggle separate providers; rights holders struggle to express permissions, share revenue and work across channels.
- Silos
- Vendor lock-in
- High barriers for new European players
The solution
Shared infrastructure, not another platform.
An open protocol that makes access rights and their conditions machine-readable and verifiable. One pass, recognised by every participating service — online, and in cinemas, theatres and festivals.
Content and autonomy stay with each organisation. The protocol only adds the common layer.
Illustrative example
How it works
Four elements, one verifiable flow.
Rights holder
Creates the offer and sets its rules.
Content offer
A work, an experience or a bundle.
Authorised user
Holds the pass.
Conditions
Duration, scope, transfer or sharing, organisation rules.
Open interfaces for issuance, verification and provider integration.
Principles
Built to be adopted, not owned.
Open standard, not a platform
Anyone can build compatible tools, without a central operator's permission.
Ledger only where it helps
Blockchain only where it adds integrity, traceability or verification — never as an end in itself.
Privacy by design
No unnecessary publication of personal data.
No vendor lock-in
Portability, open interfaces, independent deployment.
Rights holders in control
Institutions and creators keep their content and their rules.
Interoperable by design
Different implementations, the same common rules.
Who benefits
Value on every side of access.
Audiences
Transfer, share or resell access when it's not in use.
Institutions & rights holders
Automated royalties on secondary transactions and transparent revenue sharing.
European platforms
Lower barriers to entry, more competition and innovation.
Open by default
Released as digital commons.
Every output is published under a recognised free or open source licence.
Protocol specification
The technical standard.
Reference implementation
Working code for the specification.
Interoperability & conformance
Materials to check that implementations agree.
Documentation & guide
Accessible to organisations with limited technical capacity.
Roadmap
From requirements to v1.0.
- 01Requirements, privacy & threat model
- 02Protocol specification
- 03Issuer reference implementation
- 04Verifier reference implementation, web & venue
- 05Optional ledger module
- 06Interoperability tests & live demo
- 07Documentation & v1.0 release
Expected impact
A stronger, fairer European cultural ecosystem.
Ecosystem strengthening
A connected network of European institutions and platforms.
Innovation leadership
Shared standards for distribution and rights management.
Economic fairness
Transparent compensation for creators and organisations.
Access and visibility
Integrated experiences and more discoverable European content.
Culture is the first use case of a broader open model for verifiable access — wherever independent services need to cooperate without centralising control.
About
Developed by WEB3HUB, Politecnico di Milano.
WEB3HUB is Politecnico di Milano's research group on blockchain and Web3. It brings together the Blockchain & Web3 Observatory and an independent lab that develops projects in a pre-competitive setting.
Contact
Get in touch.
For questions, collaborations or a walkthrough of the protocol.
- Ettore Zauliettore.zauli@polimi.it
- Jacopo Fracassijacopo.fracassi@polimi.it
- Leonardo Agostinileonardo.agostini@polimi.it