0xcert is the leading NFT infrastructure development group in the blockchain space. Its focus remains on creating developer-oriented tools for fast adoption of blockchain tech. 0xcert’s product stack includes everything from low-level protocols (ERC-721 reference implementation), open-source tools (0xcert Framework), services (0xcert API) and end-user facing applications (Evidenspace). With 0xcert, developers can drastically shorten development time, decrease risk and cut costs associated with developing blockchain solutions.



0xcert’s native ERC-20 utility token, ZXC, plays a critical role in all the products and services where it is used to process all operations performed on the Ethereum blockchain.

Fungible vs. non-fungible tokens

With the creation of the non-fungible token standard on Ethereum, known as ERC-721, a whole new specter of applications and use cases has opened up. It will enable people, companies and institutions to put IDs, certificates, real estate data and other important information of the real-world assets on the blockchain. 0xcert is at the center of this new emerging space, creating tools for fast adoption of NFT technology, like for instance the 0xcert API that allows developers to deploy web3 enabled applications within a few hours.





Use cases

Remember CryptoKitties? They were the first use cases of non-fungible tokens and have taken the blockchain community by storm. CryptoKitties are collectables — assets, that are unique and can be stored in your Ethereum wallet. You can buy, sell, trade and even breed them.



However, use cases go far beyond fun collectibles as CryptoKitties. Non-fungible tokens can be used in KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures, for academic degrees and other educational certificates, collectibles, badges, voting & elections, loyalty programs, in-game items, copyright, supply chain tracking, medical data, software licenses, warranties, and more:

Certification: Issuance of verifiable blockchain-based certificates in the fields of quality management, food standards, social responsibility, and many others.

Education: With both formal and informal education, blockchain degrees and credentials greatly speed up skills and education verification processes.

Supply chain: Automation and speeding up of the sales and procurement processes due to the possession of proper digital certificates. Implementation of track and trace systems for transparency and auditing purposes.

Automotive: Trustworthy digital passport of the motor vehicle with a full track record of used parts, inspections, services,... with a complete blockchain-based report about the car’s technical condition

Art and fashion: Ensuring the authenticity of artworks or fashion creations and simultaneously tracking its origin, history, and provenance.

Collectible items: Issuance of blockchain-based certificates, proving ownership and provenance.

Tickets: Prevention of ticket scalping on secondary markets and the creation of extended content where the ticket becomes a collectible item itself.

Intellectual property: Protection and management of IP become easy and transparent. Assigning and withdrawing rights as well as monetizing are automated, allowing authors to focus on what they do best - create.

Documents: Increasing transparency by keeping public track of document changes on the blockchain, for documents like Terms and Conditions, Privacy policy and others.

NGO fundraising: Alternative ways of crowdfunding with the issuance of unique digital assets, which can also infuse additional transparency about how the funds will be used, but simultaneously give NGOs access to the blockchain space’s vast financial resources.

Loyalty programs: Various loyalty programs can get a completely new dimension by issuing their own unique digital badges, which can not only be exchanged but also traded.

Many others!

Technology

0xcert’s technology stack is primarily built on the Ethereum blockchain, although the majority of the open-source tools are also integrated with Wanchain. All tools, services and products are built for faster adoption of non-fungible tokens and blockchain technology in general.

ERC-721 reference implementation

0xcert has built the reference implementation of the Ethereum non-fungible token standard, ERC-721. The widely adopted standard and its implementation have been upgraded numerous times, most recently to v2.1, upgrading it to the latest Solidity version and adding support for revert error messages.

Xcert and ERC-2477

Non-fungible tokens are an integral part of the 0xcert ecosystem. To support all desired functionality, 0xcert has upgraded the standard, supporting additional features (burnable, upgradeable, etc.) as well as metadata schemas for different asset types. These upgraded NFTs are known as Xcerts.



Asset type standards play a major role in this ecosystem, giving ERC-721 tokens a proper context. The 0xcert Protocol extends ERC-721 features and provides an opinionated, contextified, and interoperable solution that comes in the form of a unique certification process and is based on conventions. To keep concepts truly interoperable, 0xcert introduced a new ERC-2477 standard which covers the core mechanism of the 0xcert Protocol.

Open-source

The entire 0xcert tech ecosystem is open-source, with the exception of products and services built on top of it. The ecosystem is made up of the 0xcert Framework, the 0xcert Verifier, SwapMarket and the ERC-721 Validator.

