The ARTRACX platform is a new digital platform that will delight the ecosystem of high net-worth individuals, art collectors, art galleries, artists and charities by offering provenance, transaction advisory, and valuations. ARTRACX, launched by Art Group Limited and Infineon Technologies, will help art creators around the world to address issues such as intellectual property theft, plagiarism and copyright infringement.

Daniel Chun is the CEO and Founder of Art Group Limited. We are honored to have completed an exclusive interview with Daniel.

The highlights are below:

1. Please introduce yourself and ARTRACX. ARTRACX series products include ARTRACX Curator platform and ENTITLE application, please introduce their functions and roles. What kind of threshold for users to use?

Hi, my name is Daniel and I studied Computer Science in Melbourne. So my background has always had a lot to do with technology. I've been building this Art Group Limited for about 10 years now. It's a member of the Hong Kong Cyberport Incubation Program. We looked at the art market 10 years ago, but it wasn't ready in many ways, so we built this product called OpenHeart. We have used this product to run auctions for many charity fundraisers over the last 10 years and we have helped raise money for charities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shenzhen and Shanghai, raising HK$300 million for all these charities. Then about 3 years ago, we looked at the whole ecosystem of blockchain. We thought that maybe it was time to revisit the application layer of the art market, which is why we developed the ARTRACX platform.

ARTRACX is a title management system with a suite of features for artists, art dealers and galleries to manage their portfolio (CoA, Wall Labels, reprints management, etc) CoA is connected to Blockchain for obtaining a DID based on a prototype we developed under DID:ART:ENQ.

ENTITLE is the app (wallet app) that will eventually be used to reward users with our token ARTCX. Currently the APP is used for activating the chipsets we used for authenticating a physical art work.

2. ARTRACX is launched by Art Group Limited and Infineon Technologies, what kind of features and advantages does this cooperation give to ARTRACX?

Infineon Technologies is a German company, known for its Security ICs, Security Chipsets. It has the largest market share in the world for Security ICs, which is an important factor for us to work with it in terms of products. Infineon Technologies has a number of solution partners that allow it to access different market segments, is very knowledgeable in terms of governments, markets and has over 50 % of the global Visa and MasterCard market share in terms of market share. However, when I asked their solutions team if they had any off-the-shelf solutions to actually do the collectibles market? Their answer was no. That synergy became very obvious to us, so my team and myself, we really delved into how we could implement an anti-theft type of authenticity solution for the traditional art industry using Security ICs from Infineon Technologies.

3. Intellectual property theft, plagiarism and copyright infringement are common problems faced by art creators around the world. What efforts has ARTRACX made to protect the rights of art creators? How has it helped?

ARTRACX is a title management system that we put on the blockchain, which is why we are able to be part of the supporting infrastructure and means that we are becoming essential for collectible tokenisation. Each artist has the right to define their own identity within the system, and after passing our verification, they can self-certify their artwork. We have artists we work with around the world and at this stage our main user base is in Hong Kong, but we will be launching a new UI in the middle of this month, while the next roadmap we are focusing on is to make it available to more overseas artists.

4. For art creators and collectors, the number of people who understand and contact the web3 and blockchain field is relatively small. What role do you think ARTRACX plays in helping art creators and collectors to enter the web3 field? How can you better promote web3 to more people?

We have now launched MVP since 1 August last year and we have of course been fine-tuning all these user experiences. But one of the things we found from all these artists or art galleries or art dealers is that they don't understand Block Chain Wallet and if you ask them, "You need to pay gas fees", they really don't understand. So we try to keep all these things that are bill-related or payment-related behind the curtain. The ENTITLE app is positioned as a wallet app and is now used for activating the chipsets we used for authenticating a physical art work, but it will eventually be used to reward users with our token ARTCX, which can help users access our ecosystem.

