Books: Legacy Discovery

Build an NFT metadata archive as proof of existence for limited edition books owned by individuals or independent collectors.

I am an author and bookbinder who creates one of a kind books for the non-Amazon connoisseur and ADA Maker Space participant.

Fun Fact: Ancient libraries chained their books to the shelves to retain ownership. Today's blockchain replaces the iron chains of the middle ages to retain legacy book information with an NFT. 

Love books? Nothing in the market exists to capture the metadata for books not held or categorized by libraries. Custom made books or rare books held by collectors outside the library system have no means of discovery. Accidental discovery is not a good strategy. The book you write or create is YOUR legacy. An NFT can enable future generations to know that your book exists and provide the breadcrumbs to find it. 

This project will enable a permissionless metadata archive for authors, bookbinders and private book collectors without centralized gatekeepers (such as libraries).

1. Design and implement a web portal for independent use by authors, bookbinders and book collectors to create NFTs with a pre-configured set of metadata specific to books. *Imagine OpenSea for books only*. Existing NFT creation sites do not provide sufficient metadata for future book discovery.

Catalyst funding is needed for developer time (75%). The remaining (25%) addresses annual fees associated with the project, such as hosting and IPFS implementation. As an entrepreneur rather than developer, this is where I need the Cardano community support. I can establish a web presence and write user documentation.

• Scripts to define a set of book-specific NFT metadata

The criteria for book metadata is well documented, eliminating the need for in-depth research. For example, common book metadata includes:

• Title, author, publisher, release date, print run, price, distribution (digital, print), bookbinder, designer, paper (handmade, watermarked, brand), print method (digital, letterpress, hand-written), cover material (leather, parchment, cloth, paper, bark, fabric, etc.), gilder (if not the binder). This list is an elementary sampling. 

Additionally:

• Auto-create a user wallet option for NFT storage.
• Align a method to support NFT payment via ADA or fiat. A pool of ADA would be on reserve to serve those more comfortable with fiat.
• Interplanetary File Storage (IPFS) to house the metadata collected with the NFT creation. This is a critical component to the future facing goals of this project.

2. Explore Blockfrost.io for an API to create an easy to use app for researchers and collectors to discover a book's metadata.

3. Future iteration may include creating a vault to facilitate storage for the end users uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the requirement to store their NFT in a wallet.

4. Future potential to buy shares in a particular rare book's NFT or to embed smart contract criteria for lending.

Why are books so successful as fine art? 

• You can collect loads of them and they don't take up much space
• Books increase in value with time
• Collectors have deep pockets

Roadmap follows Lean methodology for a minimally viable product:

• Q4 2021: Secure a developer for the project
• Late Q4 2021: Confirm scripts required, processes documented
• Q1 2022: write scripts, APIs and IPFS connections, create functional wallet demo, create fiat and ADA payment gateway  
• Late Q1 2022: test all scripts, connections and payment gateways
• Q2 2022: May 15, projected go-live

Key Success Criteria: post go-live

• 3 months: educate and evangelize among global book community networks results in increasing site traffic and requests for information; subject matter expertise 
• 6 months: progressive daily/weekly growth in NFT creation
• 12 months: sufficient demand to explore additional fund proposals for vault storage and/or smart contracts for book royalties

Key Challenge Metrics addressed by this project:

• Traceability
• Product Authentication

To support the private author or book collector, an NFT for each rare book supports risk management by documenting the book's provenance (its history) and proof of current ownership. The financial return, particularly for rare book collectors, could be very high given our increasingly disaster-prone climate changes. 

The Guild of Bookworkers has accepted my proposal to write an article for the world-wide membership about NFTs and their use cases for bookbinders (draft submission October 1, publication in December). I also have access to an internationally active book_arts listserv, and wide communication/collaboration with bookbinders throughout the world. The rare book world is a small, but financially impactful.

Bookbinders serve the rare book market in both book creation and book repair. As bookbinders share the value of creating an NFT for books, growth by the end of year 1 is likely to be significant. The true end-state benefit will be centuries from now, when the books not accepted by libraries are discoverable.

This project addresses the Cardano Foundation's mission by contributing to the positive advancement of blockchain as a world-changing technology.