CONCEPT 6: ARCANE ARCHIVE
A digital library platform for academic and specialized research papers with microtransaction access.
USER STORY:
Academic researcher Maya publishes specialized climate science papers but is frustrated with traditional journals’ paywalls that don’t compensate authors. With Arcane Archive, she publishes directly to readers who pay a small cryptocurrency fee that goes entirely to her, making specialized knowledge more accessible while fairly compensating creators.
TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE:
- Go backend with paywall middleware protecting PDF/HTML content
- Citation management system with DOI integration
- Full-text search with relevance scoring
- Annotation capabilities for researchers
- Reference management system integration (Zotero, Mendeley)
PRIVACY CONSIDERATIONS:
- No tracking of reading patterns or citation networks
- Monero support for politically sensitive research access
- No personal data collection beyond wallet addresses
- Self-hostable for academic institutions
MONETIZATION:
- Per-paper access fees via cryptocurrency
- Author-defined pricing with suggested tiers
- Institutional subscription options
- Open access options with optional payment
CULTURAL CONTEXT:
This challenges the entrenched academic publishing model that extracts value from both authors and institutions, drawing inspiration from Sci-Hub’s accessibility mission while creating a sustainable economic model that properly compensates knowledge creators.
IMPLEMENTATION ROADMAP:
- Document management and rendering system (3 weeks)
- Researcher dashboard (2 weeks)
- Search functionality (2 weeks)
- Citation and reference management (3 weeks)
- Beta with academic partners (2 months)
RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS:
- 1 Go developer
- 1 Frontend developer
- PDF processing pipeline
- Full-text search engine