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This week’s guest on the Cardano NFT Column is a project that is building the book ecosystem of the future: Book Token.
Last week’s guest was a multiplayer PvP and PvE isometric battle arena game based on the Cardano blockchain.
This initiative is a point of reference for NFTs on Cardano and every week or two we will invite someone to answer some questions and give us an update directly from within the Cardano community.
Considering that many of our readers are new to the crypto space, we will have a mix of simple and technical questions.
Cardano NFT project: Book Token
Hi, thanks for your time. Please introduce your team, where are you from, what are your backgrounds?
We are a small team based in the Dallas, TX area. Our core team consists of:
Josh Stone – CEO
Ben Illian – CGO
RJ Regenold – CTO
Bob Wright – CLO
On top of that, we employ a number of legal firms, a bookkeeping firm, an accounting firm, and some various contractors.
What is Book Token? What problems are you trying to solve and how are you utilizing NFT technology?
Book Token is building the book ecosystem of the future. Until we launched, people didn’t own their digital books. The centralized model only allows you to license them, meaning you can’t resell them.
The Cardano blockchain has created an opportunity for us to finally own our digital goods. We deliver books as DEAs, Decentralized Encrypted Assets, so instead of everything being publicly viewable on the blockchain, only the owner of the NFT book can see and consume its contents. This also opens up the ability for authors & publishers to receive royalties in perpetuity on secondhand sales, opens up new communication channels for NFT holders, and – in the near future – will allow for Mint & Print, where NFT holders have the opportunity to print their books.
Why have you chosen the Cardano blockchain for your project? What advantages does it offer compared to other blockchains out there?
To us, there really wasn’t another alternative. First, I think our principles are aligned with Cardano – we’re here to build something sustainable and world-changing.
But when you get to the unit economics, the security, the decentralization, and the scalability, it was an easy pick for us. 1.1 billion people will read digitally in the year 2023. We needed a chain that would scale with us when we start heavily marketing to people outside of the crypto world. And the community is amazing. We are moving fast because we collaborate with other teams and projects, and our readers are giving us immediate feedback as we roll out new features.
What is your vision for the future? Where do you see BOOK Token in 1, 5, 10 years respectively?
This first year will be a massive growth year for us. We have meetings with publishers almost every day, and as we continue to launch more and more books, we are seeing significant adoption. In the next year, we will release reading apps, bring on huge collections from publishers, establish our marketplace, and finally launch our Read-to-Earn system, so we can incentivize knowledge.
In 5 years, we imagine that almost everyone will demand to own their digital goods, and Book Token will be leading innovation in the publishing world to ensure that we’re building an ecosystem that benefits hundreds of millions of readers, authors & publishers. We want to connect them all in new ways to enhance the reading experience.
In 10 years, well… I think that’s something your readers can marinate on. But the future of knowledge sharing, publishing, and education, from our perspective, is heading toward a golden era.
Awesome! Any final thoughts? Where can people stay in touch?
Just a thanks to the Cardano Community and to the people working hard at IOG. We wouldn’t have seen the success we’ve had without them. While writing this, I stopped to thank another platform for their help on something. They replied, “Of course! We win together”. That just feels like the Cardano way, and we’re humbled to be a part of it.
You can come check us out at BookToken.io, and keep up with us on Twitter.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the people interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOG. Moreover, this content is for educational purposes, it doesn’t constitute financial advice.