Investor White Paper

What is the Value of Knowledge?

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The Book Dilemma

Most would agree books represent a store of knowledge but this intrinsic value has been diluted. To the bibliophile, books are invaluable but to others they are worthless. However, the same individual who sees no dollar value would in most instances agree with the bibliophile that books hold immense intrinsic value. This contrarian valuation stems from technology’s low cost printing and distribution. Combined with devaluation from cheap production, books do not appreciate in time except as possibly antiques and this is dependent on the physical condition, fame, and popularity. This lack of monetary value conflated with depreciation dilutes the value of the knowledge contained therein. If you place a dollar in a book and set it on the shelf, neither the book nor the dollar appreciate in value across 20 years, but the dollar will at least have some buying power.

Capitalism creates this dilemma in which the invaluable wisdom of a book is eroded due to the lack of physical value in traditional books, but even more so for digital copies. Worse yet a book’s value further degrades due to the necessary expensive marketing to ensure maximum sales for the product’s limited life cycle. To maximize profit, publishers must drive down the amount of money paid to authors (sometimes pennies on the dollar per book sale) thus making the declining value of the book the declining value of the author. If author’s cannot write more bestsellers they are no longer valued.

This publishing model is a no win situation for the majority of authors because they can either deal with publishers or incur the marketing cost, which most cannot afford or do not understand. It is a no win situation for publishers because they are dealing in a product which has no sustainable value, causing them to take no interest in many quality books and instead invest in what is sellable. For new authors, there is no real hope of being published, since they have no proven sales record, and if accepted, they are at the mercy of the publisher.

Despite this bleakness, hope springs from an unlikely source known as decentralization of finance. We propose using bitcoin to marry the intrinsic value with fiscal value of books. Using this block chain technology we produced tBook tokens that give individuals and companies the right to access, resell, and invest in an appreciable store of value. Knowledge no longer suffers depreciation of a paperback or ebook and instead acts like an investment and store of value similar to bitcoin. These token-books (tBooks) are produced on-demand based not on a market’s need but on the author's investment in their book's intrinsic value.

No Disruption: Inversion of the Market

Books do not have a tremendous audience because not everyone has the interest, money, or time to read. For many readers, the book, once read, has no value beyond a dust collector on a shelf or file to be lost in a computer or Kindle electronic space. We do not need to create millions of books or infinite digital books. We certainly do not need to keep cutting down trees and spoiling the environment for a product that eventually crumbles to dust. Because books have a limited market, tremendous numbers of books do not need to be produced and certainly not infinite digital books.

If we can agree books have a limited market, near total depreciation, and digital books create an endless supply further devaluing these goods, then the obvious answer to the problem of selling books is to not sell them.

Akin to the the book being a store of knowledge, the tBook turns digital books into stores of financial value. When authors create books they believe they invested a lot into the piece, which they have in time and sometimes directly with cost of editing and cover creation. However, this investment is neither recognized in the traditional publishing model nor is it recognized by readers or anyone else. What is investment to the author is seen as the cost of doing business. Whether you agree with this perspective or not, does not change the fact that the book is only worth the intrinsic value the reader places on it or its author. Thus, the author is once again burdened with the onus of proving their book's worth. To do this and to make the tBook a store of value they must invest in their works beyond time and costs of creation.

📈 Tokenomics: Bitcoin-Backed Scarcity

The tBook system is built on a simple but powerful economic principle: scarcity backed by Bitcoin. Each tBook is created with a fixed cost of $1 USD, which is converted into Bitcoin and embedded in the tBook. This removes the Bitcoin from circulation and increases scarcity of Bitcoin. This scarcity underpins the value of all tBooks in circulation.

🔒 Embedded Value

Every tBook contains a unique identifier linked to a fractional amount of Bitcoin. This value is not stored in a wallet or exposed to the user — it’s embedded in the book itself and redeemable through the tBook platform. When a tBook is redeemed, its associated Bitcoin amount is removed from circulation, increasing scarcity, and reinforcing the value of remaining tBooks.

📚 Controlled Supply

Authors mint tBooks in volumes they can afford — whether 1 or 1,000. The initial cost per book is $1, but as more tBooks are published and held, the value of earlier copies appreciates. This creates a deflationary curve: early books become more valuable over time due to limited supply and increasing demand.

