What on earth is web3?
If you try and Google it, you will find no succinct answer.
One issue we face is that when we were in web1 and web2, no one called it that.
The big keyword you will see everywhere about web3 is: ownership.
One simple way to showcase this is through the login.
Web1 required a username/password, web2 introduced social media logins, and in web3 we now have this brand new wallet thing.
See, a username/password is stored in the website’s centralized database. Social media logins are just another layer on top of that. Because Facebook has your username/password in their database, they let you use your Facebook account to log into some other site.
You don’t own the username/password.
With web3 and this new idea of a wallet, you own the keys.
You have this private key string (think a password), but when you login using it, it’s not validated according to what is stored in some database. It’s validated according to a mathematical formula that cannot be broken.
Therefore, you own it and it cannot be taken away!
Confused yet?
Exactly!
It’s new and confusing. See, the issue is that when you go to a website that allows you to login with Facebook or Google, the classic username/password is still an option.
It’s backwards compatible. It all still makes sense.
Web3 is like a whole shift away from everything we’re used to.
The biggest reason is behind that core idea of ownership.
In the past couple of years people, society, or whatever you wanna call it has gotten fed up with social media giants owning their data and selling it to the highest bidder.
In the words of Elon Musk: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.”
People in web3 say because of blockchain’s publicity and ability to prove ownership of things like NFTs, then that pain is over.
You can own your creative work, your data, and you can prove it!
Companies don’t have to pay tons of money to Facebook anymore in order to gain access to their data. All blockchain data is public.
Why do I bring any of this up at all?
Because until this whole web3 thing clicks, it seems like people enjoy making comparisons between web1, web2, and web3. I figured I’d add one more comparison.
Where do NFT books fit in?
How are they different in web3?
What is their comparison to in web1 or web2?
Is it even that simple?
Those are the questions I want to try and answer today.
There are already a couple of NFT book platforms out there. None of them are huge yet, but some have actual funding and are selling quite a few books.
I want to bring up two in particular: Readl and Book Token.
Readl offers a way to publish NFT books on Moonriver, which is an Ethereum compatible blockchain on the Kusama network. Book Token is minting books fully on the Cardano network.
And this is where my question comes into play.
See, Spatium Stories is going to offer the ability to mint books on the DeSo network, and eventually the Solana network.
See a trend here?
Each of these platforms is doing the same thing, but on different blockchain networks.
So my question is how do we define these platforms?
Is it that Readl is like the new Amazon and Book Token is Barnes n Noble? Or is it that Ethereum is the new .epub file format, and any NFTs minted on the Ethereum blockchain follow that format?
That would mean that any of these platforms could extend to offer support for another “format.”
For example, Spatium Stories could offer support for Cardano based NFT books simply by connecting with Book Token.
If you want my honest answer, I think that should be the way to go.
I think that in the world of web3 and blockchain, one of the core responsibilities is moving away from centralization. So that means Book Token should be creating a system to build NFT books on Cardano that anyone else can use.
Technically, this could be challenging and could still require a trusted system. But in theory, I believe Spatium Stories should be able to add Cardano NFT books.
Just like I believe Readl and Book Token should be able to use the Spatium Stories’s apis to add in the ability to buy and sell DeSo NFT books.
Will this really happen?
I’m not sure. I certainly plan to open up the API for DeSo NFT books, but from a technical perspective, it is still difficult. I hope to fix this issue with Solana smart contracts, but we’ll see if it’s possible.
These other two platforms are also featuring their own cryptocurrencies to be able to buy and sell books on their platform. So adding new blockchains could be difficult.
I think ultimately, we’ll probably end up in some kind of hybrid system like today.
Today, if I purchase an ebook through Barnes n Noble, I am receiving a .epub file. This means I can read it on their Nook, but I can also read it on a dozen other devices that support the .epub file format.
However, if I purchase an ebook through Amazon, I am receiving an Amazon ebook in an Amazon version of the .mobi file format. This means I can only read it on Amazon products and apps.
Most likely, we’ll have some kind of a system like this.
Perhaps Book Token opens their system up more and Spatium Stories can offer the ability to read Cardano books as well. But maybe Readl stays more closed off, so if you buy a book through them, you can only read it through Readl services.
I don’t know what the world will end up looking like, but I do have the confident belief it will involve NFT books in some way shape or form.