About Us
Deliver true digital ownership to readers while empowering authors and publishers using Decentralized Encrypted Assets™
To preserve knowledge and reward its consumption.
In 2017, Cofounders Joshua Stone and Ben Illian were brainstorming about the future of digital books and media. Then, Josh asked a question that would chase them until the launch of Book.io on July 22, 2022: “What if we truly owned our digital books? What if we owned our eBooks and Audiobooks like we owned our physical books?”
At the time, it was just a question, but one they returned to often.
By 2021, it became a daily discussion that turned into an obsession. This was a problem that needed to be fixed.
So they quit their day jobs and set out to start BookToken.io, which will soon become Book.io. They recruited RJ Regenold as CTO, and they got to work building the future of books.
By decentralizing books and knowledge, they were making books unburnable, unchangeable, and unbannable.
The first book they chose to decentralize was the original Gutenberg Bible in Latin, paying homage to one of the greatest inventions in history, the printing press, which spread thought and ideas across the globe by making books more accessible.
By decentralizing books and knowledge, they were making books unburnable, unchangeable, and unbannable. It was the kind of book the world deserved: one that never deteriorates, one that can be sold or transferred across the globe in seconds, the kind that couldn’t be banned or stopped at a border.
On July 22nd, 2022, the world’s first Decentralized Encrypted Asset™ (DEA) was sold on the Cardano blockchain. It was a great success, and quickly, a strong community materialized that believes the same thing we do: We should own the digital books we buy. Authors should get a fair share of the first sale and every secondary sale.
If digital books can now be truly owned, everyone will be a bookstore, and everyone will be a library.
Since that day, we’ve been set on our vision to preserve knowledge and reward its consumption.
Book.io has grown from an idea to a company, from two cofounders to a worldwide community of people who believe that ideas and books can change culture and politics and that knowledge is power.
Since then, Book.io has sold over 200K books in over 110 countries and now has over 20 full-time employees.
We’re building the future of books. And you’re invited to join us.
Team
