Responding to Gao Chuangjian's "Preliminary Conception of the Publishing Experiment of Wudatai"

The founder of LikeCoin and the author of "Blockchain Sociology" @高reconstruction( Kin) published an article last week "Preliminary Conception of Publishing Experiments in Wudadai", officially announcing that his second book will challenge Published in a decentralized manner and distributed using the "NFT Book" (Writing NFT) concept. FAB DAO is honored to be a part of this, which is one of my moonshot goals this year. "Blockchain Sociology" is my web3 enlightenment book. For friends who are interested in blockchain, I recommend this book to get started.

Now is a world that is harsh on writers, especially those in Hong Kong. The lack of royalties and royalties is nothing new, and freedom of speech must be taken into account at the same time. At the end of 2021, "Stand News", the largest media connected to LikeCoin services, ceased operations, related persons were arrested, and assets were frozen. Coincidentally, LikeCoin, which was born in Hong Kong, was dissolved from the Hong Kong Entity at almost the same time, and officially sublimated into the Metaverse and became the real LikeCoin DAO.

LikeCoin is a public blockchain. The entire chain is centered on the text economy. Currently, it is compatible with many personal websites and blog services. Civic Liker can applaud and send money when they see the article they like, and the structure ISCN (International Standard Content Number) born from LikeCoin is like the international book code ISBN of the physical world, connecting digital content in the form of metadata (Metadata) ecosystem. At present, the services using LikeCoin include the text platform Matters, depub.space such as twitter, and so on.

In July 2022, LikeCoin blockchain will soon support NFT function, which is a radical attempt. And Kin's new book will also be published in the form of LikeCoin NFT. Kin mentioned in "Preliminary Conception" that "I hope that the 'NFT book' will give people the feeling of 'the book realized by NFT', rather than the 'NFT with book as the content'." NFT is essentially a kind of metadata, which is similar to ISCN. Or ISBN produces a string of data the same, the only difference is "exchangeable", because the characteristics of exchange have created many possibilities, including the birth of the market.

In the past we didn't say "I bought a bunch of ISBNs" but "I bought a book". In the future, we also have a great opportunity to say "I received a (electronic) book" instead of "I received an NFT". So in this short period of mutation, how should we understand "book NFT"?

"No one reads books anymore." Kin broke the title with this sentence in "Preliminary Conception", stating the shrinking book market and the importance of books as a culture. I want to make another statement with this sentence, the number of people reading books is indeed decreasing, but the amount of knowledge that human beings absorb now may be unprecedented. Wired magazine founder Kevin Kelly mentioned the concept of "Screening" in his book-like "Inevitably". He dismantled and reorganized the concepts of reading and books.

Kelly believes that reading is a kind of fluid, "In addition to reading a book has a fluidity, so is writing a book. Think of the book at each stage as a process, not a work of art. Not a noun, but a verb. Books are more like "books", Not just paper or text. ...books are a by-product of the book-making process, especially e-books. ...new screen-reading methods will expand, enhance, expand, accelerate, empower, and redefine these relationships. "

In June 2021, when I had not yet come into contact with the web3 world, I participated in an atypical e-book publishing project "The Inevitable Scenario of Reading" at the invitation of Yinshudian@ Yinshudian. This program recommends six physical books with six e-books, which will be published on the Readmoo Chinese e-book platform. I was in charge of interviewing Dr. Yang Siyi, the author of "Guide to Life". Since "Guide to Life" recommended 28 more books, "Guide to Life" is an excellent recommendation network hub. Physician Yang devoted himself to reading promotion activities and created a unique reader network and personalized reading network, so this special volume explores the extension of traditional recommendation culture to the digital age. Like Kelly's so-called "finished book", this little "Guide to Life. The e-book is my practice.

After half a year, in January 2022, I will join the bookstore again, and this time I will try web3 "The Fool. Booklist NFT>. We use NFT as a medium, as long as you collect NFT, you can exchange for three e-books, one of which is "Blockchain Sociology". In this action, we want to verify a simple concept. The new sales channel allows the author to get more profit, but whether the reader can pay for it. The result was great, the bookstore community and Tezos Taiwan community supported the concept, and 50 book tickets were swept away within 24 hours.

Another half a year has passed, in July 2022, this time we really have to challenge the book itself. Kin's new book will not follow the traditional publishing model at the beginning, but will be sold directly with LikeCoin NFT as a carrier, which may be LikeCoin's Genesis NFT (Genesis) , even if it's late at least the initiator NFT. This time, we revisit what a book is. Can dozens of pieces of content appearing on a web page be a book? Can the NFT linked to the back of the book have an economic market? Perhaps as Kelly said, writing a book is the way to be concerned in this era.

Going back to digital reading, I try to draw the process of technology and social evolution into a spectrum. As a practical route, both the book ticket NFT and the book NFT are placed in this spectrum. Kevin Kelly mentioned the concept of electronic replicas (called "flowing") in "Inevitability". He believes that information that is infinitely replicated and flows everywhere will be a necessity. I very much agree with this trend. Therefore, I extended the "electronic copy" into two states - "free copy" and "paid original", in response to the current trend of web3.

