It’s Saturday morning, you wake up early, have a good breakfast and, since you have no plans at all today, decide to just browse for a bit and watch some random videos. After a while, In comes that nagging feeling that you should do something more productive than just watching Youtube video’s.
You know you are wasting time. Weren’t you supposed to begin on that awesome startup idea? How in the world are you ever going to save up for that thing if you only watch videos on your free days?
Say no more, BitTube is here!
In short BitTube incentivizes people to not only create content, but consume content as well. Rewarding everyone watching video’s on their platform. It changes the entire concept of only being able to make some money from creating content soon to a thing of the past.
Time, in essence, is the most valuable thing a person has and if everyone would be more aware of this, we would definitely change where and how we would spend it. Or at least make sure that when we do spend it somewhere it gives us the biggest benefit possible. And that is precisely why I believe that BitTube, and its competitors, will start a revolution, disrupting giants like Youtube and social media platforms where content consumers will be rewarded for their time instead of just being a product of said big tech companies.
Now, I may exaggerate a bit in comparing the income generated from watching video’s or just browsing (I will explain this a bit further on) as a substitute for an awesome startup idea, but why would anyone decide to still watch video’s on legacy video platforms if their counterparts give you a monetary incentive and respect your privacy.
The choice is easily made, right? Do I watch this video on this platform getting nothing, or even worse, get to watch an annoying advertisement every 5 minutes, or do I watch the same video, without adds and earn a couple of cents in the process, depending on the value of #TUBE on that particular moment?
Watch an ad before the video and get nothing or.. Watch a video without adds and earn some money.
Do I need to make this even more obvious?!
I can only see this concept grow with each day passing by, whereas more and more people become aware of this possibility, in turn growing the community around BitTube, increasing the amount of content on the platform which in turn increases the amount of people viewing until, after a couple of years, it will become the norm. And the old intrusive ‘consumer as a product’ system that the big tech companies like Youtube, Facebook et al. rely on becomes a thing of the past.
I quickly mentioned that you will be able to generate income from just browsing. If the above paragraphs got you interested, prepare to get your jaw dropped: A couple of months ago BitTube released their BitTube app, making it possible to earn Tubes simply by browsing the web. Yes, just doing what you are doing now, browsing the web and reading this review, will earn you Tubes.
The concept is called ‘Airtime’. It’s a downloadable extension that is readily available for Chrome and Brave browsers, and being developed for other browser as we speak. The extension tracks the time you are online and where you spend it (that’s all, they don’t abuse your data like the previously mentioned big tech companies). It then calculates your Airtime in comparison to everyone’s Airtime combined to decide the amount of rewards you will receive. So to keep it simple again: You browse the internet, you get paid for doing so.
The rewards are made available by reserving a part of the mining rewards towards this goal. This does NOT mean that you are mining when using this extension. The mining is done by the miners, who will get their rewards, but a part of those rewards is set aside to be given for everyone’s Airtime.
So far we have learned that BitTube revolutionizes the way content consumers browse the internet, but BitTube has not forgotten the content creators! For content creators, or publishers, there is the option to link their own website, or their social media pages to the BitTube extension which results in receiving rewards for other people visiting those websites and social media accounts. This means you will receive Tubes if someone else is on your website or social media page while in the meantime that person generates Airtime simply for browsing, earning some Tubes themselves as well. Win-Win.
We need to make another choice here.
Browse online with a lot of intrusive adds earning nothing or…Browse online getting ads blocked while earning a bit of Tubes and simultaneously reward publishers that I enjoy and where I spend most of my time online.
The choice, again, seems easily made.
That’s not all though. The extension also has a build in wallet, so all the Tubes you earn are immediately and easily stored (and being protected by 2-factor-authentication, not unimportant!). You can easily send and receive your Tubes wherever you want.
And something that I am personally amazed by is the built-in VPN service. If you want to be anonymous online, and don’t want to be tracked, just press the connect button and voila, you are now browsing via Canada. The cost? Not one penny. How? It is deducted from your Airtime earnings. Pretty incredible, and it shows that the BitTube team is really upping the standard here.
Oh and they also make it very easy to donate Tubes. After installing the extension a new button will appear near most of the social media website, but you could also just use the extension itself to donate some Tubes.
I hate sounding like the old TellSell salesman.. ‘But wait, there’s more!’
Since March 15th BitTube actually got an official banking and crypto license. Making it possible to, again via their comprehensive extension, exchange your Tubes into any other crypto or, if you prefer, exchange it into some of that old filthy fiat money and transfer it to your bank account.
So there you have it, here’s a company that developed a use case for blockchain, revolutionizing the way we browse and watch video’s, incentivizing both creator and consumer while also acknowledging the fact that it has to be extremely user friendly. It has to be able to be adapted in the old way of using the internet and on top of that casually cross-connects with the financial industry to give users the ability to earn and transfer their Airtime into every possible crypto and fiat money available.
Best of all: It works!
This isn’t a concept idea, or brainstorm session. Since discovering BitTube and downloading their BitTube app I have actually earned Tubes browsing anonymously via their VPN service. It is a working product. I have earned Tubes not as a content creator (or maybe I did, since I linked my Twitter account) but as a regular internet user, browsing the web like I always used to.
What’s more astounding is the fact that the BitTube team is combining so many aspects into 1 working product without neglecting any of the parts in the process.
Well.. that’s not entirely true.
The primary usecase and goal BitTube set for itself at the start was being a new video platform, competing with Youtube in more than one way. And to be honest, the platform is lacking. It’s lacking visually, it is lacking in content, it’s lacking in engagement and it’s lacking in rewards. After some more thorough research I found that content creators are actually not earning a lot by uploading their video’s to the platform. Some video’s haven’t earned anything at all, and while it is a big plus that you don’t need a minimum amount of viewers or subscribers to start earning Tubes, earning less than a penny after a couple thousand views is maybe not enough incentive to get publishers involved with the BitTube platform.
The content that is uploaded to the platform so far is also not of a high enough quality. Upon visiting the site you will mostly find music mixes, a bit of 18+ content, and a couple of random video’s.
Something that probably will be improved upon if enough people get to know about the platform. Little tip for video creators: You can easily upload your video’s from Youtube, with little effort!
It reminisces of the early Youtube days, and I’m certain that with enough exposure and awareness this (major) concern will be overcome.
It might be the result of wanting to do to many things at once, often a problem with startups. However, as much as BitTube has strayed away from their original idea, what they delivered in the meantime has been outstanding. Besides that, in their latest blog they mentioned working on a complete overhaul of the Bit.Tube site, combining only the best parts of the legacy social media platforms.
Personally I can not wait to see what they will deliver. I am amazed about what the BitTube team has been able to make and deliver in the previous period. They turned a vision into something a lot bigger, actually delivering and making an awesome (close to) end product. I have no doubt in my mind that we are witnessing the transition of people browsing the internet being seen as a product to people being rewarded for their time and effort, sharing in the joint rewards for interacting online.
The BitTube team have got a real gem of a concept, idea and product. And if they manage to keep this up they could become one of the founders of the new internet. I will continuously follow the actions they undertake, and will keep everyone following me posted oh the developments, starting with an update on their new platform in the near future.
That concludes this review! If you want to add anything or have questions, please feel free to comment below.
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