TLDR. Centralized media (Facebook, Twitter, Google/You Tube etc) is in a perfect storm of privacy concerns/regulation, censorship/deplatforming and the resistance to advertising due to adblockers and runaway bots. The idea of decentralized media via immutable permissionless Blockchain networks is appealing as a solution. Yet the status quo seems to prevail and radical decentralzsed alternatives such as Diaspora have failed dismally in the past. It is possible that a hugely popular gamer, PewDiePie, and his deal with Dlive could be an imperfect bridge to that decentralized world.
This update to The Blockchain Economy digital book covers:
- What is DLive?
- My censorship is good, your censorship is bad
- The PewDiePie deals shows that DLive understands the real world
- When will Fortnite use BTC for in-game purchases?
- Context & References
What is DLive?
DLive calls itself a “disruptive live streaming platform”. It was built using Lino, a decentralized blockchain that was founded in 2017, funded with $20 million and launched in September 2018. It has about 30 employees.
DLive reports 3 million monthly active users and 35,000 active streamers. This is not a science experiment.
Dlive uses Lino Points to pay content creators. Each Lino Point is worth $0.012, and can be acquired through using PayPal, Xsolla, or cryptocurrencies. Content creators receive up to 90% of the Lino Points they earn (ie Dlive takes 10%, which is a lot more transparent than YouTube).
My censorship is good, your censorship is bad
What speech should the media owners censor in a polarised world?
Social media is now so mainstream that media owners have to face the awful choice of which extreme views they should censor in our totally polarized world. It is a lose/lose proposition; they will alienate one side and then to compensate for bias will alienate the other side.
Your vile content is my free expression and vice versa.
But who cannot love PewDiePie? Not being of the gaming generation I sought an opinion on PewDiePie from that generation and got two thumbs up.
Payment in BTC not BAT or Steem Or LINO
An early attempt at decentralized media via immutable permissionless Blockchain networks is Steem. While I love the mission, I am a sceptic/bear on Steem for reasons I outlined in this post. The TLDR summary, the flaw is funding via a SpeculationCoin (aka Tokenomics). Another Tokenomics approach is Brave (with their BAT token) and they are hitting issues as Gab is forking Brave.
Dlive may suffer from the same problem. Creators get paid in LINO points. If this is an ERC 20 Token that is easily convertible to BTC or whatever cryptocurrency you think has value, then cool. In short, fungibility matters.
The PewDiePie deals shows that DLive understands the real world
Here is the news about PewDiePie and DLive,
PewDiePie, the Swedish gamer whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, has nearly 94 million YouTube subscribers. He is a star, perched atop the digital power law. PewDiePie has been critical of YouTube. So it was a smart move for DLive to do a deal to bring PewDiePie to this decentralized Blockchain based competitor to YouTube.
This is not the sort of move that Diaspora made and that is one reason why Diaspora never made it outside the techie visionaries/early adopters.
When will Fortnite use BTC for in-game purchases?
Fortnite is getting massive traction in the gaming world. If you love PewDiePie you probably love Fortnite.
If Fortnite use BTC for in-game purchases (rather than a proprietary token), then decentralized media will go mainstream. Dlive could be an imperfect bridge to that world.
Context & References
Blocks of disruption hit the media business as privacy finally hits the front page
Bernard Lunn is a Fintech deal-maker, investor, entrepreneur and advisor. He is CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy.
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I have no positions or commercial relationships with the companies or people mentioned. I am not receiving compensation for this post.
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