This week I ran across a press release for a new web-based “publishing” company that is now selling a form of ebooks as NFTs. After reading the press release (see below) and checking out the website my initial reaction to the concept is simply a big why? . While not a scam, it seems redundant to sell block chain ebooks of titles that already exist as free downloadable ebooks. Please take a look at the press release for Book Token, their Youtube video, and the website Booktoken.io and let me know what Im missing.

DALLAS, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ – The Dallas-based startup, Book Token (Booktoken.io), has brought books to the blockchain. On July 20th, the technology company launched their first eBook, the Gutenberg Bible – in recognition of the printing press technology created by Johannes Gutenberg- selling over $100,000 dollars worth of the book in the first 24 hours, with zero dollars spent on marketing the sale. The company created 10K NFT eBooks, all with unique computer generated cover art based on an original, a video inside the book, over 70 high-resolution images, and over 650K words. These “unburnable” books, will live forever on the blockchain, do not degrade over time, and can be transferred around the world in mere seconds. Books can be read in Book Token’s anonymous browser-based reading dApp(decentralized application.)

With over 1.1 Billion people estimated to read digitally in 2023, this is an incredible step forward for blockchain utility. At launch time, Joshua Stone, CEO, noted that “This is revolutionary for digital book ownership. Until now, digital books have been handled by licensing models by centralized retailers. Today, people truly own their eBooks for the first time. Today is also the birth of the secondary eBook market.” Within four hours of launch, Book Token was also collecting royalties from second-hand book sales from book owners selling their books on 3rd party NFT marketplaces around the world.

Web3 startup BookToken.io launched eBooks on the blockchain and sold over $100,000 the first day.Tweet this

Unlike other NFTs on blockchains which are publicly viewable, these eBooks are Decentralized Encrypted Assets (DEAs), meaning that only the owner of the NFT can open and see the contents of the book. These NFTs represent a whole new asset class, able to securely move all types of media – video, audio, text – on the blockchain.

“The promise of web3 is ownership and decentralization,” Mr. Stone added, “and today we believe we took a massive step in the right direction to fulfill that promise.”

Book Token, whose C-Level team previously built and sold an eBook startup that had over 6 million users, has an audacious mission: To decentralize and incentivize knowledge.

The company has plans to work with major publishers and independent authors and will continue to build out its platform to accomplish its goals. They also plan to rollout mobile reading apps, a full marketplace to buy and resell books, and look to release audiobooks by year’s end.