[Hardboiled]

Also I should say, it already happens in a form digitally, with Non-Fungible Tokens. They are commoditized and become investments, and they exist only in the ether. It could be that the various book selling platforms could offer this technology as a 2nd hand market place. 2nd hand book sellers, could too incorporate theoretically such a technology. A percentage could even be taken as a fund for authors/publishers, such as happens with music rights, though there is of course no precedent in physical books for this, as you alluded to. As I say idle thinking but I believe it could promote the market for eBooks even further were it workable.