Soltype has integrated the Darkblock Protocol into its platform, which means that collectors who mint or purchase Literary NFTs on Soltype are given true ownership of the attached ebooks through decentralized access. While the ebooks will be token gated and accessible on the Soltype platform, it is also using the Darkblock Protocol to encrypt and store the files in a decentralized manner, and immutably attaching them to the collectors’ NFTs so they will be unlockable by owners regardless of any platform-related issues.

“We believe decentralizing content is the future of digital ownership and we’re excited to partner with Darkblock to provide our users with a more secure and robust ebook NFT experience,” said Paco Puylaert, Soltype’s CEO and co-founder. “We’re committed to giving our users the freedom and security to forever own and access their ebooks, no matter what happens to us.”

While most ebook platforms—both in the Web2 and Web3 spaces—seek to lock readers into using their platform by storing content in their own walled gardens and gating access with a username (i.e., Kindle) or NFT (i.e., centralized ebook NFT platforms), Soltype recognizes that decentralizing content is the only way to provide true ownership of digital assets to readers, immutability to an author’s work, and prevent over-zealous censorship of literature. All Literary NFTs minted on Soltype’s platform will have their corresponding EPUB and/or PDF files encrypted, stored on Arweave and immutably attached to the NFT. 

“Decentralized content means users hold the keys to the content and choose where to consume it, not the other way around,” said Chris Seline, CEO of Darkblock.

He continued: “Amazon is a behemoth, so we never even think about the fact Kindle could disappear—but it could. And if it did, all those ebooks you’ve purchased over the years would disappear overnight. That’s the risk of centralized platforms locking content in walled gardens—and it doesn’t matter if they’re gating access with a password or an NFT, if any link in the chain is centralized, then the benefits of decentralization are lost.”

More concerning than the unlikely chance that Amazon shutters Kindle is the fact it has complete control over the ebooks its users “buy.” Amazon could go into a user’s device and delete an ebook without prior warning—in fact, it has already done this. Just like decentralized social protects users from being deplatformed without recourse and gives them ownership of their social graphs, decentralized content protects users from overzealous censorship of books and other forms of content and gives them ownership of their digital assets, whether ebooks, films, or metaverse assets.

The first Literary NFT that will be minted on Soltype’s platform and benefit from Darkblock’s tech will be Dracari by E.R. Donaldson, which is small, 140-edition test mint. It will be the world’s first decentralized unlockable ebook. 

Dracari is a dress rehearsal for Soltype’s first big mint. On March 1, Soltype will launch Riglan, a novel and Literary NFT by award-winning Marvel writer B. Earl. 

“If we believe NFTs provide the delivery and ownership technology of the future, then we need to be thinking in decades—not days,” Seline said. “Current owners and future buyers of Literary NFTs need to have confidence that the digital assets associated with their NFTs will be accessible forever without worrying about 404 messages or broken Dropbox links. That’s what Darkblock and Soltype are doing.”

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About Soltype

Soltype is the leading platform and marketplace for Literary NFTs on Solana. It provides a user-friendly interface for authors and publishers to mint, sell and promote their ebooks in NFT form. Soltype is committed to giving readers true ownership of the ebooks they purchase on their platform via the Darkblock Protocol.

Website | Discord | Twitter | LinkedIn

About Darkblock

Darkblock, a web3 pioneer in decentralized content delivery and monetization, enables creators to control the distribution, accessibility, and monetization of their content without making it right-click-savable. By repurposing NFTs into tokenized vaults for digital content (e.g., music, videos, podcasts, films, comics, ebooks, 3D metaverse or gaming assets, or even HTML files), Darkblock provides the encryption infrastructure creators need to harness the power of web3 technology, unlock new storytelling and community-building tools, explore new business models and ultimately build a new creator economy free from platform control.

Website | Discord | Twitter | YouTube | Medium | LinkedIn

DTC, an independent marketplace for digital collectibles built atop the Polygon network, has already begun integrating Darkblock’s protocol for decentralized unlockable content, which will give creators on its platform the ability to encrypt and attach exclusive multimedia content to their digital collectibles—that could be videos, music, metaverse assets, PDFs, or any type of digital file. Only owners of the digital collectibles will be able to unlock the attached multimedia content, which will travel with the collectible if it’s ever sold to another party.

