I finally decided to dive into the world of LBRY and all that it has to offer.
I must say the more I read about it the more excited I got about the project, both from the viewpoint of a content creator and also as a prospective consumer.
I’m an active user and promoter of a different type of social network that incorporates cryptocurrency called Steemit that pays you to post quality content, you also get paid for voting for and commenting on the posts of others.
But LBRY seems very different to me and that has me intrigued.
Let’s take a look at the cryptocurrency for LBRY, called LBRY Credits.
Ranked 58th coinmarketcap.com
Current Price- $0.82 per coin
Circulating Supply- 68 million coins
Total Supply- 466 million coins
24 Hour Volume- $5 million
Market Cap- $56 million
Available on
Poloniex
Bittrex
Cryptopia.
Poloniex has the biggest volume
The team behind LBRY is quick to give credit to Bitcoin for blazing this new decentralized, distributed, crypto path that they and many others are now able to take advantage of. They also realize that it is far too early to label how exactly LBRY will excel and exactly in which direction.
To quote Mike Vine, LBRY’s marketing director,
“…LBRY is a fundamentally better way to distribute and access all consumer-oriented information…”
They have set their sights on the big five of media- music, movies, video games, tv, and books
It is very similar to Bittorrent in regards to how files are shared, but what makes them different is that LBRY changes what motivates hosts to share certain files by replacing popularity with price.
LBRY can really cater to niche markets by making available obscure pieces of work, be it movies, music or books, to its seekers who are willing to pay a bit more money for them.
Hosts will want to provide anything that will bring in more money.
One aspect to LBRY that has been cause for confusion and concern is their name service.
They’ve designed it in such a way that it ensures the most reputable entity owns the most legitimate name for the content they provide. They achieve this by having an auction-based name service. Essentially this means your name is never “safe”. Someone can place a higher bid for your name and if you don’t counter-offer in the time given for you to respond, you will forfeit that name.
Understandably, since we are so accustomed to the idea that once we own something, it is ours forever, this has made some people a bit uneasy. To provide some relief to those who want to participate yet are not happy with the impermanence of the name service, LBRY is implementing permanent URLs that you can own forever if you chose to go that route.
Looking at LBRY as a content creator
Of course I'm excited for the prospect of connecting directly with my audience without a middle man named Youtube that has the power to shutdown my channel if they suddenly decide that my content is not in line with their advertisers ideals. I can choose to provide my content for free, or I can set a price per view or per download.
Looking at LBRY as a prospective consumer
I’d be happy to give my money directly to the musician or filmmaker for their work in return for a super fast video stream or download.
I can also see the potential for LBRY being a hub for indie films and otherwise undiscovered gems in music and written works.
If you are at all curious about LBRY I suggest taking a look at their blog, it’s really well written with a great sense of humor and updated frequently.
You can join their waiting list to gain access to the beta version by clicking on this link,
and for a lot more information about LBRY I encourage you all to check out the links and information down below.
Additional Reading/ Sources:
LBRY Website
LBRY Blog
LBRY GitHub
Join the Waiting List for Beta
CoinTelegraph Interview with LBRY Team
LBRY AMA
How LBRY is Different
Type of Content Found on LBRY