Publica: A Year-in-review

Published in

Publica

8 min readNov 16, 2018

A year is behind us and a lot has been accomplished!

As you may know, Publica recently won an award for “Best Use of Blockchain for Publishing Technology.” A huge honor without a doubt and with Publica's ICO anniversary upon us we want to take a look back at the hard work and achievements that made this happen.

Publica's award — “Best Use of Blockchain in Publishing Technology”

The best way to start this off is with a message from no other than the face and CEO of Publica — Josef Marc!

A message from the CEO:

“Industries aren’t disrupted by insiders. They’re improved by tech people who look at them objectively and see the bigger picture. Authors and readers want to connect directly with each other. Publica fosters that. We listen to both of them and build what they want. They will choose easier, faster, better for THEM. They don’t need or want an intermediary any more. Publica built, in 2018, the technical underpinnings for them to get on with what they already wanted to do.”

Publica closed its ICO on November 16th of last year — the first landmark achievement, proving the community’s support and validating interest in the concept. Now, let’s go through the pivotal milestones achieved over the last 12 months.

Not your ordinary eReader app

On February 22, Publica unveiled the alpha version of its Android eReader app for public testing. An eReader and a cryptocurrency wallet all in one.

The first huge step towards the upcoming platform where for the first time users are able to purchase, read and even send books using blockchain technology.

The exciting alpha testing process gathered a lot of feedback and shaped a lot of how the eReader and the platform continued to develop.

With the major bugs and problems discovered and solved after the alpha phase, on April 10, during the London Book Fair, Publica's CEO Josef Marc announced the Android version to be available to the public on Google Play. A huge milestone for Publica, as that marked the point where the technology was now ready for mass use and the first ever eReader combined with a crypto wallet was released.

The iOS version presented some hurdles mostly related to the App Store, so the developers worked diligently to produce a solution that would allow for most people to use Publica's eReader. A little over a month later, Publica announced not only the iOS version of the eReader app but also launched its Web store.

A lot of polish and work was done behind the scenes to make the eReader app more user-friendly, but now both users of iOS and Android operating systems could use the app!

This was one of the major technical achievements of Publica as the underlying technology at its core is what will carry on to the final platform.

Get the app for iOS!

Get the app for Android!

First ever Book ICO launch

With both the Web store and the iOS eReader on the horizon — Publica announces the first ever Book ICO, ready to put in action the development that has been ongoing on the Book ICO part of the platform.

The author to run the first ever Book ICO was not insignificant as one would expect — the popular travel writer Matthew “Nomadic Matt” Kepnes.

The upcoming book — Nomadic Matt's Guide to Backpacking Europe.

With the countdown timer running and the iOS eReader and Web-store just released, the Book ICO went live on June 6th.

With people steadily, but surely contributing — the book reaches its hard cap of 10,000 USD and is successfully funded. Marking the Book ICO as a success.

After a few weeks, Matthew Kepnes' delivers — the book is uploaded on the platform and the backers get what was promised to them earlier than anyone else and a special edition!

With another milestone behind, the Publica team was excited to have a successful use-case for the technology.

You can currently purchase Matt's book on Publica!

World's first blockchain bookstore

Shortly after announcing the first Book ICO, Publica added a whole new layer to purchasing books. Books were now available for purchase not only on Android devices but now also for anyone from the web.

Books purchased from the Web Store were readable from any of the mobile devices as long as they were in your wallet. That was an excellent demonstration of the beauty of the technology — it displayed the integrity of the blockchain — as long as you have purchased it, it is yours, regardless of platform.

Visit Publica's Web Store and try it out yourself!

Publica's Author Advisor

The successful self-published author and “Blockchain number one bestseller” — Sukhi Jutla, with whom Publica had worked in tandem since the early days, gets appointed as the official Author Advisor for Publica.

Sukhi’s involvement proved to be very beneficial for Publica by giving insights on the platform from the perspective of an author — one of the platform’s intended user groups.

In addition to that, Sukhi brought value to the project by representing the project on numerous podcasts and conferences.

Among those:

Interview on the ICO Radio Podcast

The Crypto News Podcast interview #1

The Crypto News Podcast interview #2

With such a productive partnership, Publica knew — we made the right choice and the partnership continues to blossom to this day! Thanks, Sukhi!

Bestselling author becomes Publica's advisor

With a successful partnership in motion, Publica discovers another promising partner to help move the project in the right direction.

The experienced industry expert, bestselling author and the co-host of his own crypto podcast — Joel Comm is announced as Publica’s marketing partner.

Alongside giving valuable insights, Joel publishes several of his books on the Publica platform displaying his faith in the platform. As they say — “Eat your own dog food.”

In addition to that, Joel further contributes by introducing Publica to his current publisher and Publica’s partner-to-be.

You can find Joel's books on the Publica Web Store!

First Book ICO self-service platform

With the first Book ICO behind us — it was time to release the Book ICO self-service platform in the wild.

The technology was ready and now it was time to let people start building their own visions in whatever way they choose to. The only way to head in the right direction - Publica needed to see what people will do and want to do with the platform. The experience from that is an integral part of building a decentralized technology that is intended to emphasize freedom of choice.

While Publica releases guides, tutorials on the technology and provides assistance where possible, it was a great experience to see the occasional wild cards. A valuable learning experience for both the end-users and Publica.

A platform centered around community and trust needs to be trusted to the community.

Run your own Book ICO right now!

Partnership with a major publisher

With Book ICOs in full swing, Publica’s advisor Joel introduces Publica to Morgan James Publishing(MJP) and a partnership is formed on August 16.

What a fruitful partnership that turns to be. With a lot of ideas and plans for (that we are not ready to reveal just yet) Publica and MJP lay a great deal of groundwork for the future.

And while that is happening, the Publica and MJP partnership not only gets covered by Publishers Weekly but can also be seen on the NASDAQ billboard in Times Square.

With a lot of work currently happening behind the scenes — Publica is truly pleased with how the partnership continues to grow.

Publica in the World

Publica has also spent a lot of time spreading the word about the project and making connections in a plethora of interviews, podcasts, and conferences.

Let's have a look where Publica has been this past year.

Interviews and podcasts

Conferences and book fairs

That sums up the biggest things that have resulted from the effort of both the team behind Publica and its community.

We would like to thank our supporters and the general community for not only providing us with a lot of valuable input throughout the last 12 months, but also for showing a lot of support and spreading the word about Publica. While the year is not yet over and we are continuously working on new things, we believe that the next year will be even more successful in terms of progress and development.

Thank you all for the amazing year!

Publica.com is the first publishing platform to use blockchain technology to innovate how books are funded, distributed, bought, and read.

Join our Telegram group or Discord server to chat directly with the team members and Publica community

And also don’t forget to follow us on social media!

Official Telegram Announcement Channel: https://t.me/publicaio
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