Metale Protocol: A Peer-to-Peer Publishing Protocol for Digital Publications

Metale Protocol Team

Abstract: This paper proposes a decentralized approach to digital publication distribution, leveraging smart contracts on the blockchain. Traditional reliance on centralized publishing and word-of-mouth is reimagined, allowing direct content transfer from creator to consumer without intermediaries. By employing blockchain technology, creators upload their works and manage access via smart contracts, enabling consumers to pay directly for access while ensuring rightful compensation to copyright holders. This system diminishes the role of traditional publishing houses, which lack inherent marketing capabilities, and introduces a novel mechanism: incentivizing word-of-mouth promotion through non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with embedded copyright governance rights. This approach heralds a transformative shift in the publishing industry towards a more creator-centered and community-driven model.