Broadly speaking, a paper book is a paywall. Information is eager to flow. Printing liberates the dissemination of knowledge and indirectly triggers enlightenment. Books used to be the cheapest medium of knowledge, but now we see paid paper books as a mobile burden. The Internet inherited printing technology, and electronic copies were quickly copied, allowing information/knowledge to be disseminated in large quantities again. The digital economy of electronic replicas has been discussed over and over for decades, first with advertising, then with paywalls, and now with the web3 token economy.

Humans of different eras have repeatedly built paywalls to block the free flow of information. Information is eager to flow, but on the one hand, producers have to exchange capital, and users must pay. Therefore, "free copy" and "paid original" are essentially conflicting. Copyright, distribution rights, DRM (digital rights management), subscription system, each era has its own paywall, but also has corresponding cracking methods, especially in the era of electronic copies. So we can say that human beings have to invent new business models over and over again in order to continue to earn money when copies flow in large numbers.

I think any attempt to build a high paywall will eventually fail. The sweetness of free copies is too great. Under this premise, what kind of economic model will make creators willing to write? Quoting Necessity again: "Copy doesn't cost money, you have to sell what can't be copied, what can't be copied? Trust. Trust can't be mass-produced... Free is good, but these things are better, I call it Generative, the value of the originality is an attribute, which must be generated during the transaction. It is only once, and cannot be forged, copied, or stored.”

Perhaps a coincidence with Generative Art, Kelly may use the term to emphasize the elusive momentality, like a match strikes a spark on a matchbox. Kelly lists eight primordialities: immediacy, personalization, interpretation (comment), authenticity, access, embodiment, sponsorship, and findability. These are the models that may make consumers willing to pay in addition to open source. Due to the limited space, I will not explain and sort out these eight concepts one by one. However, it is emphasized here that the emergence of NFT media has created the possibility of exchange/transaction, so I assume that "nativeness" and "exchangeability" are things that must be discussed together. NFTs are likely to be the "original" solution in Kelly's eyes.

So how can "free copies" and "paid originals" coexist in the same context? I enumerate six types of electronic originals embedded in web3 and existing architectures, which may have native properties. From the perspective of implementation, they are from simple to difficult - donate, read, own, sponsor, contribute, and invest. The transfer is a redemption code, which is a common utility (Utility), just like the library ticket NFT we have completed. Reading is like the current e-book, you buy the permanent reading right (before the company collapsed), so is it possible for us to collect the keys of a virtual library? What we have to discuss is what we have in our hearts. Whether digital naming rights and digital viewing rights are both aspects of what we have in our hearts, then NFTs and books are indeed cultural carriers, as Kin said. The last three items, sponsorship, contribution, and investment are all a fan economy that takes into account the possibility of open source at the same time. As author certification, publishing plans, and profit sharing, these are all within the framework of transactions and cannot be forged. The difference is only in the consumer's Just a different focus.

From the perspective of readers, every generation is creating new payment tools, such as purchase in the one-way era (owning a service or a product), donation in the era of two-way interaction (such as live streaming and DouNei has become the consumption habit of modern people). ), or the hotly discussed shareholding and profit sharing (a new consumption model that ties goods and equity together) in the era of digital assets. And of course don’t forget the advertising model that works well in the age of platform capitalism, which is also a form of payment.

The era of decentralization does not mean that the latest concepts must be used. Every business model is fiercely competing for the market, and no one can predict who will survive. Returning to Kin's new book, this is a model in which creators propose crowdfunding by themselves. Supporters pay for NFT Tokens to cover the creator's production costs. This token is a kind of blind box in a broad sense. When the book is completed, consumers will receive a paid original (NFT), and free copies will also flow into the world at the same time. This is the process of "writing a book". We implement Kelly's radical vision with the concept of the NFT book.

In this situation, we are very suitable for deconstructing the existing framework of a book. Does the digital book cover have to be static? Why do books need covers? How is the recommendation order defined? What should the editor do? Aiming at 1,000 paying readers, is the publishing house and channel system more effective, or is it the recommendation of opinion leaders? Is the book free to read? (If Jinshitang was my all-you-can-eat spiritual food when I was a child, then what is all-you-can-eat for children now? If the quality is ensured) Of course, the most important question is, after the deconstruction is completed, what kind of business model will inevitably come next In the screen-reading society, which is the most suitable for survival?

In the future society, we will get used to no piracy. Because piracy itself is a free copy, and genuine is a paid original based on originality. The number, price, definition, and scope of use of the original copy are determined by the publisher, in line with the spirit of decentralization. Of course this is a highly specialized industry, and I believe publishers will adapt in new ways, as is the case with many of the new web3 gallery industries now. The above concepts may be complicated, but I believe that the web3 tools that subvert the market will be simple and easy to understand, and can create financial services. It is hoped that the service in the future will maintain the good "public nature", which is the universal value of this world.

In the fall of 2021, I forced Kin, who came to Taipei, to help me sign my "Blockchain Sociology", which was signed "To Bean Paste: Humanity for the Body, Technology for the Use, and Encouragement." After the signing process, this book Really done, the book is officially non-homogenized. Is this a "paid original"?

Next, Kin's new book will use electronic signatures to create a thousand digital "paid originals". Although it is very, very far away from the real publishing and editing industry, if reading is regarded as an industry, in fact, the size of the world has long been immeasurable, but let us continue to practice the radical imagination of digital reading!