YouTube has its decentralized counterpart – Bit.Tube. The service isn’t the first such effort but it definitely seems the most promising one. Today, we’re going to present you with its ins and outs, so you too could join the blockchain revolution. The best part is that you will be rewarded just for watching videos, which is pretty cool.
1. What is Bit.Tube?
Bit.Tube is a decentralized video sharing/streaming platform that aims to put the power back in the hands of content creators and viewers.
While this is great, it does come with a caveat. YouTube loads faster and for the time being — that will remain the case since it is hosted on Google’s powerful servers placed all around the world. But who knows, with companies and governments around the world growing vary of Google’s power – they may provide a push to any Google competitor. And Bit.Tube is a competitor to one Google-owned service (YouTube).
2. How Bit.Tube works?
Instead of relying on centralized servers, Bit.Tube uses a decentralized system based on the IPFS standard.
IPFS stands for the InterPlanetary File System, which is a protocol and network designed to create a content-addressable, peer-to-peer method of storing and sharing hypermedia in a distributed file system. This means that not only information about videos are decentralized, but also the actual files.
This further means that no data protector and no company has control over the data shown on Bit.Tube except if they decide so — i.e. some video may not be free all around the world or it could be up to a third party to decide whether some video can be viewed in a particular country or region. Nonetheless, the idea behind the service is to make it censorship proof, with the IPFS network being able to deliver on that promise.
Bit.Tube viewers can enjoy videos in the same way as they are accessing YouTube – fire up the web browser and find what they want to watch. On the other hand, if they want to broadcast something or let others view their screen through remote control, a small program is required – the IPBC Sender. This sender enables the browser to upload data to the IPFS network and to deliver a broadcast directly without a data center via the P2P network.
Content creators on their end can host unlimited videos, offer them for free or charge for them. The service supports subscriptions and PPV (pay per view) models, and offers analytics to understand the viewership of the content.
3. Everyone can mine Bit.Tube tokens
Users open an account, setup a wallet and click the “start mining” link to donate a portion of their computing power to Bit.Tube. By doing so, users will help content creators while also making sure the service shows no ads. Which is one of the main selling points of the service – it provides an ad-free experience.
In addition, every time registered users watch videos, they will be earning tokens! This is a nice incentive for your spare time.
4. Bit.Tube was a self-funded project
The service has been under development for the past year, and now it has been released in working alpha. There was no ICO, pre-mining or pre-funding for Bit.Tube, making for a that much more impressive endeavor.
The team is based in Tenerife, Spain – which is part of the Canary Islands.
5. Bit.Tube offers incentives to both content creators and viewers
That is its key selling point. Instead of watching videos for free on YouTube, Bit.Tube will actually reward users’ time spent for doing the same thing. Don’t expect to get rich from this activity, but you will earn something — all while enjoying an ad-free experience.
Perhaps more important is what content creators get. For start, they don’t have to worry that their work will be censored. Then, since the system offers rewards in tokens rather a fiat currency, they will get to earn the same amount of (virtual) money irrespective of which part of the world their video is being viewed from.
Bit.Tube on its end receives 10 percent of all mining revenue, with 90 percent going to the users — content creators and viewers.
Final word
For the time being, no company-owned service will ever be able to tackle YouTube’s dominance, at least not in the Western hemisphere. The Bit.Tube team knows that and instead of putting its company front and center, it is putting its users first. This approach, we believe, is the only way to dissolve today’s online monopolies while at the same creating value for everyone vested in such services.
If Bit.Tube sounds exciting to you — and it has a lot to like — you can keep up with its efforts through Twitter, Telegram and via the Bit.Tube blog. You can also check out the company’s white paper if you fancy so.