-- Welcome to Social Media and the Blockchain. I am your host, Jennifer Navarrete and this episode is the eighteenth in a 30 part series.
The goal of this show is to demystify the blockchain as a content creation destination, simplify the onboarding process, and encourage you to learn more about Web 3.0.
On this episode we’re going to take a look at the photo dApp options Hive has to offer folks who are all about that ‘gram…Instagram that is.
We all know that when it comes to photos and influence there really isn’t any serious competitor to Instagram. So what features does Instagram offer its users?
- photos
- short form video in Reels (created as a competitive feature to go head-to-head with the wildly popular TikTok)
- Stories which is short form visual content (photos or video) that disappears after 24 hours unless saved as a Highlight which was (created to go head-to-head with SnapChat)
- Shopping which allows users to create a catalog of products which can be tagged inside of posts or users with existing shops on places like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento or WooCommerce can simply connect their shops to Instagram.
- Live video (which can happen on the fly or scheduled up to 3 months in advance)
- Guide which allows users to create a collection of recommendations for places, products, and similar posts
So now that we’ve covered the basic features Instagram has to offer it’s users, lets take a look at what we can find inside the Hive Ecosystem to see if we can do a side-by-side comparison. You’ll recall that there are over 100+ dApps and tools and counting. Based on what is available today, I found two photography specific dApps:
The first one is called Terrive and I’d say that Terrive is probably the closest to an earlier version of Instagram minus the shopping, live, etc, in other words Terrive is focused on photos and short form video (under 60 seconds). https://terrive.one
Now, I’m about to geek out on you all for just a moment because there is a big difference in backend of how your pics and vids show up in Terrive vs. Instagram.
On Instagram when you upload your files to Instagram, they are stored on Instagram’s servers whereas Terrive uses IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) which in my version of “Plain English” has to do with utilizing peer-to-peer networks for storing and sharing files. I’m not going to go down the “What if IPFS?” rabbit hole, so if you want to learn more you can geek out by visiting www.IPFS.io. Just know that there are benefits to IPFS some of which has to do with decentralization.
Of course by posting your photos and videos on Terrive you have the opportunity to earn from curators who find value in your photos and videos. Because as I’ve shared in previous episodes the ability to earn rewards is built into the very framework of Hive. Which outside of features is another big difference between what Terrive and Instagram have to offer.
Next up is Lensy which I would compare to a fine art gallery for digital photographs. Photographers can tokenize their photographs and sell them as a single work of fine art or as limited edition stock photos. Based on what I have seen today, the pricing can range anywhere from a few dollars to several thousand dollars.
https://lensy.io/
To wrap up the side-by-side comparison between Terrive and Lensy to Instagram, you may be wondering,
“Do either of these match up to Instagram?”
And I would have to say that the match would be much closer to Instagram back in the early days. Given that both Terrive and Lensy a relatively new in comparison to Instagram this makes sense.
Terrive launched in July 2021 and Lensy in August 2020. Instagram has been around since October 2010 and since April 2012 has had the deep pockets of Facebook to help with development. So these are definitely the very early days for both Lensy and Terrive, I think the decentralized nature and the potential for content rewards could make them attractive to early-adopters on Instagram who want to dip their toe into the Web 3.0 stream and are open to being part of the early stages of Lensy and Terrive’s development and growth. Plus there is quite a few active photography communities in Hive which shows there is already an interest in photography on the blockchain.
Thank you for joining me for another episode of Social Media and the Blockchain. In the next episode, we’ll dive into the topic of gaming and Play2Earn.
epodcaster
▶️ Aureal