This week, thoughts and prayers go out to the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. And as we approach the one-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, thoughts and prayers also go out to the families suffering on both sides of such a needless campaign.

So About that Bookstore…

I was reminded this week that I own an NFT Bookstore. In fact, I own the NFT Bookstore. The one at NFTBookstore.xyz.

I started the shop about a year ago as the first literature-focused marketplace in the Web3 space. It was, and possibly remains, ahead of its time—and, unfortunately, ahead of the technology required to function as I envisioned.

The devs made it possible to denominate books in PAGE, the social currency of the PageDAO Web3 Authors’ Guild, but the other bookish features I wanted would take time to develop, if they ever happened at all. While I waited for the technology to catch up with my vision, I set the NFT Bookstore aside, did the Wordle, and focused on other projects.

In the meantime, the Web3 space shifted under everyone’s feet, and I mostly forgot that I’d ever had a Bookstore until I was on stage at that Twitter Space.

Q: I see you have an NFT bookstore. Tell us about that.

A: I have a what? Oh, right, I do have a bookstore!

Getting Lucky in 2022

The NFT Bookstore included several innovations, including the first NFT-authenticated physical book that I’m aware of. And for two months, we got Lucky.

Lucky, the Cryptoversal Mascot of March-April 2022, established a collection of Messenger Tokens that were offered through the store. Each token promised to deliver the Genesis Edition of an NFT book from Cryptoversal Books at a future time when it became feasible to release and drop a fully encrypted and decentralized NFT book from the someday-to-be-established Cryptoversal Minter.

Because a bookstore wasn’t enough, you see. I also had plans for a book minter.

Like me, Lucky has also been waiting patiently for that minter. Waiting, flipping through her book, waiting some more, looking out of the screen at me with those weary reptile eyes, waiting, waiting, waiting…

Getting Lucky in 2023

Since we last saw her, Lucky has gotten herself an AI-assisted makeover.

While a full-featured NFT Bookstore remains elusive, advances in technology have opened several other doors.

The Cryptoversal Books collection of classic literature, as promised by Lucky, has finally become possible. Not through a minter, but through our encryption partners at Darkblock. More about them in a future Mytho-Crypto.

The important thing is that Lucky’s Messenger Tokens from 2022 will be delivering actual books in 2023.

I’m also planning an upgrade to Ye Olde NFT Bookstore to make it more visually appealing and informative, although its ultimate functionality remains firmly over the horizon.

The Write-to-Earn Program

Lucky is deeply discounting the Messenger Tokens in Lucky’s Literary Collection, starting with the Dracula Messenger Token, seen here in glorious “LizardVision.”

The Drac Token can now be bought with 1000 PAGE. If you don’t have 1000 PAGE, you can earn that amount by writing a short story using an assigned Wordler prompt. “Be a Wordler” stories will be collected into a book, with a share of royalties split among the participants.

“Be a Wordler” assignments can be claimed on DeWork: https://app.dework.xyz/pagedao-web3-writers/cryptoversal-books?taskId=d09f5a8b-bc48-43db-9520-0f428456462b

My Discord server has channels for the NFT Bookstore and for “Be a Wordler” if you have any questions. This is going to be a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.

What Else Am I Working On?

• Prepping a video - Something about children’s books in the Web3 space?

• Hot takes about The Minthouse, a picture book with generative illustrations, will be shared with paid-tier Mytho-Crypto subscribers.

• Ten Wordler Vignette collections from the Samhain 2022 storyline have some new graphics on OpenSea. Like this one. I wonder what that’s about.

• The Year in the Books collection is still minting. February’s snapshot is approaching.

Follow me on Twitter or join my Discord for details.

--Greg R. Fishbone, the Mythoversal Cryptoversal