ArtifactsExperiments in Web3 Publishing
All emerging media create artifacts of their early innovations. In the medium of token-linked digital literature, these early experiments are attested and documented on the blockchain.
In addition to their value to future historians, such artifacts often become highly valued by collectors. For example, the hand-drawn cels from classic animated films. Meant to be discarded or recycled after use, these cels became prized collectibles several decades after their creation.
Some Cryptoversal experiments are documented below.
Gutenbergs
On Christmas of 2021, Cryptoversal minted a complete Gutenberg Bible of 1284 full-color pages as the first decentralized Bible and one of the earliest decentralized books of any kind to be minted to the blockchain. The Cryptoversal Gutenbergs pay tribute to Johannes Gutenberg’s Fifteenth Century print shop and the publishing revolution that shaped our modern world. The twelve rare and historic Cryptoversal Gutenbergs will be sold one at a time and will serve as the ultimate Patronage Tokens and mint passes for my ongoing work.
Publication of the Cryptoersal Gutenberg as an open-access flipbook was made possible by the deployment of PageDAO's beta minter to its members. For the first time, deploying such a book to the web3 publishing space no longer required a development team and specialized smart-contracts.
Messenger Tokens
In March of 2022, Cryptoversal launched one of the world's first NFT bookstores. The NFT Bookstore's marketplace platform didn't allow the listing of PageDAO-minted books and did not support literary formats, but it did become possible to create literary-focused tokens that could be displayed in a dedicated space away from the noise and hype cycles of visual NFTs.
Classic works were chosen by the community, and five Messenger Tokens for each title were minted with the promise that they would someday deliver actual books. Starting in 2023, that promise could be met by applying the Darkblock encryption protocol to the Messenger Tokens, upgrading these rare and early Web3 publishing artifacts into TokenBooks in their own right.
One by one, over time, these relics of early Web3 publishing will be made into the rarest and earliest collection of TokenBooks.
Indictments
On June 8, 2023, a historic federal indictment was handed down in the U.S. District Court for the District of Southern Florida. For the first time, a former U.S. President had been indicted by a federal grand jury.
On June 10, 2023, holders of the YEAR token received an airdropped copy of the indictment as their monthly bonus. This was possibly the first indictment recorded to the blockchain.
Messengers in the Marketplace
Unlike heritage ebooks, TokenBooks can be resold.
Cryptoversal
Cryptoversal creates experimental literature at the intersection of authorship and technology. He is the founder of Cryptoversal Books, Literary Editor for Vagobond Magazine, and head of the Publishing Division at PageDAO.