In the new world of web3, I wish to be a little bookworm collecting author's signatures again

The founder of Ethereum, Buterin, announced in the past two days that he will assemble various articles from 10 years into a new book called "Proof of Stake", which will undoubtedly become a must-read classic for web3. But what is special is that this time he will release both the physical version and the digital version at the same time, the physical version is currently in the pre-order stage; the more interesting is the digital version.

This time, it was web3's global project sponsorship platform Gitcoin who helped him manage the digital version. According to the official website , anyone can link their wallet and sponsor any amount of ETH, and then they can get a beautiful signature card. In addition to Buterin's signature, the owner's ENS, casting number, donation amount and contract address will also be written. In addition, this is a non-transferable SBT (soulbound token), and 90% of the donation amount will be given to Gitcoin to support new Project.

The minting experience is extremely smooth, just connect the wallet to mint, you can see the NFT on the official website page, and you can also see it in Opensea. The only small regret is that there is no "preview" function. I heard that some friends connected to the wrong wallet and did not connect to the wallet of their own ENS address, so they may have to mint another one. It is understandable why the official preview function is not available, because it is just a few words on the template.

From this point of view, in fact, Buterin did not make the new book an NFT, but made an NFT with an additional thank you card, which is a bit like a digital version of a book signing card, plus non-transferable attributes, truly unique. Just looking at it is full of privilege: my ENS, my donation amount, the unique minting number. It's as if I bought a book and got it signed in front of Buterin, but it all changed to happen on the chain.

The Dilemma of Text NFTs

In fact, compared to the small picture market, text-based NFTs are still in the exploratory stage. The two largest applications currently known are mirror and Likecoin 's Writing NFTs, both of which are to make textual works themselves NFTs.

Mirror is a writing platform that focuses on the underlying architecture. Its functions are very bright, and it really focuses on the underlying architecture. Basically, you can create an account by connecting the wallet, and put the article on it, and you can automatically mint it into NFT. The initial setting is 100 copies of 0.01ETH. Those who want it can also collect it by connecting to the wallet. Recently, the subscription and ranking functions have been launched. There is a small problem with the ranking function that you can refresh the ranking (write your own and buy it yourself). Mirror has become a favorite platform for many web3 writers, because it is very web3 native, but the pain point is that almost only web3 people will use it and watch it.

Likecoin is also a similar concept, but it is a platform directly than mirror. Likecoin is a token at the beginning. Likecoin is currently the most accepted "appreciation coin", while mirror has not issued coins so far. Likecoin's Writing NFT has just been launched, and currently only supports whitelist minting and wordpress plugins. The biggest feature of Likecoin Writing NFT is floating pricing. The higher the demand, the higher the price, and vice versa. It tries to solve the problem of "infinite additional issuance leads to price collapse" in the NFT market, because as a book, the author always hopes to sell as many copies as possible. But I don't want to sell it cheap.

At present, why has text type NFT not become mainstream? The first is probably the same dilemma as the music genre, that is, people are visual animals, and what they see at a glance is best understood. In addition, there is a problem of efficiency. When a webpage is opened, dozens of jpgs can be scanned at a glance, but it takes tens of seconds or even tens of minutes to distinguish music and text. The third may be the unique "challenge" of text works. Generally speaking, the picture and the song version are determined, and usually do not need to be modified, but the text is as fine as silk, and a trivial punctuation mark can often be changed. Therefore, When a written work is uploaded to the chain, it has to bear the risk of not being able to modify it. Besides, a book is often reprinted several times. Each reprint means that the old version is out of date, so the incentives for uploading to the chain are relatively limited. Finally, each text-based NFT is the same. Both mirror and likecoin sell text-based NFTs as digital books, and the incentives for people to collect are not very strong.

Therefore, it may be a wise idea for V God’s new book to use the “book signing card” itself to issue NFT, rather than making the book itself an NFT. This may also give some inspiration to the publishing industry. However, I personally feel that this does not seem to be a very complicated gameplay. There may have been earlier cases, but I have not found the first web3 person like Buterin to release it. In the physical world, people will go to bookstores to scramble for books, often not for the book itself, but for the author's signature. The incentive to collect the book itself may not be so great, unless the book itself is very rare, but the author's signature is An attractive thing, it can be said that there are hundreds of pages in a signed book, and the page signed by the author is the most valuable. Since that page is the most valuable, why not make that page an NFT alone?

Here, I can think of several commercial possibilities. In the future, maybe we will see publishers issue a digital book signing card for each book, and can also set up royalties (for example, 37 cents for author publishers), or even give a part to DAO treasury, and holders can share the profits. It is also possible to add empowerments, such as holders can receive airdrops, participate in specific events...etc. If the digital signature cards are beautifully made, the publishing house can also cooperate with designated printing companies to provide services to print the holder's "unique" signature cards to make real bookmarks, combine virtual entities, and use the favorite author's signature. Isn't it a very honorable thing to have exclusive bookmarks in his works? And every little bookworm like me who is addicted to books can regain the hobby of collecting author signatures in the web3 world.

There are many places where the text industry can take advantage of web3 technology.

For more web3 thoughts, follow me on twitter: @yuhschang