0xcert Framework

The 0xcert Framework is aimed at supporting the developer community in building the decentralized world. In the absence of the Framework, developing decentralized applications (dapps) takes months and whole dedicated teams, and still, there is plenty of room for errors and bugs.



With the goal of bringing the potential of dapps to any business and development teams of any size, we have created a framework that drastically reduces the hassle of dealing with distributed systems and applying them to real-world operations and businesses. It comes packed with features, comprehensive documentation and guides.

0xcert Verifier

The 0xcert Verifier provides an elegant way of verifying the validity and content of any digital asset issued with the 0xcert infrastructure. It runs on a set of rules and mechanisms integrated within the 0xcert Framework. It allows for easy verification of digital Xcert assets for their owners, even those with zero coding or blockchain knowledge.



The 0xcert Verifier runs asset validation by checking the asset evidence and detailed metadata, among others, and provides a clear list of true or false results to checked inputs.

SwapMarket

SwapMarket is the world’s first many-to-many decentralized exchange. It was the first end-user application built with the 0xcert Framework and makes use of atomic swap technology so that a group (or a pair) of traders can:

transfer multiple fungible (ERC-20) tokens

transfer multiple non-fungible (ERC-721) tokens

transfer multiple ERC-721 non-compliant non-fungible tokens (e.g., CryptoKitties) and

create multiple non-fungible tokens (ERC-721 as Xcerts)

all in a single atomic transaction on the blockchain

ERC-721 Validator

In order to make sure that the deployed smart contract complies with the ERC-721 standard to the highest degree possible, 0xcert has developed the ERC-721 Validator. It's a simple and straight-forward online tool providing an overview of the results of a contract's compliance with the standard.

0xcert API

The 0xcert API is a fully decentralized web service built on top of the existing 0xcert open-source infrastructure, which wraps 0xcert functionalities in a common API interface.



The 0xcert ecosystem already includes the 0xcert Framework, which improves blockchain-based issuing and management of non-fungible tokens by a mile. However, it still requires a certain level of coding knowledge and presumes that a developer handles transaction states and retries by themselves, regulates the gas consumption, etc.



Because driving adoption lies at the core of 0xcert’s mission, the 0xcert API is a logical next step. It packs all Framework features and functions into a standard API service that the developer community already knows and loves.



The 0xcert API also makes heavy use of ZXC utility tokens to process all blockchain operations. Read more about token economics in the below sections.

Evidenspace

Evidenspace is an all in one tool for issuance and management of unique digital assets on the Ethereum blockchain, aimed at business and enterprise customers. It is entirely built on top of the 0xcert API and makes use of ZXC utility tokens behind the scenes.



Although blockchain is a technology of the future, it is still only available to a small number of people due to the complexity of development and bad user experience. 0xcert is moving these boundaries and enabling everyone to make use of blockchain, without the need for advanced technical knowledge or high development costs. With Evidenspace, using blockchain is becoming as simple as using any other web service.



Evidenspace is packed with abundant features, which most importantly make the interaction with blockchain-based services more user-friendly:

No need for Metamask, just use a username and password. By incorporating the Bitski wallet solution, we got rid of the poor blockchain user experience often encountered with first-time users.

No need to hold ETH or other cryptocurrencies to use a decentralized application. Evidenspace has an integrated fiat payment gateway, which means that you can interact with blockchain-based services only by using your credit card.

Advanced user permissions can be assigned for your whole team, meaning that your whole team’s blockchain interaction can be managed from one dashboard.

Visualize your assets with QR codes, embed codes or even NFC chips. Opening up the gates to use cases that originate in the physical world and require a bridge to its digital twin on the blockchain.

ZXC token economy

The 0xcert ecosystem is made up of a variety of open-source tools, such as the widely used ERC-721 specification and the 0xcert Framework, designed to make the process of building dapps as quick, painless, and streamlined as possible. It also features two kinds of ERC-20 tokens:

ZXC tokens are utility tokens used to pay for behind-the-scenes operations in dapps built using the 0xcert framework. You can think of ZXC as both a unit of value for 0xcert services and a bridge between blockchain and real-world use cases. ZXC tokens can be converted into dapp tokens.

Dapp tokens are credits users spend to buy products and services offered by individual dapps built on 0xcert. Each dapp has its own dapp token that it uses for its own purposes.

The introduction of dapp tokens allows 0xcert to update their products and services in a much more dynamic way than using ZXC directly.



