Technical report
OA Policy
English

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Token (NFT)

First online date2026
Abstract

This Technical Report provides an overview of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Token (NFT). It sets out the principal technical concepts and examines selected legal considerations relevant to these domains, given the close interaction between technological design and regulatory treatment. The report also identifies practical measures to strengthen trust and legal certainty, particularly in relation to NFT metadata integrity, content-addressed storage, smart-contract auditability, and the use of Digital Art Certificate (DAC), including the DAC+NFT model supported by Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) where a reliable link to real-world identity signature and rights is required. Extended with Human Time Token (HTT), a DAC+ can even certify how many hours of human time has been spent by an artist for a specific piece of art. These proposals are also relevant to future standardization work on legally robust off-chain certification and interoperability between Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) technical and legal layers.

Keywords
  • Blockchain
  • Distributed Ledger Technology
  • DLT
  • Decentralized Finance
  • DeFi
  • Non-Fungible Token
  • NFT
  • Digital Art Certificate
  • DAC
  • Qualified Electronic Signature
  • QES
Citation (ISO format)
SEIGNEUR, Jean-Marc et al. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Token (NFT). 2026
Main files (1)
Identifiers
  • PID : unige:194108
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Technical informations

Creation16/06/2026 09:13:16
First validation16/06/2026 11:47:46
Update16/06/2026 11:47:46
Status update16/06/2026 11:47:46
Last indexation16/06/2026 11:47:46
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