RepayingEdinburgh, ScotlandBorrower approvedListed Apr 16, 2026
Proof of Work Magazine: four issues of print capital
Working capital covering the gap between paying the printer and collecting the newsstand, across issues 12 to 15.
Working capital covering the gap between paying the printer and collecting the newsstand, across issues 12 to 15.
Proof of Work is a quarterly print magazine about the people building on public ledgers: long-form reporting, commissioned photography, and a standing editorial rule against writing about price. Eleven issues in, 3,400 paying subscribers, and every print run since issue four has sold through.
The problem is not demand, it is timing. The printer is paid twelve weeks before the newsstand settles, and a quarterly title carries that gap four times a year. Until now Cara Mulholland has carried it personally, which caps the print run at whatever she can float.
This loan carries the gap for four issues instead. It lifts the run from 6,000 to 9,500 and funds two commissioned photo essays per issue rather than one. Repaid monthly out of subscription receipts, which arrive whether or not any single issue sells.
Subscription receipts alone cover the coupon 1.9× before a single newsstand copy is sold.
Every run since issue four has cleared, at a run size the editor has been personally financing.
This is the press's third loan on the platform and its cheapest.
Issue 12 at printerdone
9,500 copies, largest run to date.
Aug 20, 2026
Issue 13
Autumn issue.
Nov 15, 2026
Issue 14
Winter issue.
Feb 15, 2027
Issue 15
Spring issue; loan matures.
May 15, 2027
Marguerite Okonjo
Independent reviewerFormer workout and restructuring lead at a European mid-market lender; 14 years.
Grade
A recurring-revenue business with a genuine working-capital gap and two clean loans behind it. This is the easiest credit decision on the platform.
Subscription receipts cover the coupon 1.9× on their own. That figure excludes newsstand entirely, which is the right way to build the schedule for a title whose newsstand settles in four months.
Eighty-one per cent renewal on a paid print magazine is a good number in any decade and a remarkable one in this one. It is the asset here: not the brand, not the archive, the renewal rate.
Key-person risk is real and unmitigated. I raised it, and the answer was that hiring a deputy editor is what issue 16 is for and not what this loan is for. That is a defensible answer and it does not make the risk go away. A lender should understand they are lending against one person's continued interest in their own magazine.
Posted Apr 16, 2026
| # | Due | Principal | Interest | Total | Status | Transaction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jun 15, 2026 | 1,031 MNEE | 131.41 MNEE | 1,162 MNEE | Paid |
Proof of Work Press Ltd · Publishing · Edinburgh, Scotland · founded 2022
Proof of Work Magazine is a quarterly print title about the people building on public ledgers: long-form reporting, commissioned photography, no price talk. Eleven issues, 3,400 paying subscribers, and a print run that has sold through every time since issue four.
Cara Mulholland
Editor
Tomás Ferreira
Art director
Paper is quoted per issue, not per term. A step change would compress margin on the back two issues.
The title is substantially one person's judgement. There is no succession plan and the listing does not pretend there is.
Newsstand receivables run 90 to 120 days. The schedule is built on subscriptions for that reason.
Collateral coverage
1.45×
$22,400 of security against $15,460 still outstanding. The line is one times.
How it was marked. Subscription receipts at 85% of the renewal book, which has run at 81% for four years. Newsstand receivables at 60%, settling in 90 to 120 days. Marked Apr 21, 2026 by Marguerite Okonjo.
A mark on a date, not a valuation and not a promise. Nothing here can be sold at 3am: enforcing a charge over stock or receivables takes months, costs money, and recovers less than the figure above.
A missed instalment moves the loan to late. If it is not cured or restructured by the next due date it moves to default and arbitration opens automatically. Every lender with a position can read the case file, add evidence and vote on the recovery route, weighted by principal.
How arbitration worksNine and a half thousand copies. Subscriber posting starts Monday, newsstand the week after. This is the first issue in the title's history where the print run was decided by what we could sell rather than by what I could float.
