build your own video sharing platform (blockchain):
keep centralized -
Blockchain -
DAO -
I. Portions that are best on centralized servers.
II. Decentralized private
Hi, as there are no wrong answers… Here goes nothing:
As internet connections are getting really good you can now see movies online without downloading them.
In the past I used the pirate bay a lot… I would set up a similar platform as the piratebay but for streaming. (and optional downloading).
The creator of the video would make sure the file is initially available from his computer (node), the users will download parts of the videos encrypted on their cumputers (for sharing), they are unaware what files they have on their computer as it is all encrypted.
The users would use the viewing platform to see the videos from the files downloaded/shared on the other users computers.
Depending on the file size the users would get a reward (get paid) to make available the memory used from their computers and the times they are available. (and offered upload speed)
Tokens for content creators, these tokens should also give some influence over the governance of the platform.
Since videos are too memory intensive store them on a central server, have the links on the blockchain though. Revenues, creator data (information) on the blockchain as it would help people looking for advertisers find suitable influencers for their projects.
Payments on the platform via smart contracts. That way the advertisers could have a guaranteed ad time on the platform.
While most users consume videos on entertainment and information and such on a daily basis on youtube, I consider identity management very important. At first I thought, okay every new posted video could be on a blockchain, best decentralized stored and the viewers decide with their likes and dislikes if a video is giving valid, valueable content according to its title in its respective segment.
Probably it can be effective for the purpose of having only valuable content on sensitive content, which can be detrimental for society, like fakenews to have the creators validated on the blockchain and by that always being able for users to check the authenticity of a creator, and by that find out more information on him or her, how legit they are, how well they know about a subject and how well received the content is by the community to either let it stay on the community or not. Unfortunately that will be too simple and cause groupings of users pushing videos vs others not. But for sensible information to te health of society to put something in place on a blockchain that enables highest standard of honest information of content creators. Then again, the users would have to be verified as well. At the end the identity saved of content creators on the blockchain would be a solid start.
For me, the best way to explain my concept for blockchain on a video-sharing platform is to map it out.
My Goal
How I aim to solve some of the flaws Youtube has
Ok. so Blockchain use in Video sharing platform. Definitely what we should not do as indicated already is to store Videos itself on blockchain as they are too big chunk of data for blockchain. What we could do here is identity management and storing the hashes of the videos in correlation with its creator, so original artist can be visible and checked. It can be used for authenticity with this identity management and prevent duplicated scam accounts. In other words we can increase security. Further along we could create incentive with tokens that will be used on platform and will be given to the creators for their content but also for users that interact in a desired way with platform.
Since this course was created, at least a few projects have emerged to create more options in the area of video sharing: Basic Attention Token with their browser Brave; if users use this browser it allows them to earn BAT tokens for using their time to see the ads displayed in the browser. “Built on Ethereum, Brave’s goal is to efficiently distribute advertising money between advertisers, publishers, and readers of online marketing content and ads”.
Then there is Verasity, and their Proof of View patent that tackles fake video ad views (by bots). This is a multibillion dollar issue where publishers are paying for fake views that can take up tens of percents of their advertising budget. Verasity is aiming to create an ecosystem where real users can watch and earn by watching videos and publishers pay for real views only as guaranteed by the proof of view technology. This creates more of a fair ground for both publishers as well as viewers - even if not decentralised.
I am not sure if I would embark on the journey of creating a new video sharing platform. Instead, I would vouch for a solution where almost any platform would allow the use of verified decentralised plugins and let the publisher define the distribution of ad revenue and choose the plugins that provide optimal income at any given time (in crypto of course). Storing the content would be still largely centralised, but the plugins would allow more agile approach to the economy of publishing. I would like to Proof of View tech to be in play as well so that revenue would not vanish to bots. And every publishers should be able to earn without having millions of views.
Users then would be able to decide what “watch and earn” plugins they would use - let’s say I would go to Youtube and would like to see content that allows me to earn BNB for my viewing time. Smart publishers would allow multiple options, but some publishing exclusive content / new content around their project might allow higher payback but only i.e. in their new utility token.
I have by no means thought this through, but it would be great if major video sharing platforms would allow some flexibility and sense of decentralization in the future instead of letting the revenue vanish to fake views, or solely go in the pockets of the platform that allows the publishers to earn the absolute minimum amount, and viewers get nothing for the time they use viewing.
I don’t see any problem with hosting the content on a centralised server to be able to get the amount of scale that you would need to have a successful site. The blockchain would be most useful to determine governance of how advertising revenue is earned and how the content creator is paid. Potentially record number of views on the blockchain for a single source of truth and from there that could be paid out in the form of a Crypto or stable coin to the content creator?
Wow not a lot of responses to this…
Pain points to a social media platform like YouTube or even Facebook for example are:
I would implement decentralized blockchain technology into everything that the user creates and does. Posts, messages, likes, subscriptions, etc. That is the freedom element we all have a right to as humans.
