LBRY is a protocol which is partly based on a blockchain, perfect for publishing any kind of media! Does it hold up to the likes of YouTube? Let’s find out!
Did you know that the Cheecken YouTube channel once was a vid.me exclusive? You heard that right! My YouTube channel at first wasn’t a YouTube channel at all! Sadly, vid.me does not exist anymore, but it doesn’t for a good reason. While the platform was nicely designed and showed a lot of promise, it was unclear how the team behind it intended to make a profit out of their site. Ultimately, with a sudden swarm of German content creators and incredible influx of viewers, the whole platform went under.
I have since decided to stick with YouTube to grow my following, and I can’t believe that we are sitting at about 1350 subscribers! So, why did I decide to embark on yet another platform?
Many content creators back up their content on various different sites like bitchute or the now gone vidme for archival purposes especially when regarding the issue of freedom of speech. YouTube and any other social media platform like Twitter or Facebook are in the right when it comes to censorship. The companies in charge can decide who can voice their ideas on their platform. This could be a positive, especially when considering social media which might be directed towards younger audiences in which moderation would be essential, or to eradicate misinformation.
But this system is abused regularly and any leadership behind a company is composed of people, who all have their own biases.
I don’t have a problem regarding freedom of speech personally. I would consider myself an advocate, but my content is not that controversial for the most part. Mirroring my channel’s contents to LBRY has a simple motive. I enjoy using and exploring this platform!
What is LBRY? #
You might wonder what LBRY actually is. LBRY is a protocol which contains a blockchain based naming solution and a BitTorrent like content distribution system. Then there is LBRY Inc, the company that develops the protocol and hosts central servers to enable anyone from using their services. In addition to those we have the not-for-profit LBRY Foundation which acts as the link between LBRY Inc and the community. LBRY Inc. made the differentiation between company, protocol and service a little too difficult with their naming decisions!
The advantage of LBRY being a protocol, is that you can choose to be absolutely anonymous. It also is incredibly hard for your content to be removed. One way of joining is by downloading the LBRY Desktop app, buying some LBC with a credit card and starting your channel without ever directly communicating with the company behind LBRY. Or you could join through the LBRY.tv or odysee.com web services, which require you share some more information about yourself with the benefit that LBRY will maintain a wallet for you if you do not understand how cryptocurrency wallets work. So, control is still in the hands of the consumer. Apparently you can even use a third party wallet and save backups of your wallet manually if you don’t want LBRY to sync the wallet balance for you.
No matter how you sign up, you can decide to take advantage of the rewards system that helps you gather LBC to jumpstart your channel. You are eligible for rewards once you registered and verified your account with LBRY Inc.
Uploading content is a dream! Especially with the convenience of using Markdown for your descriptions, the ability to properly style your text in articles and even the possibility to use GIFs as a profile picture or header on your profile. What makes LBRY special, is that the platform even embraces adult content creators with open arms.
More clients? More choice! #
You might have picked up on the fact that you can join the LBRY network through LBRY.tv, a Desktop App or through a site called odysee.com. You might think “Man this is weird!”, but this showcases a big advantage for everyone using the platform. LBRY is a protocol; A technology which enables other platforms and services to reap its benefits by working on top of the protocol. LBRY.tv and odysee.com are services created by LBRY Inc.. They do not change how the protocol works, but might enforce their own sets of rules. While LBRY is a protocol you can upload anything to, odysee.com can limit what content is shown.
For instance if work is copyright infringing, tagged as mature or instigates hate towards a group of people odysee.com will scrub your video from the index. But you might still be able to access the video if you have a link over the LBRY Desktop app.
Anyone could create a service based on LBRY! How about a LBRY exclusively for articles and blog posts? A LBRY about music hosting which could compete with Soundcloud or Spotify? LBRY for artistic people posting their best creations? LBRY offers a huge potential for many different services which may or may not enforce rules differently. This is possible because LBRY is completely open source. You can fork LBRY or the LBRY phone app and develop something of your own! Then you need to host your application over a server. It will be accessible to everyone else on the network!
What makes this so incredible, is that everything is accessible through your LBRY account, even future services which do not exist yet.
Let us say your channel has a variety of written content, video content and even music uploads. With different services based on LBRY, your content might be discoverable across different communities who interact with the network in entirely different ways.
The Blockchain #
Part of the LBRY protocol is based on blockchain technology. I am not an expert in how a blockchain operates, so I will not pretend that I am. But what I want to further explain is the “win /win” situation LBRY makes possible!