Nine and a half thousand copies, the largest run we have ever done, and the first one I have not had to underwrite out of my own account. The cover story is the Rotterdam meetup scene and it runs to 6,000 words because it needed to.
Two per issue as promised. The second for issue 12 is a shoot in the Diliberto groves above San Cataldo, which some of you will recognise as another borrower on this platform, and no, we are not being paid for it.
480 BSV in six days. Anyone holding a position gets the print edition at the digital price for the life of the loan: email us from the address on your BitBacker profile.
Some updates on this loan are visible only to lenders holding a position. They are withheld on the server, not hidden in your browser.
What the borrower answered before the listing went up, and everything asked since. Anyone can read this; anyone with a wallet connected can ask.
Every live loan has a room where lenders and the borrower talk. Anyone can read it; anyone holding a position can post. The thread above is the public one and stays public.
Open lender chatAnd 126 more. This build models a handful of lenders as people with profiles and carries the rest as a count, so the list above is a subset of the book rather than all of it.
Every lend and every repayment on this loan.
| Who | What | Amount | When | Transaction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| @cara.m | Instalment 3 of 18 | 1,187 MNEE | 14d ago | 48441a…f709 |
#1 Jun 15, 2026 1,031 MNEE principal 131.41 MNEE Paid |
| 2 | Jul 15, 2026 | 1,031 MNEE | 124.11 MNEE | 1,155 MNEE | Paid | a45b8e…5cf8 |
#2 Jul 15, 2026 1,031 MNEE principal 124.11 MNEE Paid | ||||||
| 3 | Aug 15, 2026 | 1,031 MNEE | 116.81 MNEE | 1,147 MNEE | Paid | a55b8f…e034 |
#3 Aug 15, 2026 1,031 MNEE principal 116.81 MNEE Paid | ||||||
| 4 | Sep 15, 2026 | 1,031 MNEE | 109.51 MNEE | 1,140 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#4 Sep 15, 2026 1,031 MNEE principal 109.51 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 5 | Oct 15, 2026 | 1,031 MNEE | 102.21 MNEE | 1,133 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#5 Oct 15, 2026 1,031 MNEE principal 102.21 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 6 | Nov 15, 2026 | 1,031 MNEE | 94.91 MNEE | 1,126 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#6 Nov 15, 2026 1,031 MNEE principal 94.91 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 7 | Dec 15, 2026 | 1,031 MNEE | 87.61 MNEE | 1,118 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#7 Dec 15, 2026 1,031 MNEE principal 87.61 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 8 | Jan 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 80.31 MNEE | 1,111 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#8 Jan 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 80.31 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 9 | Feb 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 73.01 MNEE | 1,104 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#9 Feb 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 73.01 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 10 | Mar 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 65.71 MNEE | 1,096 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#10 Mar 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 65.71 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 11 | Apr 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 58.40 MNEE | 1,089 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#11 Apr 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 58.40 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 12 | May 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 51.10 MNEE | 1,082 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#12 May 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 51.10 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 13 | Jun 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 43.80 MNEE | 1,074 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#13 Jun 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 43.80 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 14 | Jul 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 36.50 MNEE | 1,067 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#14 Jul 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 36.50 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 15 | Aug 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 29.20 MNEE | 1,060 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#15 Aug 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 29.20 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 16 | Sep 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 21.90 MNEE | 1,053 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#16 Sep 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 21.90 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 17 | Oct 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 14.60 MNEE | 1,045 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#17 Oct 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 14.60 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
| 18 | Nov 15, 2027 | 1,031 MNEE | 7.30 MNEE | 1,038 MNEE | Scheduled | – |
#18 Nov 15, 2027 1,031 MNEE principal 7.30 MNEE Scheduled | ||||||
Principal is repaid in MNEE; the coupon is paid in MNEE, which is the same token, so an instalment has a single total. Every settled instalment carries the transaction that paid it.