Case Study · Web3 EdTech · Read-to-Earn

Reading that
pays you back

The first platform that turns reading into an earning experience: NFT ownership, milestone rewards, and a real secondary market for books.

About

The Project

Digital books run on a rental model. You pay, you read, you leave with nothing. No ownership, no upside, no reason to finish.

ReadCoin rewrites that entirely. Reading becomes productive: economically, socially, and intellectually, with NFT book ownership, a $RDCN token economy, Reader Pass staking, and a real secondary market.

Visit ReadCoin
ReadCoin
Web3 EdTech · Read-to-Earn
ClientReadCoin
My RoleProduct Design Lead
ResearchIAUI SystemPrototype
DomainWeb3 EdTech
PlatformWeb App
DurationStarted 2023


Problems

What I was up against

Problem 01
Rental, not ownership
The old model was pay, read, leave. No ownership, no resale, no reward for finishing a book you already paid for.
Problem 02
Platform lock-in
Libraries lived on someone else's server. Readers could not take books, progress, or proof of completion with them.
Problem 03
No reason to finish
Most digital books are never completed. Without milestones or upside, attention drifts and the earn loop never starts.
Features

What was built

FigmaFigJamWeb3NFT$RDCPolygonReactTypeScript
NFT book ownership
Connect a wallet and buy books minted as NFTs. Readers are not renting; they own the asset and can list it on the secondary market when done.
Reader Pass stake
40 RDC mints the Reader Pass and unlocks the earn layer. 10 burned, 30 refunded. Commitment, not friction.
Milestone rewards
20 RDC at 20%, 50%, and 100%, validated by real reading behavior. Up to 60 RDC per book.
Achievement NFT tiers
Four collectible tiers from Common to Legendary live permanently in the wallet as tradeable proof of what readers actually finished.
Solutions

How I solved it

Make completion economically rational
Financial milestones convert browsers into finishers and tackle abandoned digital books with a clear earn loop.
Turn time into an on-chain asset
Every hour reading generates RDC, achievement NFTs, and book assets with real market value that readers keep after resale.
Build community through ownership
Book Club access tied to NFT ownership creates genuine discussion, not follower counts, and sustains the flywheel.

Results

The Outcome

60
RDC earnable per book across three validated milestones
4
NFT achievement tiers from Common to Legendary
Progress milestones at 20%, 50%, and 100% completion
Sustainable earn loop: tokens, books, NFTs, community

"Reading finally felt productive. I finished the book, claimed the milestones, and still owned the asset."

Beta Reader · Web3 EdTech · 2023
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