It’s only been over the last couple of years that blockchain , the tracking technology invented for the safe exchange of Bitcoin, has made a use-case for itself outside of the financial market. Interestingly, the art world is leading the charge: We’ve seen applications of blockchain that would make sure images on the internet are properly attributed , and allow artists retain an equity stake in their work .

Now, the ever-inventive online publishing initiative Editions At Play—a collaboration between Google and the London-based book publishers Visual Editions—is applying blockchain technology to e-books with a new novel, titled A Universe Explodes, written by Google Creative Lab Sydney creative director Tea Uglow and created in collaboration with the design and engineering agency Impossible. Thanks to blockchain technology, the book can be “owned” and borrowed like a physical book, while still being readable by all.

Bitcoin blockchains are used to track transactions securely and transparently in an unalterable database that can be accessed publicly. Blockchains cryptographically tag each Bitcoin exchange to the person who made it, creating an automatic backlog of activity that never gets erased.

In the case of A Universe Explodes, the “transactions” are basically each act of lending out the book. The novel has 100 own-able copies, which can be passed from one reader to the next by dedicating the copy to an individual in the acknowledgments. As with all Editions At Play books, it can also be read online or on mobile by anyone, but only the owners can edit the book and pass it along. Think of it like the digital version of dog-earing a page or underlining a particular phrase, then lending your copy to a friend with a bad track record of returning.

At its essence, the book has a similar goal to other cultural uses of blockchain: It is an experiment in whether we can still have provenance or ownership over a digital object without limiting access to it. Yet unlike the more transactional uses of blockchain, this use is more concerned with how the book will be used and owned in the future, rather than with attributing it to a single owner, or creator, in the past.

“So far the examples [of blockchain technology] we’ve seen have been more focused on blockchains transactional quality,” says Uglow. “It’s seen as a defensive mechanism stretching backwards to create a chain of supply, or distribution, so that you might have ethical goods, or creative matter, or simply a transparent exchange of services. All of which is great, but this is more about the future of the object, beginning with the idea of ownership of non-tangible goods. It is the idea that we can use it to give someone something that they own—separate from people’s ability to access or use something.”

A Universe Explodes is conceptual at its core—it’s a performance that plays with our distinction between physical and digital, ownership and access. The text itself morphs and disintegrates over time with each read. Once a book is dedicated to you, it arrives in link form in an email. You’re prompted to swipe to the first page (it’s best read on mobile), where you’re instructed to add one word, then delete two—directions that are repeated on each of the book’s 20 pages. The book starts out with 128 words on the page but shrinks with every edit until, eventually, with 128 users, there will be just one word on every page.