5. How do you feel about asset tokenisation and how does ARTRACX help or support asset tokenisation?

We work with a European private bank who are legitimate and who can tokenise assets legally. I'm very excited about this project and a lot of people are talking about tokenisation in terms of illiquid assets, whether it's buildings or collectibles. We have been invited to work together to help set up an art fund in Hong Kong to develop specialist tools for the purchase of high value artworks. Imagine you need to buy a Qing Dynasty antique furniture, you would choose us as a partner to do due diligence to verify all the history of this antique furniture exhibition history transaction records. We are the first blockchain company or system company that can do this kind of technical support. This means that many high-value arts will value using our system to support their tokenisation efforts. Liquidity is very important for an art fund and there is nothing better than tokenising these artworks into fractional ownership so that instead of liquidating the whole artwork at once, they can tokenise it by using blockchain technology, which means unlocking some of the liquidity. Our technology supports the recording of everything about the artwork, provenance, exhibition history, valuer's report and much more.

6. ARTRACX is a member of the Hong Kong Cyberport Incubation Program, as well as joining the blockchain engineering team Trinity Lab Accelerator Program, how have these helped ARTRACX's development?

Besides working Trinity Accelerator Programme, ARTRACX will also be partnering with IOST.io (using their blockchain network) and ARCUAL.art (a permissioned blockchain) invested by ART BASEL / Luma Foundation / M.CH and being part of the ART ID STANDARD consortium, we expect to be able to follow an international standard for art trading, provenance, and IP protection.

7. Please introduce the current status of ARTRACX's operation. What are the famous artists ARTRACX has cooperated with? Are there any particularly influential projects that you would like to introduce to us?

We are currently signing on / loading a lot of Web2 artists - locally and partnering with Fringe Club in Hong Kong to showcase the technology adoption for art dealers too. One artist worth mentioning is Maste Tsui Shing On who created a lot of comics books in Hong Kong in the 80’s and hand drawn a lot of cinema posters in the old days. And this year with Bruce Lee memorial for 50 years of his tragic death, and we are exhibiting his work for Bruce Lee as a tribute to this legend and the culture of handdraw comic. Our technology will be used to certified all the work from Master Tsui.

8. NFT projects that combine the art market with the digital sphere are very hot in recent years. ARTRACX now mainly serves physical artwork, is ARTRACX considering NFT direction in the future?

Yes. absolutely. we are bringing hybrid derivative products (Prints + NFTs) providing the bridge to Web2 artists 

9. The combination of art and technology is a very important trend in recent years. The Hong Kong government has been actively supporting the development of art by opening the East Kowloon Cultural Centre and nurturing ArtTech companies, how do you see the trend of combining art and technology? What changes do you think will be brought to the traditional art market?

Art and cultural IP will continue to be promoted and one of key fundamental is the data and meta stored in new systems and applications used (blockchain connected or not) that will need to be trusted. The other most important part will be the consumption experience. The Hong Kong Government recognises that the traditional arts sector needs the right port of call in the technology space, which is why we have been able to secure government support. For most artists, they need to sell their product, especially with opportunities like the NFT market now, and if we can bring the technical barriers down to a very simple level, they can experiment more. But they are faced with a lot of choices and don't know who to trust. Then we, the companies that are funded by the Hong Kong government, sort of pass the government's scrutiny in a sense, and the Hong Kong government is very keen for us to go and help these artists or other people in need. These artists will also find us trustworthy and want to work with us.

10. The Hong Kong government has recently launched a series of initiatives to embrace web3, as a project based in Hong Kong, what policies and facilities does ARTRACX currently enjoy? What do you think ARTRACX can do to take advantage of this and what are ARTRACX's future plans?

The Hong Kong government is using a lot of things to promote innovation and technology, and they have something called patent application grant, which any Hong Kong company or Hong Kong citizen can apply for. And if you pass the grant application, you can get 90% of the funding for your patent. The chipsets used in the ARTRACX platform actually come from another company that we have spun off, which has also received investment from Hong Kong Science Park, and we have been granted a patent by the Hong Kong Government and also 90% funding, which is a great perk.