Part B: The Data Network (LBRYNet)

LBRYNet is the layer that makes the LBRY blockchain useful beyond a simple payment system. It says what to do with the information available in the LBRY blockchain, how to issue payments, how to look up a content identifier, and so on.

To use the LBRY network, a user's computer needs the capacity to speak LBRY. That layer is LBRYNet. Just as your computer has a library that enables it to understand HTTP, DNS, and other languages and protocols, LBRYNet is the piece of software that allows your computer to understand how to interact with the LBRY network.

To understand what role LBRYNet plays, let's drill a little more into a sample user interaction. Once a user has affirmed access and purchase, such as in step 5 of our Sample Use above, the following happens:

LBRYNet issues a lookup for the name associated with the content. If the client does not have a local copy of the blockchain, this lookup is broadcast to miners or to a service provider. This lookup acquires the metadata associated with the name. LBRYNet issues any required payments, as instructed by metadata entries. If the content is set to free, nothing happens here. If the content is set to have a price in LBC, the client must issue a payment in LBC to the specified address. If the content is published encrypted, LBRYNet will not allow access until this payment has been issued. If the content is set to have another payment method, the seller must run or use a service that provides a private server enforcing payment and provisioning accessing keys. Simultaneous to #2, LBRYNet uses the metadata to download the content itself. The metadata allows chunks to be discovered and assembled in a BitTorrent-like fashion. However, unlike BitTorrent, chunks do not individually identify themselves as part of a greater whole. Chunks are just arbitrary pieces of data. If LBRYNet cannot find nodes offering chunks for free, it will offer payments for chunks to other hosts with those chunks. This payment is not done via proof-of-bandwidth, or third-party escrow. Instead, LBRYNet uses reputation, trust, and small initial payments to ensure reliable hosts. If content is not published directly to LBRY, the metadata can instruct other access methods, such as a Netflix URL. This allows us to catalogue content not yet available on LBRY as well as offer legacy and extensibility purposes.

Layer 2: Services

Services are what actually make the LBRY protocol useful. While the LBRY protocol determines what is possible, it is the services that actually do things.

While the protocol is determined, open, and fixed, the service layer is much more flexible. It is far easier to redesign a website than it is to revise the HTTP protocol itself. The same is true here.

Additionally, just as in the early days of the internet, imagining the later direction of the web would have been unfathomable, so too may the best uses of LBRY's namespace or technology be undiscovered. However, there are some clear use cases:

Applications and Devices

A LBRY application is how a user would actually have meaningful interactions with the LBRY network. A LBRY client packages the power of the LBRY protocol into a simple application that allows the user to simply search for content, pay for it when necessary, download and enjoy.

Additionally, a LBRY client can allow users to passively participate in the network, allowing them to automatically earn rewards in exchange for contributing bandwidth, disk space, or processing power to the overall network.

Applications beyond a traditional computer based browser are possible as well. A LBRY television dongle, a LBRY radio, and any number of existing content access mechanisms can be implemented via an analogous LBRY device.

Content Discovery

Although the namespace provided by the LBRY protocol is helpful towards discovery, much as the web would be much less useful without search engines or aggregators, LBRY needs its own discovery mechanisms.

Search features can be constructed from the catalogue of metadata provided in the blockchain as well as the content transaction history available in the blockchain or observed on the network. All of this data, along with user history, allows for the creation of content recommendation engines and advanced search features.

Discovery on LBRY can also take the form of featured content. Clients can utilize featured content to provide additional visibility for new content that consumers might not otherwise be looking for.

Content Distribution

Digital content distributors with server-client models are subject to the whims of internet service providers and hostile foreign governments. Traffic from the host servers can be throttled or halted altogether if the owners of cables and routers so choose. However, in the case of the LBRY protocol, content comes from anywhere and everywhere and is therefore not so easily stifled.

Additionally, the market mechanisms of LBRY create a strong incentive for efficient distribution, which will save the costs of producers and ISPs alike. These properties, along with LBRY's infringement disincentivizing properties, make LBRY an appealing technology for large existing data or content distributors.

Transaction Settlement

While payments can be issued directly on the LBRY blockchain, the LBRY protocol encourages a volume of transactions that will not scale without usage of off-chain settlement.

Essentially, rather than issue a transaction to the core blockchain, transactions are issued to a 3rd-party provider. These providers have a substantial number of coins which are used to maintain balances internally and settle a smaller number of transactions to the core chain. In exchange, these providers earn a small fee, less than the fee required to issue the transaction directly to the blockchain.