This is the press section for Pixels, where you will find the basic information on the novel, the publishing process, and the author, along with some media you can use for your reporting. Thank you for checking in!
PIXELS
Pixels is the second novel of the award winning Slovenian author Jasmin B. Frelih, published in Slovenian in 2021 by the publishing house Beletrina (Ljubljana, Slovenia). The novel has been shortlisted for the Critics’ Sieve Award 2022.
Pixels uses the form of an intricately connected series of novellas to present a story of a rogue AI creating artworks out of societies and individual lives. The novel is a profound meditation on personhood in the modern world.
The novel has been translated into English by the author, and the translation was edited by Jason Blake, who translated the author’s first novel into English (In/Half: Oneworld, London, UK, 2018).
The limited First English Digital Edition of Pixels has been published to the Ethereum blockchain via a bespoke smart contract on December 29th, 2025 in New York City.
BLOCKCHAIN PUBLISHING
The access to the PDF and the ePub files of Pixels is token gated.
The buyer must connect their digital wallet to the pxl.here.si website, purchase the PXL token with 0.005 of the cryptocurrency Ethereum (cca. 15$), and once the PXL token is in their digital wallet, the buyer gains access to the download of the files.
The PXL token is created upon purchase via the smart contract. The smart contract cannot create more than 7500 PXL tokens. There can never be more than 7500 legitimate owners of the First English Digital Edition of Pixels.
The integrity of the files is verifiable by the SHA256 hash (cryptographic signature) that is part of the smart contract. Any computer has the capability to produce the SHA256 hash of any files on the computer with a simple operation.
If you produce a hash of your Pixels PDF and ePub digital files and they do not match the hashes in the smart contract, you do not own a copy of the First Digital Edition of Pixels (your files are not the published version). If you produce a matching hash but do not own a PXL token in your digital wallet, you do not own a copy of the First Digital Edition of Pixels (there is no other way to own a copy of the work besides having the token).
THE AUTHOR
Jasmin B. Frelih is the author of three novels, a book of short stories and a book of essays. His first novel, In/Half (Cankarjeva, 2013), received the European Union Prize for Literature and was translated into more than ten languages. His work explores the intersection of postmodern philosophy, digital culture, and the human condition.
“Pixels ultimately represents the world falling apart at its fragile seams; the possibilities of uniting and finding order are left to further (reader’s) interpretation. The novel is without a doubt a masterfully written work, which is aware that modern reality, as it is, is difficult to summarize in words, but it approaches this goal with the openness of the narrative as well as diverse and imperfect points of view, and it supports observation with a dense network of intertextual references and philosophically based reflections. Everything is reinforced by thoughtful, filigree polished language, which often borders on poetic sentences. In short, a literary conglomerate cut out for the present.”
EU Prize Winner Launches First "Sovereign Novel" on Blockchain, Eliminating Middlemen and AI Scraping Risk
NEW YORK, LJUBLJANA – January 26, 2026 – Amidst growing industry concerns over Big Tech’s unlicensed use of literature for AI training, EU Prize for Literature winner Jasmin B. Frelih has released Pixels (www.here.si/pxl), the first novel published via a "Sovereign Authorship" protocol. By utilizing a bespoke Ethereum smart contract, Frelih effectively bypasses the traditional supply chain, allowing the author to retain over 95% of the transaction value while permanently securing the text against AI modification and forgery.
The "Sovereign" Solution to the AI Copyright Crisis For decades, the publishing industry has relied on a licensing model that locks digital files into proprietary ecosystems. Once these files enter the open internet, they become vulnerable to unauthorized copying and ingestion by Large Language Models (LLMs). This "platform dependency" has severed the connection between authors and their audiences while providing minimal protection against digital forgery.
Frelih’s release of Pixels introduces a new category of publishing: Sovereign Authorship. Through this publishing process, the novel transforms from a digital file into an encrypted, limited edition asset. Access to the novel’s PDF and ePub files is token-gated via a smart contract. This contract contains the SHA256 hashes of the original documents, creating an immutable "digital fingerprint". This ensures that the reader owns a verified, authentic copy that cannot be tampered with, delisted, or scraped by AI crawlers without the corresponding token.
Proof of Concept: 95% Revenue Retention While traditional digital platforms take 30% to 65% of an ebook’s sale price, the Pixels protocol demonstrates a high-efficiency alternative. By removing the platform intermediary, the author retains 95% of the revenue, creating a direct economic link between the creator and the reader. This establishes a "zero-fee" publishing model that operates outside the constraints of conglomerate publishing.
A Declaration of Independence for Writers "The aura of literature has been completely devalued by the algorithms, platforms, and conglomerates," says Jasmin B. Frelih, author of Pixels. "I wrote this novel for the reader who refuses to be pandered to by mass-produced art and I wanted to present it in a way that respects the human labor behind it. Literature resists convenience, so serious readers should find this challenge invigorating."