Based on the 0xcert ICO numbers, 0xcert currently fixed the price of one ZXC token at 0.042 EUR throughout all 0xcert services. For example, if an operation with the 0xcert API is priced at 1 EUR, the cost will come out to 1 EUR/0.042 EUR = ~23.8 ZXC. Bonuses given out during the ICO serve as discounts on services payable using ZXC tokens.

Partnerships

0xcert has a vast partnership network, made up of strategic partners, clients, customers and associates. Most notably Wanchain and The Joseph Stefan Institute are standing out, bringing direct impact on 0xcert products and services.

Wanchain

The alliance was built with the goal of providing developers an additional blockchain infrastructure option, along with cross-chain functionality and improved privacy component.



One of the main advantages for both 0xcert and Wanchain is enabling exchange of digital assets, providing security, privacy and a verification standard for everyone involved.



Last year, the 0xcert Framework was expanded with a second connector to Wanchain, bringing the power of NFTs to the Wan network. This provides two-fold benefits:

The users of the 0xcert Framework will be able to work on cross-chain ERC-721 NFT transactions and private transactions.

The developers building on Wanchain can already create and manage ERC-721 non-fungible and ERC-20 fungible tokens on Wanchain and execute atomic swaps.

Most recently, as part of the strategic alliance, the ZXC token was integrated on the Wanchain network as the next cross-chain ERC-20 token. ZXC is in good company with many other coins and tokens, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and well-known projects like MakerDAO.

Joseph Stefan Institute (IJS) & Knowledge 4 All Foundation

0xcert has joined the consortium of partners on the EU Erasmus+ project, the aim of which is to introduce micro-credentialing into higher-level education. 0xcert main partners in this endeavor are the Knowledge 4 All Foundation (K4A) and Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS), although other consortium partners include:

Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg

Cooperative State University Baden-Württemberg (DHBW)

European Distance and E-Learning Network, EDEN

Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

Knowledge Innovation Centre (Malta) Ltd.

TTY Foundation sr (TUT)

Vytautas Magnus University (VMU)

Credentify

The culmination of work done with the partners resulted in a recent release of Credentify, which is connected to the Ethereum blockchain via the 0xcert API. Credentify is a decentralized micro-credentials clearinghouse powered by a blockchain network across European universities allowing safe transfer of millions of micro-credentials as smaller units summing up into ECTS credits. This empowers European students, educational workers and universities across Europe to make the accreditation of their traditional learning experience fast, dynamic, safe, reliable, transparent and accountable.



Credentify ensures that micro-credentials are certified and mapped to European qualifications frameworks and can scale into other forms of Higher Education. Credentify, therefore, empowers students and universities with equitable knowledge accreditation by allowing it to be more fair and flexible in its delivery. Credentify is built on native European technologies, extensive policy and research analysis and is integrated with ESCO to maximize impact in the European Education Area and Digital Single Market.

UNESCO and The International Research Centre in Artificial Intelligence

The International Research Centre in Artificial Intelligence under the auspices of UNESCO is a clearinghouse created to facilitate the exchange (i.e., clearance) of potential AI projects and stands between several clearing entities, the researchers, investors and governments.



The overall vision is to facilitate AI activities from researchers of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion. IRCAI's vision is one of exposing AI talents capable of solving real-life development challenges to funding and empower and work with policymakers and society as a whole while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world.



There are several pillars of activities within IRCAI, with education at its core, to serve and empower the capacity building agenda in AI across the Global north and south. For this purpose, the technology developed with the team at 0xcert to power Credentify is of paramount importance as it will provide a plain level field in providing a credible and safe platform to issue credentials between Global south and north institutions on a larger scale than ever before, both in formal and non-formal and open educational settings.

Non-fungible alliance

0xcert is a technology powerhouse but does not stop at product development. 0xcert is also about making ideas happen, building a platform for the community to interact, grow, and learn from one another. The goal of The Non-fungible alliance was launched to provide a common platform for all non-fungible thinkers, enthusiasts, and creators.



It currently boasts over 100 members, including large projects like Blockade Games, WeTrust, Nifty Gateway and District0x.

Conclusion

0xcert is the go-to infrastructure builder for anything related to non-fungible tokens. Since its inception, the team has put out massive pieces of technology but simultaneously built a solid utility and use case for its ZXC token. The 0xcert Framework is a widely adopted tool and now the team is making great strides with services like the 0xcert API. ZXC should definitely be on everyone’s radar, as 0xcert pushes forward with adoption and new technology.