LBRY: Crypto's "middle finger" to YouTube

With all the recent kerfuffles going on at YouTube's headquarters... we all wonder what is next for this platform. Channels are now at the mercy of the mighty figurative "ban hammer" hovering oh so close to their squirming heads. Channel strikes flexing the arm that is deemed worthy to hold the proclaimed hammer.

Enter: LBRY

This is a free, open-sourced, decentralized, blockchain-based video platform that is just grand. First off, you can upload more than just video files. Throw up your latest MP3 track. Add a PDF containing a new chapter in the latest book you're working on. Wanna submit a raw HTML file showing a draft of your future site? Go ahead, do that too! You can even submit a simple PNG or JPEG for Pete's sake! Secondly, you can get properly paid for your content via the LBRY cryptocurrency. Without. Any. Ads.

Cryptocurrency payments for videos? Ad-Free? *mind explodes*

Yes, you heard me correctly. No need to clean out your ears. You can get paid for content in LBRY simply based on two things: pay-per-view and tips. What I mean by "pay-per-view" is you can charge "n" LBC (LBRY Credit) and/or USD (US Dollar) for each end-user to initially gain access to your content. One perk for the end-user, free content or not, is they can do whatever they wish with the content. If you do offer free content, viewers can still tip you in LBC as well.

As a creator, once you have your precious LBCs, you can then take these to any of the following valid exchanges listed here:

Future of video content

Now, you're probably thinking "Decentralized, eh? What's that?" Remember the "good old' days" of P2P (point to point) sharing software like Limewire? Yeah, it's the YouTube version of that. In the words of Keanu Reeves... "No, you're breathtaking!". When you navigate to a video in the desktop app, by default, it begins downloading an MP4 copy of the streaming video to your Downloads folder. Once downloaded, you're free to play that video file anywhere you wish! Seriously! No legal strings attached! That's the beauty of having numerous hosts sharing numerous types of creator content.

Another amazing feature that I alluded to at the beginning of this article is the freedom from ads (currently... hopefully, this doesn't change). Begin able to tip and/or pay creator channels directly in place of mashing through targeted ad placements is a plus in my books. Dare I say, this is a plus in everyone's books who loves this platform and/or could get used to this concept. With the LBC crypto and the blockchain platform of LBRY, it's also easy to earn currency through rewards! Watch some videos, get a daily watch reward. Subscribe to the "n" amount of channels needed and Boom! Another reward in your wallet. You're even able to "support" videos with your precious crypto coins. Applying support to a video pushes it up the ranks of "Trending" and leaves it there for an amount of time, depending on how much crypto you packed into your support transaction.

Still, a way to go...

Unfortunately, even with all of these perks, the content variety on LBRY still needs to be beefed up a bit more to come marginally close to competing with Google's monstrous platform. Luckily, it's progressing rather rapidly as of late; drawing all of the more creators to the platform with many luscious features. You can claim your LBRY channel with very few steps. Allowing access to your YouTube account also reveals the ability to sync all of your YouTube videos (existing and future) to LBRY automatically. You can even post videos on LBRY about how much you hate YouTube with no worries for censorship, channel strikes/takedowns or appealing to the gods of ad placement demands.

Hopefully, this haven remains for us all as long as it can...