How to reward users in a web3 library

One problem to solve with the copyright/copyleft library flywheel is…how to reward readers in a way that is decentralized but still reasonably effective.

Part of my inspiration is the Pizza Hut BookIT! program that got me reading as a kid.

There are parts of this I’d like to emulate and parts I’d like to change.

Things I like:

1. They make it feel official.
2. They are reliable.
3. They have a real stake in making sure it’s run properly because they ultimately are the ones handing out pizza.
4. They involve parents, teachers, etc.

Things I do not like:

1. One company calls all the shots forever.
2. It’s limited by their willingness to spend money on this kind of marketing.
3. It’s limited to schools. Outside the school system? Kick rocks, kid.
4. Involving the parents and teachers at a systemic way actually limits this to kids. Why? Don’t we want everyone to read? I’m an adult why can’t I have a pizza for reading? wth
5. Mostly American only. If you are outside of the American school system you have to jump through all kinds of hoops.
6. What an administrative nightmare the entire things reads as.
7. Sounds like there’s a lot of bureaucracy to participate. Which sounds super annoying.
8. No other companies can step in to supply pizza as a reward with their own criteria? Why not? Mostly it’s #1, if I had to guess.

Smart contracts create solutions to allow systems like these to be easily run by anyone. At their core the token systems are automation of rules and to smooth the transfer of value (actually handing over the pizza to the right person).

One of the things that makes a smart contract solution better is that anyone can participate on either side. Any reader can be rewarded and anyone who wants to “sponsor” readers can do so with their own rewards. Pizza is cool and all but maybe if the system were free to grow on its own outside of a single company there could be all kinds of rewards for reading.

The token system also allows us to DIRECTLY apply the buying pressure of normal consumers buying books to making sure there is “pizza” to reward readers. Imagine if all of the commercial force of a company like Amazon (the books anyway) could be directed towards “pizza” for readers instead of profit for shareholders.

The whole formula changes. But it starts with absolutely removing all expenses for the “Amazon” in the system and smart contracts are amazing at that.