The Crypto Connotation

Conflating Digital Currency & Meme Coins

The tBook name comes from the marriage of a crypto-token with a book. Originally, I named it when I believed I would be using a token instead of digital currency. Then realizing that the name did not accurately reflect the nature of the tBook, and needing to find a domain that fitted that nature, I settled on vmtbooks. The "vmt" stands for Venn Media Token which describes the digital content better but still carries an air of confusion until explained. Similar to other aspects of blockchain technology, this name is erroneous because of poor nomenclature, which I am now guilty of committing, impacts the perception of Bitcoin and crypto by adding to the misunderstanding. For example, we often hear the term "mining" and we think of physical mining, like digging for gold, rather than the complex mathematical processes that secure the blockchain. We also think of miners as individuals rather than a distributed network of computers. This is to say nothing of the complexity of understanding how digital currency works and what makes it valuable. I think it is safe to say that a brief explanation of these concepts is needed to clarify the tBook.

Let's start with a basic definition of blockchain technology. In simplest terms, a blockchain is many computers that form a decentralized digital ledger that records transactions in a way that the transactions cannot be altered retroactively. If you can imagine a checkbook that is shared among many people, where every transaction is recorded, verified by the group, and most importantly, cannot be changed. This means someone cannot cook the books so to speak. You now have a basic understanding of how blockchain works.

With this understanding, we can ask the question, "What kinds of transactions need to be recorded on a blockchain?" Well, the answer is any transaction that requires trust, transparency, and security. This includes financial transactions, supply chain management, and even voting systems. Essentially, if a transaction involves multiple parties and requires a reliable record, it can benefit from being recorded on a blockchain. While blockchain technology use is limited only by the imagination, perhaps the most well known use is tracking digital currency, e.g., Bitcoin.

Bitcoin could not exist without blockchain technology. The blockchain serves as the underlying infrastructure that enables the creation, transfer, and verification of Bitcoin transactions. Every Bitcoin transaction, whether a buy, sell, transfer, or exchange is recorded on the blockchain, ensuring its security and integrity. Those "miners" discussed earlier are the validators or "recorders" of those transactions.

Miners operate on a system of mutual distrust, where no single party is trusted to validate transactions. Instead, they rely on consensus mechanisms to agree on the state of the blockchain. Essentially, the miners must agree on the validity of transactions before they are added to the blockchain since it cannot be changed.

Remember, these "miners" are computer programs following a set of rules to validate transactions and add them to the blockchain.

If you are still with me, then this is where blockchain gets interesting. Bitcoin acts as a store of value, meaning it can be saved, retrieved, and exchanged, but it cannot be altered. If you purchase $100 of Bitcoin the amount of the coin such as .0001 BTC is fixed and cannot be changed. This is similar to how gold is viewed as a store of value and just like gold, Bitcoin changes value over time due to market demand and supply dynamics. Because Bitcoin has a fixed supply cap of 21 million, the value of Bitcoin grows as the demand and use grows. While there is a volatility attached to Bitcoin it is important to remember that it has grown exponentially since its inception: from pennies to over a hundred thousand dollars.

Don't make the mistake of thinking Bitcoin is based on the US dollar, because it is not. Bitcoin is a separate and distinct form of currency that operates independently of traditional currencies, meaning that .001 BTC is worth .001 BTC and can be purchased for an equivalent amount of dollars, yen, pesos, etc.

Now if you can see the parallels between Bitcoin and gold, you can understand why we use this digital currency to create tBooks. Bitcoin is embedded in each book (tBook) to serve as a starting monetary value to back the intrinsic value of the book. Books with value, especially those with a growing value, are treated differently than those with no value. Bitcoin turns the book into a digital asset that allows authors to give away their works for a low cost knowing their works will increase in value making them more valuable to the reader.

You need only give away books and collect books to make reading as financially, as it is intrinsically rewarding.

So if Bitcoin can provide a store of value and incentivise reading as well as providing many other benefits, then why do so many people still view it as a scam or pyramid scheme? Again, the naming of Bitcoin as "digital gold" and use of terms like 'mining' contributed to this perception by further muddling what many struggled to understand already.

Coupled with this misunderstanding was the lack of trustworthy exchanges for users to purchase Bitcoin. For years, the only way to trade and invest in Bitcoin was through unregulated platforms that often lacked security and provided a place for fraud to thrive.

During this time many people lost their investments due to scams and fraudulent schemes that seemed to be the only news reported concerning Bitcoin.

Another factor contributing to the negative perception of Bitcoin is the rise of the meme coin. The same technology that provided Bitcoin is the same technology that allows for meme coins. Meme coins are a form of digital currency that can be created for low cost and are easily used for fraud. Meme coins, sometimes, have intrinsic value but because they are many times underfunded and lack any real-world use, they quickly become worthless leaving investors with significant losses. I dare say, most losses in crypto today result from people putting money into these coins.

Perhaps the largest factor contributing to the negative perception of Bitcoin are many of the early adopters and the culture surrounding it. This culture often embraced a "get rich quick" mentality that attracted individuals looking to make a fast buck rather than those interested in the technology and its potential benefits. There are endless YouTube channels of supposed financial gurus using charts like they are crystal balls, predicting the next price surge.

These smarmy, self-proclaimed experts have contributed to the negative perception of Bitcoin by promoting unrealistic expectations and fostering a culture of speculation rather than understanding.

If you are clear on my points, you don't need to blindly believe me! You can verify everything I say through your own research, which you should! If you research Bitcoin and blockchain technology, you'll discover that Bitcoin has done nothing except grow in value for over a decade. More importantly, you will understand there is an absence of use cases, like tBooks, and most digital currencies focus on finance. What is sorely needed is actual utility and real-world applications that can increase the value of these technologies beyond money making. Ultimately, the tBook provides a real world application for publishing that solves the high cost of marketing and makes publishing possible for everyone.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you will continue to explore tBook publishing.