Startup Book Token brought the book industry into the NFT space. On July 20, the technology company released its first e-book, The Gutenberg Bible, as a tribute to the history of the printing industry. Traditionally, this book is considered the starting point of book printing in Europe.
The company has created 10,000 NFT e-books, each with a unique computer-generated cover. These NFT books will live forever on the blockchain. Books can be read in the anonymous browser-based Book Token decentralized application.
With over 1.1 billion people reading digitally in 2023, this is a huge step for the startup and its initiative.
“This is a revolutionary step for digital book ownership. Until now, digital books have been sold under licensed models by centralized retailers. Today, for the first time, people truly own their e-books,” the company said.
Unlike other blockchain-based NFTs that are publicly viewable, these e-books are decentralized, encrypted assets, which means that only the owner of the NFT can open and see the contents of the book. These tokens are a completely new asset class capable of securely moving all types of media (video, audio, text) on the blockchain.
The company plans to work with major publishers and independent authors to promote its ideas. In addition, a mobile reader application is expected to launch soon, which will also become a full-fledged decentralized market for buying and selling books. NFT audiobooks are also expected by the end of the year.