The umbrella with which the platform exists, the UI, the interface, that would all be centralized and maintained by my company.
As for the user information itself, like KYC, I would have people’s information in my database, but their passwords to log in would only be known by them and would therefore be decentralized.
For youtube I’d decentralize the payment infrastructure so that content creators could receive their payments in multiple currencies in real time. Ex: you click the like button the creator immediately receives x token in their wallet. Not sure if we actually need a dislike button at all, either say something nice/profitable or don’t say anything, this might help keep creators in better spirits. 
I’d hybridize the storage solution so data is stored on both decentralized and centralized storage platforms maybe the backup is stored on AWS and with a more accessible copy stored using ipfs which could also improve network efficiency. I’d also tweak the algorithms to help unseen content gain more views on occasion maybe an opt in feature to allow one underrated video to be seen every 50 videos you watch. I’d open source the interface to allow multiple possibly verified developers to tweak the interface but not the content. And of course I’d decentralize the marketing portion to allow the user to monetize their viewing patterns and history and determine what if any type of ads they would be shown and during what times to allow passive streams of income. For a bonus I’d add a marketplace for users to sell their physical and digital merch.
I think classified documents and classified cures should be in the BC, so pretty much the history, inventions, medicinal plants, ancient cultures and knowledge, it would be good to make decentralized education through blockchain schools;) just an idea
Video Sharing Platform
What I would decentralize:
The social network aspect of the platform I think would be good to decentralize so that users could maintain their connection to their network/audience.
I think it would be great if users had control of their own data and how they choose to share it on the platform.
Monetization of content from community.
What could be centralized:
The storage of video content for an optimal user experience
The Monetization from Ads - Maybe approved users could opt-in to share in ad revenue
I think that the decentralisation of the content is a key deliverable which could be achieved with partnerships of other crypto services like for example Filecoin (https://filecoin.io/build/#tools-and-more) for the storage solution of the content.
With a tokenomics design for an on-platform utility token that could incorporate free to use advertised users and capability of having a subscription based no-ad version (Advertising space that could auctioned and also be community voted on, all on chain).
Of course having all users being able to have the ability to tip the creator at anytime, creator video view and subscription rewards, creator video advert viewing rewards, membership rewards, creator category ranking reward multipliers, plus much, much more!!!
I think the main concern would be censorship of some contents. Having a decentralized list of link would aloud someone to store the video in several different locations and in case youtube would censor your content, your followers would still be able to access it thanx to the decentralized list of links to the contents…
The only part that really makes sense to me to put on a blockchain is the monetary aspect of YouTube. With the help of smart contracts one can determine (by law of code) how much someone gets rewarded, how they get paid, when they get paid etc… This leaves a trustless environment for the payment system.
Content I would keep centralized, because it is storage heavy. This takes away censorship resistance as videos and creators can be deleted and manipulated. This I don’t necessarily find a bad idea, because if the content were to be completely censorship resistant, then anybody could post anything (beheadings, murders, really brutal videos) on the platform and if a child were to see that…
The way I see it to have any usage from blockchain, you need to have data, that needs protection from tampering. In the case of video sharing, the videos that you upload are too big, and the video itself doesn’t have to be on blockchain. However if you give each video, or perhaps every creator a private key, hash the metadata of every video/creator and store that data on blockchain, you’d get some value from the security.
If you can then create a dApp around this and the entire searching for videos is done through that, you can also remove the tampering from the search results. That would also give every creator a chance to use the platform, since the code doesn’t discriminate.
It would also need a token or something to incentivise the usage, security and economy on the platform. Probably a PoS would be a better consensus format if the dApp were to be built on a permissionless network like ethereum. Obviously not as easy to make this, but just a brief idea.
Model where content creator channel, identity, link website should be part of bloackchain so that it remains unique and immutable… videos can be part part of centralized server but views and add revenue could be part of blockchain ledger whose excess should be permissioned to only certification authority. Also there should be permissioned link/certification authority/ creator himself who has control to delete his video. Unlike you tube that deletes content. Payment mode to the creator can be both central and decentralised. So that anyone from any part of world can pay the creator wether he is owns crypto or not.
The idea for a video sharing platform like youtube:
I would implement three sets of rules; one for people who want to run a node, one for creators and one for users.
So to run a node you need to meet the requirements which would be specified in their rules.
The nodes job would be enforcement of community votes. The Community can vote how relevant content is and also if the content is breaking the creators rules. The creator rules would specify what kind of content is forbidden and of course copyright things.
There should be a reputation system which gives the users more voting power for being active while following their rules. As incentive to all three groups there should be a reputation level requirement to become a node, nodes should earn token and share advertisement incomes with the creators.If creators repeatedly breaking the rules by sharing bad content their share of income lessens and as last instance they can get banned by the nodes. If a user behaves wrong e.g. reporting content just out of the blue or behave wrong in other manners nodes can lessen their reputation and even nodes can loose their node status if they behave wrong. So all of them win if they are behaving good and all of them loose if they doesn’t.
