In the age of censorship and information suppression we live in many content creators have found themselves victim to the Big Tech ban hammer. All manner of topics and information opposing the 'Official Narrative' or exposing the hypocrisy and criminality of the world's power structures have been removed from the largest media platforms. For people who rely on their written, audio, or video content as a primary or supplemental source of income this presents a huge problem and continuous risk.
Though this Big Tech suppression has ramped up to absurd levels in the recent years, the problem is not new. The control and distribution of information has been a battlefield throughout the entire known history of our species as far back as one cares to look. We now live in the Information Age where people are able to connect and share ideas and conversations from just about any corner of the planet. The age of the Internet has provided an incredible opportunity for the average person and the use of centralized platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, & Youtube were created in part as a tool to constrain this explosion in the access to that information.
This level of control was hidden at first, as those platforms initially allowed and even monetized nearly all manner of topics and discussions to on-board content creators into their eco-systems. These early years were akin to the herd dogs gathering up the flock and driving them into the corral. Once the majority of the herd was gathered those tech platforms initiated this next battle in the Information War and began removing the content and personalities their masters didn't approve of, often times at great financial harm to the individuals who had come to rely on the massive audiences and ease of use these platforms provided.
Though the advent of Bitcoin and the underlying blockchain technology it was built on was originally aimed at the monetary battlefield, it was quickly modified and deployed into the battlefield of ideas and free speech. All manner of decentralized platforms have been developed and deployed over the past decade which now offer safe haven for those who have been removed from the Big Tech herds. Many of these new platforms also borrow the financial properties of the blockchain to provide built in ways to monetize content while staying outside of both the Big Tech and Financial farms seeking to control and harvest our collective productivity.
As a way of bringing these abstract ideas into a more tangible form I'll be using one my favorite media personalities as an example to show how content creators can leverage these new technologies to expand their existing business models while also mitigating the ever present risk of censorship, shadow banning, and outright deplatforming. This would be none other than the tin foiled tooker out of sunny San Diego, Greg Carlwood and his popular podcast known as The Higherside Chats.
This particular show produces roughly 1 show per week with the first hour being freely available and a second hour available via a paid subscription which is the primary source of income for the podcast. While the paid subscription is what brings home the bacon for this particular enterprise, the free portion of the interview is what attracts new subscribers and ideally that free information would be shared far and wide to cast the biggest net possible for onboarding new THC+ members. Due to the often times controversial nature of the information and guests presented by this podcast the THC nets are at constant risk of being confiscated by the likes of youtube and even the major podcasting networks such as iTunes.
While the decentralized platforms I'll be discussing shortly represent much smaller ponds than THC's free first hour is used to swimming in they all have substantial advantages in some key areas that should make their use helpful and even profitable to the podcast. In addition to protection against censorship and financial confiscation these new platforms are absorbing more and more users from the controlled tech platforms. Having an established presence across multiple decentralized platforms prior to their widespread adoption is a major growth opportunity that should be considered while contemplating where to cast future nets.
The HIVE Blockchain
The first of these ponds I see massive potential in is the Hive blockchain. This particular eco-system was created specifically for content creation and has a built-in financial layer and censorship protection that is appealing in these times. The original platform launched with support for only written content and images and has more recently built support for video and audio content. A single Hive account is able to manage content and currency on the video, audio, and written word platforms built on this blockchain which is a convenient feature.
On the financial side the platforms currency is easily convertible to bitcoin and the other major decentralized currencies which are in turn relatively easy to convert to U$D in your old school bank account if that's your preference. Published content is monetized by the likes or upvotes of the content consumers which means with time the free first hour show produced by THC and published on the Hive blockchain could also provide some level of supplemental income to the show in addition to exposing new audiences who may then choose to become THC+ members. In addition to the free podcast, any of THC's written publications could also be monetized on this blockchain.
Publishing THC free content on the HIVE blockchain is the most obvious way to interact with this particular eco-system. With a THC account it also opens up the possibility of selling brand merchandise and memberships on the platform. An advanced use would be to insert the Hive platform into the THC+ forums which would allow +members to monetize their own time and attention spent discussing episodes or whatever else was talked about among the members.
The Library / Odysee Blockchain
The Library blockchain also offers censorship and financial confiscation protections similar to Hive. The main application is a program downloaded and ran on an individuals computer while the Odysee layer is a website similar to youtube where video content can be accessed. Unlike Hive, the free first hour production would rely on tips and donations to see any significant financial gain on this platform. However, the Library application also allows for video, audio, and ebook files to be sold for the blockchains native currency. This opens up the possibility for selling individual full 2 hour episodes rather than rely on monthly subscriptions only.
This opportunity would provide a simple way to further monetize past episodes and allow for the audience to pick and choose which full shows they pay for. In addition to this, the video platform on this blockchain distributes it's currency to viewers and users which also gives the THC audience a way to monetize their attention and time spent consuming the THC publications. The Library currency is also readily convertible to bitcoin and the other major decentralized currencies which means it's only a hop, skip, & jump from crypto land into U$D in your bank account if you choose to pull value out of the decentralized system.
CreativeChain / Creary
As opposed to Hive or Library which are USAcentric, this blockchain platform is coming to us from Europe which makes the conversion into U$D a trickier task, but it can still be done. This platform has elements of both Hive and Library where the free first hour could be monetized similar to Hive and the full episode could be sold individually similar to the Library platform. The main appeal to using this blockchain that I can see would be to increase exposure into the European market.
Theta
The Theta blockchain is geared towards video and live streaming more so than any of the previous decentralized platforms I've mentioned. It also has the most connections into mainstream industry and media which is a double edged sword in my book. This gives the platform a huge advantage in growth and in my book it's probably the single blockchain media platform I'd pick to make it's users crypto-wealthy over the next several years if they get in on the ground floor. For those same reasons it's the biggest risk to have censorship issues down the road, although currently it seems to offer a free speech friendly environment.
This video platform offers a built in subscription service where the free first hour episodes could be viewable to everyone while the full episodes would only be available to subscribers similar to the THC website. The Theta currencies are the most valuable at the moment of any of the previous projects I've discussed and I suspect if a show like THC ventured into this pond in it's infancy and accumulated the earnings it would grow exponentially over the course of several years. The projects development team also pays special attention to helping established productions like THC get set up and exposure on their platform so early adoption here may mean The Higherside Chats show is easily found on new smartTV's in the near future. This amount of exposure to new audiences coupled with built in smart contract payment systems at the audiences fingertips provides a gigantic growth potential that I think is well worth the risk that comes along with the Theta project.
Closing Thoughts
In these turbulent and uncertain times we live in there are no guarantees and the decentralized media space is no exception to this rule. The global overlords are pushing their 'Great Reset' upon populations world wide and this reset will almost certainly include some type of digital currency, but that new officially sanctioned currency will most likely be just as controlled and manipulated as the current Federal Reserve version we've been using since the '70's. The only difference now is that the global population has access to the decentralized versions of currency and anyone with a cell phone less than a decade old has the ability to use this new type of money. Be Your Own Bank is not just hyperbole, this is a real possibility for anyone who chooses it.
One of the secondary layers built upon this thing called the blockchain allows content creators of all types to separate from the big tech platforms the same way BTC allows people to separate from the federal reserve banking system. This opportunity is relatively new and the global battle for information distribution is still in the very early innings. In the long run I believe the desire for freedom wins out which would suggest the new decentralized platforms become the new Main Stream of information over the coming years, but which platforms survive and thrive through the inevitable battles ahead is anyone's guess.