@kencode here, husband and father, coder, tinkerer, gardener, kung fu practitioner, disc-golfer, skydiver, hiker, cyclist and shellback. My first apps (in the military) were written in DOS and dBase 4, ugly menuing and tracking apps for CVIC and the ship’s photo lab. I got the hell out and played awhile with dip switches and jumper settings. I invented the world’s first online shopping cart (still used today by over 64,000 websites). I started building and releasing my first blockchain apps in the Bitshares community over 8 years ago, back in 2014. I was voted in to the original 101 as a Bitshares Delegate and later got voted in to the Bitshares Committee. I learned a bunch on Steem, then moved to Hive Dev right after the fork. I’m now the Lead Dev @agorise (Agorise, Ltd). Through all the ups and downs of crypto, I still manage to architect, release, update and invent some more with crazy passion for this stuff.
Here are a few of the products my team and I have built over the past 8+ years, always available on our git and google play store:
GrapheneJ - The first Java library for Bitshares
Smartcoins Wallet - The first Bitshares mobile wallet, foss of course
Stealth BIPs and Security upgrades to Bitshares Blinded Transactions
C-IPFS - The first implementation of IPFS in C (i was trying to make IPFS more lightweight and faster so that it could be used on mobile devices (this is before “dapps” really became a thing)).
Crystal Wallet (the second Bitshares mobile wallet. was aka “Carbon”. foss of course)
Morphit (.io) - Another foss product, an attempt to make coin bridges KYC-free and unlimited, but swapspace and simpleswap beat me to it and had a huge marketing budget so I stopped investing in this.
BiTSy-Wallet (.com) - The third Bitshares mobile wallet, foss and a grandma-friendly ui of course, and still on google play.
PalmPay WHMCS - Point of sale software, integrated with Web Host billing systems.
PalmPay Woo - Point of sale software, integrated with Woocommerce
PalmPay (.io) - A simple android app that uses the Bitshares DEX and enables merchants to accept HIVE and HBD, BTS, BTC, BCH, DASH DOGE, XMR, ETH, LTC and other coins from one simple grandma-friendly ui. Customer Loyalty Points, detailed eReceipts, transaction search, filtering and exporting, multi-lingual, multi-currency, 3-second transactions, zero fees, everything merchants have me asked for.
Hive-Press - A foss plugin for Wordpress and Beaver Builder. Wordpress blogs now have upvote, downvote, tipping and commenting tools that you’ve come to expect. UI is consistent with Hive-Tube and HiveCast. Getting wordpress approval for this plugin as we speak but now need to fix latest wordpress breaking change they made.
Hive-Tube (.com) - A foss plugin for peertube streaming media servers which monetizes audio, video, podcasts and livestreams via the Hive blockchain. Creators just need to get a Hive username so that they can receive their rewards. No KYC, no fees, no censorship, no ads, and unstoppable income. Hive-Tube stands to bring millions of users away from youtube, netflix, spotify, pandora, soundcloud, paypal and patreon.
HiveCast (.app) - In progress, read below…
What is HiveCast? 💡
Put simply, it’s an advanced Media Tuner and Aggregator which enables you to interact in real-time with ANY video, livestream or podcast that publishes Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.
Why is RSS syndication so important?
It’s the future of distributed media, and not from WALLED GARDENS like Youtube, Spotify, Netflix and Apple Podcasts.
Imagine casting your favorite livestream to your TV and being able to upvote, tip and chat with the show hosts in real-time
Imagine Youtube giving you the ability to watch Bitchute and Amazon Prime videos on their app and website
Imagine Netflix giving you an RSS feed so that you can tune in to their movies on your Twitter feed
Imagine a 24/7 radio station or livestream with no ads
Imagine listening to Spotify on iTunes
Imagine chatting on a livestream and getting your comments monetized and syndicated across hundreds of other websites and apps all at once
Decentralized Interoperability is the future of distributed media; The walled gardens will never give you that.
Does HiveCast have any competitors?
Just one. It’s a podcast app called Podverse which only supports Bitcoin Lightning Network. Its RSS support in comparison is weak, it does not support P2P livestreams, the Fediverse network, Podrolls, decentralized cross-app comments, sha384 sri integrity, onion/lokinet streams, and they do not support HIVE/HBD payments.
Helping with Onboarding 🚢
Why onboard users if they never post anything? HiveCast onboards new users to Hive that might have zero interest in Hive, yet encourages these new users to INTERACT with their favorite show hosts in real-time:
What features does HiveCast include?
User friendliness:
Simple KYC-free Hive account login/registration for app personalization, commenting and payments
Interact with thousands of different media feeds around the world from within HiveCast
Cast streams to your TV and chat with show hosts, upvote them, send them a tip, etc right on screen
Upvote or Tip your favorite song when it comes on the radio so that the Artist can get paid
Download a copy of any video or podcast right to your pc or mobile device for offline viewing if you like
Dynamic, multiple-language support
Tune in to channels and 24/7 stations privately via optional onion, lokinet and i2p networks
Zero spyware and zero fees.
The Tech:
Lightweight codebase for responsiveness even on low-end pc and mobile hardware
Nodejs, Nextjs, React Native, Tailwind (no Swift or Kotlin needed!)
Future-proofed; A robust, yet minimalist UI so that UX is increased without a bunch of afterthought bolt-ons later
Syncs with any Hive-Tube streaming site; Hive-Tube has exceeded over 1200 downloads per week so far and growing fast
HiveCast support for Podcasting 2.0 RSS elements:
App Type: App, Blockchain, Open Source, Podcast Player, Social Links, Video, Website.
Platforms: Android, IOS, F-Droid, Fediverse, Hive, Responsive Web and all major Web Browsers.
What’s been done so far? 💪
Hive-Tube; 100% complete
Podcasting 2.0 RSS elements; 100% complete
Responsive UI coding for the web version; Roughly 40% complete so far. Tech: Nextjs + Tailwind
Responsive UI coding for the mobile version; Roughly 50% complete so far. Tech: React Native
Core code that enables the web and mobile UI’s to communicate with the Hive blockchain, Fediverse and Hive-Tube instances; Roughly 70% complete so far. Tech: Nodejs
All minified, injectable SVG and image handling
HiveCast mobile app alpha1 demo video:
What additionally needs to be started and/or finished up?
UI and core, as detailed above
UX coding for the web version
UX coding for the mobile version.
What else will be done?
Post bi-weekly updates on Hive
Refactor Hive-Tube backend into an HAF app. Launch a dedicated HAF node for better scalability, speed and lightened load on the chain as recommended by Chain News. These two tasks added 20 daily HBD to this Proposal.
Release the FOSS (Free, Open Source Software) on git.agorise.net, f-droid, catappult, slideme & alternativeto
Get HiveCast “Podcasting 2.0” and “Podcast Standards Project (PSP)” Certified and Promoted
What will any extra funds be used for?
Upgrade our Tipping back-end and modals to support automated recurring Tips (see the spinning giftbox on all of our Hive app UI’s). This offsets a Creator's reliance on Paypal/Patreon.
Team/hw: 1 nodejs/react Dev, 1 nextjs/tailwind Dev, 1 PM/beta tester, 1 staging server/env, 1 HAF server/admin and 1 forgejo git server Dates: Start September 15, 2023. End March 15, 2024 Length of this Proposal: 6 months (182 days) Amount: 118 HBD per day (a grand total under $22k)
Accountability: Biweekly updates by @kenCode & @Agorise 👈 👈
