StreamSpace is developing a novel Streaming Video on Demand platform that uses a blockchain-enabled storage and distribution network. The storage network aspect of the StreamSpace solution resembles Protocol Labs’ Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and Storj’s cloud storage platform, with a couple of proprietary differences that make StreamSpace’s platform ideal for the SVOD application. Like Storj and similar blockchain-enabled storage network cloud services, StreamSpace uses tokens, called SpaceCredits, to track the actual data storage across the cloud and to compensate “Curators,” who provide storage fragments, through a Proof of Work Time fragment (PoWTf) algorithm.

There is also a transaction management aspect to the StreamSpace platform, a marketplace for filmmakers and film aficionados to discover each other, to find exciting content, and to engage in commerce. The filmmaker sets a price for someone to view the content, along with the terms for the viewing rights — one time, limited views in a day, unlimited views over a multi-day period, etc. The film viewer agrees to the terms, paying for the transaction from their account, via credit card, Paypal, or bank transfer, or by deducting the amount to be transferred from their StreamShares wallet. The amount of the transaction, in local fiat currency, is converted to some equivalent amount of StreamShares, based on an average price across the exchanges that will support StreamShares. The filmmakers can hold StreamShares in their wallets or convert to fiat currency.

StreamSpace will support an internal exchange between StreamShares, for which an ICO has been planned for Fall of 2017, and SpaceCredits, for which there will be no public token offering.

Why implement a complex two-token policy? Ironically, the two-token method is actually simpler and more efficient than trying to support one token with either a Proof of Stake or Proof of Work reward algorithm and mis-applying the reward to participants who do not deserve it. Initially, we contemplated using a simpler Proof of Stake Time fragment (PoSTf) policy to reward participants. The people that provided storage would be compensated via an algorithm that accounted for the amount of storage, the time that storage was in use, and the popularity of each file fragment, a surrogate for the transaction velocity occurring across the network. However, there was no way to account for different pricing structures that filmmakers might want to support — one filmmaker getting started might want to set a very low price for a modest documentary film, while a more established filmmaker might set a high price tag to reflect higher costs, great special effects, and high name recognition for the cast and crew.

There is one previous case of a successful binary coin implementation for a blockchain network service offering, Vericoin and Verium. StreamSpace’s CTO, Steve Woods, was one of the co-inventors of Vericoin and helped to architect their innovative service, which involves a “gold standard” cryptocurrency that processes transactions much more quickly than bitcoin while supporting a much higher system capacity.

One of the interesting dilemmas of all tokens is the conflict that exists between miners and customers. Miners want to hoard the tokens they are creating, restricting the supply of the tokens in the marketplace and thereby ensuring increasing prices for the scarce assets. In an ideal state for the miners, the network would have slow transactions and high fees, increasing their power on the blockchain. Customers want the opposite — ample supply of tokens so transactions flow smoothly. Customers are not looking at the token market as an investment, just a medium for network transactions. In their ideal state, network transactions happen very quickly and with minimal overhead and fees. The dual token strategy is a way of resolving this challenge, satisfying both the miners providing the underlying cloud storage network and the film communities that use the network to enable commerce. The SpaceCredits side of the StreamSpace platform rewards the miners for enabling the storage network, with rewards based on allocated storage volume and time; the StreamShares side of the StreamSpace platform rewards rapid transaction behavior with its Proof of Stake Time algorithm.