Videos have become the standard of online content. It’s far more common for a person to watch a short video than it is to read an article or lengthy blog. For a number of years, YouTube has been the king of online videos, but many people are starting to look elsewhere for an alternative as … Continue reading Flixxo Is the Decentralized YouTube People Have Been Waiting For

Videos have become the standard of online content. It’s far more common for a person to watch a short video than it is to read an article or lengthy blog. For a number of years, YouTube has been the king of online videos, but many people are starting to look elsewhere for an alternative as YouTube refuses to embrace the blockchain and other technological innovations. Now a number of new video streaming platforms, such as VirtuTV, MakeItViral, Flixxo, and View.ly, are bursting onto the scene and attempting to become the new decentralized YouTube alternative that people have been waiting for.

Embracing the Future

YouTube follows the archaic pattern of video distribution and consumption, which means that they store all the data on their own servers. This is extremely expensive and requires the multitude of ads that a viewer is constantly barraged with. In addition, the content creator gets the smallest slice of the revenue pie due to this large overhead. Centralized design means higher costs, as well as lower rewards for those supplying the content.

The new platforms (VirtuTV, Flixxo, and MakeItViral) eschew such an outdated model and look to the future. These online video platforms take advantage of what blockchain technology has to offer, especially the smart contract, and pairs the benefits derived from the blockchain with the flexibility of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing network. MakeItViral uses a ranking system for their video content, and users can donate tokens to videos in order to have them gain in rank. By contrast, View.ly has content creators build their own communities while also having the ability to create subscription services and custom channels.

In Flixxo, content creators use smart contracts to set the price of watching their video as well as how much they’ll share of that revenue with users who seed it on the P2P network. Advertisers purchase tokens directly from content creators and use a smart contract to pay users who choose (and are not forced like they are on YouTube) to watch the ads. This collaborative ecosystem ensures that Flixxo operates as a decentralized YouTube, with virtually no overhead. The end result is that content creators earn more for their videos, but also that everybody else wins as well.

Strong Teams and Social Presence

The new platforms are staffed by dedicated and experienced teams who are trying to bring decentralized online video streaming to the masses.

View.ly features Uros Jurglic, the co-founder of Printbox, the biggest print kiosk network in Europe; Stefan Furlan, co-founder of the fintech startup Optilab, which developed an AI-based system for detecting insurance fraud; and Vasja Zupan, the COO of Bitstamp, the first fully licensed digital currency exchange in the EU. VirtuTV features Pavan Katepalli, a highly experienced internet and education entrepreneur who teaches data analytics at UC Berkley; Vincent Porta, who has made quite a few popular open source contributions that have been met with acclaim; and Nick West, an open source contributor who has made multiple mobile apps while working as a technology educator at Rutgers University.

Flixxo’s team includes the creator of RSK Labs, Adrián Garelik; the founder of the pioneering PopCorn Time, Federico Abad; and the creator of the Riecoin digital currency, Pablo Carbajo. Flixxo has also formed lasting partnerships with cutting-edge firms, such as Icofunding (personalized platform for managing ICOs), WINGS (bringing DAOs to the mainstream), AdEx (decentralized ad exchange), CoinFabrik (specializing in technical expertise in cryptocurrencies and blockchain development), Stremio (one-stop hub for video content aggregation), Fav!, and RSK Labs (open source contract platform).

Every platform needs a vibrant community to thrive and the emerging video streaming platforms are building them. MakeItViral has almost 1200 followers on Twitter, close to 500 on Facebook, and over 200 members on Telegram. By comparison, View.ly has over 800 members on Telegram.

While Flixxo is still undergoing its ICO, it boasts a Telegram community of more than 2550 members. This number is greatly surpassed on Facebook as more than 9300 members keep informed on the latest updates via the social networking site. The numbers continue to go up for each platform as news spreads about a viable, decentralized YouTube alternative.