Importantly, this content will not be token-gated on DTC’s platform. Darkblock believes decentralization should apply to a collector’s ownership over content as well as to a creator’s ability to make a living without relying on centralized platforms. Token gating does not deliver on web3’s promise of decentralization because it most often relies on a centralized website portal or centralized storage to deliver the content to holders. However, Darkblock is a decentralized, open-source protocol built atop Arweave, a decentralized storage network. This means that a collector will not only be able to unlock and access their digital collectibles’ content on DTC’s website, but from the growing number of websites, marketplaces, native apps, and wallets that integrate with the protocol. 

“Web3 technology, including non-fungible tokens and protocols like ours, has the potential to revolutionize the creator economy by allowing creators to have more control over their digital assets and creations,” says Chris Seline, Darkblock’s co-founder and CEO. “Only by controlling distribution and access to their content, while also protecting the underlying IP, will the long-tail of creators be empowered to find their 1,000 true fans and make a living from their work.” 

Creator monetization opportunities made possible by Darkblock’s technology are another major factor that led to this partnership. With the protocol as the foundation, Darkblock is building a rapidly expanding suite of monetization tools, including unlockable content rental and subscription options, which will provide new sources of income for creators and collectors on the DTC platform.

“We are excited to see how this partnership will enhance the user experience on DigitalTradingCards.com and create even more opportunities for our community to collect, engage, and even monetize these unique digital assets,” says Michael Pace, DTC’s founder and CEO.

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About Darkblock
Darkblock, a web3 pioneer in decentralized content delivery and monetization, enables creators to control the distribution, accessibility, and monetization of their content without making it right-click-savable. By repurposing NFTs into tokenized vaults for digital content (e.g., music, videos, podcasts, films, comics, ebooks, 3D metaverse or gaming assets, or even HTML files), Darkblock provides the encryption infrastructure creators need to harness the power of web3 technology, unlock new storytelling and community-building tools, explore new business models and ultimately build a new creator economy free from platform control. 

About DTC
DigitalTradingCards.com is an independent marketplace for digital collectibles, including art, trading cards, game tokens, and a variety of other digital assets. It is secured on the Polygon blockchain and uses the Ethereum network for scaling, offering a carbon-neutral alternative to many other popular blockchain marketplaces out there.

But to us, decentralization also means ownership of assets without relying on centralized gatekeepers. In other words, NFT buyers and collectors should be able to access their token’s unlockable content from anywhere… not just on a centralized marketplace like OpenSea, a creator’s token-gated website, or even our own dApp. That, by the way, is also what our protocol makes possible.

That will get easier for collectors as the Darkblock Protocol becomes a standard piece of the web3 tech stack, integrated everywhere people access and interact with their NFTs.

Until then, though, we want to make it easy for NFT owners to access their unlockable content in more of the places they hang out. Since OpenSea is far and away the most popular NFT marketplace, we figured it’s a great place to demonstrate how Darkblock enables decentralized content delivery.

Darkblock’s new OpenSea Chrome extension embeds the Darkblock widget into the marketplace, allowing visitors to immediately see whether an NFT contains unlockable content and, if it does, authenticate ownership of that NFT to unlock and consume the content, whether it’s a video, music tracks, PDFs, 3D assets, or any other type of digital good.

The extension is currently available on Google’s Chrome Web Store.

Please try it out and then head to OpenSea. Given how early we are as a protocol, the vast majority of NFTs do not contain decentralized unlockable content. But if you want to see how an NFT with unlockable content shows up on OpenSea, check out this one from well-known artist Matt Griffin, who used Darkblock to attach a time-lapse video of him creating the piece, a hi-res version collectors can use to print, and a PDF with lore about the character. Or this one from musician Songs of Eden, who uses Darkblock to reward his collectors by continually attaching exclusive videos of his live performances to his NFTs. 

If you want the full experience of owning an NFT and unlocking its content, we have a free NFT you’re welcome to mint that contains unlocklables (it’s on Polygon, so gas shouldn’t cost much). Once the NFT is in your wallet (and you have the Chrome extension installed), visit its detail page on OpenSea. You should see two pieces of unlockable content, including the first three teaser pages of a comic book that I think we should finish one day. But they won’t be accessible to you until you click on “Authenticate Ownership.” Your wallet will prompt you for your signature, after which the protocol will decrypt and display your content (assuming the NFT is in the wallet you have connected).

Darkblock’s Buddy Sample NFT with its unlockable content visible on OpenSea

Need a visual guide? We published an instructional video on our YouTube channel.Quick note: This Chrome extension is still in beta, so we’d love your feedback! Take it for a test drive, and if you like what Darkblock enables, feel free to build on top of our open-source code (Github). We’re also always available to answer questions on our Discord.