🔁 Redemption & Circulation

Readers can redeem their tBooks for cash via the tBook platform, which converts the embedded Bitcoin to USD and sends it to them via Stripe account. Alternatively, advanced users may trade tBook tokens on supported Bitcoin-compatible platforms. This dual pathway ensures accessibility for all users, regardless of technical expertise.

🧠 Psychological Incentives

Giving away tBooks becomes a form of investment — not just in literature, but in the ecosystem itself. Readers who hold their books contribute to scarcity. Those who redeem them keep the market fluid. Authors retain control over distribution and pricing, while readers participate in a shared economy of cultural value.

Application

Mechanics

For investors, the tBook can be invested in either through collection of books, purchasing tokens on the exchange, or both.

For the author, we created this platform which acts as a publishing portal by allowing writers to create a tBook which is a their book in a standalone database file complete with whatever media they choose to place within it. Authors can print as many books as desired, each costing a dollar and then distribute them as they see fit. We have designed a reading app that allows for this book.db file to be accessed, which is completely free and downloadable from our website. If the user accesses the token in the book.db the file will become inaccessible.

tBooks do more than just provide reading material since they can support video and music, which expands beyond the current functionality of Kindle and other readers. These books are highly customizable and can be made to look and feel as desired. These books can also be used on Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Investors should appreciate the division of investment into bitcoin on exchanges and the book assets. Their use as assets keeps the supply in an ever-moving state with the oldest tokens being cashed in while the newest tokens continue to be used for books. The likelihood of everyone cashing in tBooks all at once is low since there is a cap on the starting price of each book ($1), meaning every book will need time to appreciate in value. Even if this were to happen, the effect on the value of tbooks would be negligible since bitcoin obtains its value from diverse markets.

Again, as bitcoins are removed from books and traded or removed from the exchange for tBook creation, they increase the scarcity of the tokens due to people collecting books and the need to preload more tBooks. To aid in this process, we have implemented a book exchange in which authors or readers can upload their file and redeem their tBook for cash.

Security

tBooks are not wallets and do not try to serve this function. We purposely designed tBooks with a minimal amount of security to make users more aware of the need to protect their investment. Reliance on developers and programmers to secure software and computers has grown into ridiculous expectations. The app is designed to be simple and easy to use because it is a book first and foremost. As such, users need to handle them like they would any vital document on their computer. tBooks are accessible (and the token) by anyone who gains access to the user's computer and their library, and we believe this will inspire better user security practices and reduced lending of books or copying of books since the user places their investment at risk.

It should be noted that removing the marketing aspect from tbooks removes the incentive for plagiarizing or piracy because it is just better to get a free book than to go to the trouble of copying and creating a book as well as paying the cost. Piracy and copyright infringement makes no sense since there is no money in it.

Ownership

Owning a decentralized published book allows users to collect, sell, or lend (if willing) tBooks. This does not negate copyright and duplication is forbidden under the law just like any other book. With that said, we recommend tBooks never be bought except from someone you know and trust. The only way a user can be sure they are getting a legitimate tBook (containing a real token) is to be given it directly from the author or trusted source.

Like all assets, we wish for people to protect their book as well as enjoy reading it.

The Role of Traders

Traders/investors are often viewed negatively because of their focus on money-making but, in a capitalist society, they serve a vital role by providing money for innovation as well as expanding awareness of a product.

For certain, there is incredible strength in the power of word of mouth.

Investors become powerful allies helping by sounding the horn to charge into the investment if they deem it worthy. We believe professional traders will desire tBooks as a long and short term investment opportunity and fuel retail investor interest in short term profits or just in the novelty of this new book.

Traders also maintain the market by continuing to trade in these assets. Inevitably, tokens will be lost. Computers suffer viruses and damage, human carelessness, accidents, and theft will increase scarcity and traders know this, especially knowing that limited bitcoin supply serves infinite book publishing.

The Future of dPublication

Unlike other Bitcoin investments, this niche market will likely require the time it takes retail investors and book consumers to become aware of dPub industry. A retail boom will come from the strong market that exists within writing communities. Failures to build value in writing such as the recently shuttered Vella, Amazon’s attempt to build a writer driven story platform or even Medium’s decline in value are both proof of the inability of self-publishing to gain traction due to lack of marketing capital from the author as well as literature’s low monetary value. Building communities of writers for the purpose of writing is great but fails when applied to making money. Intrinsic value is not enough to create sustainable markets for most authors or small publishing houses.

tBooks are the solution.