If you are a verified member that can take advantage of the rewards system, you can earn LBC by watching videos and reaching milestones naturally over time. If you watch a video as a verified member, LBRY Inc. will deposit a tip out of their own wallet per view. Verified viewers are also able to tip any amount of cryptocurrency they possess on LBRY to the content creator of their choosing. Another option is supporting content. A support is a viewer parking some cryptocurrency on your video that they can withdraw on a later date. This boosts the discoverability of the content temporarily.
If you are a verified viewer of my channel on LBRY, every view will grant me 0.73 LBC. With the current value of LBC this would roughly equate to 8 to 9 cents per view. This does not sound like much, but remember that on YouTube how much you earn is purely based on speculation. LBRY tells me exactly how much money I will gain from verified views, and each view is worth much more than on YouTube.
Odysee may have a form of advertising that everyone has access to at some point in the near future. So you will potentially have multiple ways to monetize your content. You can set a price on a LBRY upload, but I don’t see the benefit of doing this for my video content.If you intend to sell a product like a book, documentary movie or anything else, you can set a price to your post in order to sell it for LBC.
Unlike other Blockchain based social media, like “Steem”, LBRY only enables whales to have a positive influence on a channel. Whales are the super rich; On Steemit a single dislike from a whale could completely mess up your potential earnings. But a like would grant the content creator a bunch of money too! LBRY does not operate in this way. You can invest your LBC into specific uploads or your entire channel to increase the discoverability of your content.
The LBRY Foundation #
Community is important for any content sharing platform and the LBRY Foundation is incredibly passionate about bringing creators together! The Foundation serves as a link between the company and the community with content curation programs to boost creators, community podcasts which even enable any LBRYan to join in and talk about their channels or ask questions and they actively encourage “good content over quick cash grabs”. This makes me proud to be a member of the Foundation’s discord!
After listening to the podcast live on the 5th of February, I decided to chat with one of the Foundation members named Lex Tenebris. I was happy to see that the foundation is not made up of mere yes men. There are some concerns to be had regarding LBRY Inc. and foundation members are not afraid to voice their complaints.
Criticism is the only way forward and hopefully the connection between LBRY and the community will only be strengthened as time goes on.
What can you upload to LBRY? #
In terms of what you can upload to your channel, no boundaries are set! Especially when you use the Desktop Application. Videos, articles, audio files, even PDF’s and E-books! I mirrored one of my written articles from cheecken.net to my LBRY channel, and it worked phenomenally!
There is a lot that LBRY lacks. If you create content of any kind consider uploading it on LBRY as well! Maybe you upload music or art or write articles? It doesn’t really matter. When there is a way you can share it on LBRY, you are able to grow a bit of a following. The team behind LBRY are also working on implementing features like Live Streaming and playlists. Those features would seriously turn up the heat when it comes to competition with various different platforms.
Publishing content requires you to invest a little bit of money. Every post costs a fraction of a penny and you can even increase the amount of money a post is backed by. Nothing in the world is truly free and while YouTube makes you think that the service comes at no cost, you are very clearly the product. On LBRY it does not work like that. The founder Jeremy Kauffman made it blatantly clear in the past that LBRY is not intended to be an “absolutely free of charge platform”.
Another problem would be hosting. Most content is hosted on servers by the company itself. You can partake in making content accessible yourself if you download the Desktop app. If you enable the option, your PC will act as a seed for content you enjoy, just like BitTorrent. This further expands the LBRY network. This makes your content and files from other users more accessible!
Any questions? #
If you want to know something about the service, your best bet is checking out the frequently asked questions on the LBRY website. (LBRY.com not LBRY.tv) You can also find a lot of information through interviews which were held with the incredibly charismatic founder Jeremy Kauffman, any interview with that guy is highly entertaining to listen to!
You can of course also ask me anything about the service you would want to know, or you could join the LBRY Foundation over on Discord which is completely community run.
One thing I can assure you, I will never willingly abandon YouTube! One thing YouTube is really good in, is widespread appeal. Leaving this platform and to completely migrate to LBRY would be incredibly short sighted. Despite this, I think LBRY harbours a huge potential benefit to creators of any kind.
Closing words #
With all this being said, I think that LBRY is not really a YouTube competitor. It is much more than that! It is a hive full of information! You can find books, videos, music and articles about all sorts of different topics. If you want to build on top of the LBRY technology, you can! You are able to develop and publish it for others to use. In addition to that, LBRY Inc has a solid idea on how their website should make a profit. There are roadblocks on the way, but I can’t see how the company can go under with such a dedicated following of creators and loyal viewers. In case it does, at least someone else will be able to pick up the protocol and get the ball rolling again!