Viewly (VIEW) Overview | Decentralized Video Platform

The problem

Viewly believes that content creators, just like myself doing YouTube videos for example, find it hard to sustain themselves on ad revenue. This is true, because content creators only receive a small fraction of the revenue generated. In fact, in the case of YouTube there is a 45 to 55 split in terms of ad revenue. Thus, Google keeps 45 percent, and the content creators get the remaining 55 percent. Of course Google has very high expenses to keep YouTube running, in fact, in the beginning Google was just losing money with YouTube and as of today it is not clear that they are making a profit with it.

Nonetheless, the ad-based revenue is not the best, and that is why content creators are moving to Patreon for example. Patreon is a membership platform that provides business tools for creators to run a subscription content service, in other words, the content creators set up a page on the Patreon website, where their supporters can choose to pay a fixed amount to a creator on a monthly basis or when new content is released. I actually just had a go and created my own Patreon page, here is the link: https://www.patreon.com/luisramalho

Just a quick note on the ads. Although I feel that ads on YouTube are much better than on TV, most of them are intrusive and do sacrifice not only the viewer experience but also their privacy. Therefore, I do see a lot of potential in decentralized products to tackle this issue. With the blockchain it will be possible to have a smart contract for example that will pay per second of watched content for example. In other words, you pay for exactly what you have watched. For example, you purchase a Netflix membership, and even though you might not watch Netflix for a month you still have to pay the membership fee. Wouldn’t it be better to pay if and only if you actually watched anything? Or even better, pay exactly for each second you have watched something? That’s the power of these micropayments that are possible with the blockchain technology. In fact, you could even pay for a microsecond of content. Thus, there is great potential here.

The solution

Now, looking at the solution that Viewly offers.

(1) Viewly claims that they will provide direct support to the content creators. Similar to Patreon, Viewly will have the possibility of vote-based tipping, recurring payments and business-sponsored endorsements. The difference here is that all the revenue will be decentralized, and therefore secure and safe from middlemen.

(2) Viewly will try and be ad free, and by doing so there will not be any incentive track users or manipulate their attention. That will facilitate engagement, reduce the feeling of intrusion and give the content creators an opportunity to build a community where people are engaged in a more meaningful way.

(3) An important issue that for example YouTube has is the cost of storing the content. Viewly will try and use a peer-to-peer content delivery network for video delivery. Basically, it will be a decentralized network that users can join to earn VIEW tokens by leveraging their unnecessary resources and hosting videos.

Now, why using the blockchain?

Viewly will be trustless and as discussed before will allow for instant payments. Therefore, removing the middleman that is controlling the revenue. Viewly’s monetization is decentralized, powered by blockchain and smart contracts. Payments are executed directly between supporting fans or businesses, and creators. They are instant, trustless and permissionless. Thus, making Viewly users always in control of their money.

Viewly will have content distribution incentives by using VIEW tokens. As discussed, it will incentivize people with extra storage and bandwidth capacity to participate in Viewly peer-to-peer content delivery network (P2P CDN). By running Viewly nodes that host and stream videos, anyone can use their redundant resources and get rewarded with VIEW tokens.

Then they have the so called “treasury-sponsored community projects”. So, they will reserve VIEW tokens for community projects. In essence, the way this works is after a project proposal is submitted, a transparent, on-chain voting decides which projects get the green light. Anyone holding VIEW tokens will be able to participate in the voting process and help Viewly evolve in the right direction.

The end goal of Viewly is bo become a full-fledged decentralized autonomous organization. They are however still developing and experimenting with the decentralized technology and governance processes.

That’s all about Viewly. In summary, Viewly is a decentralized video platform where the blockchain is leveraged so that users can enjoy videos without ads, better engage with their audience and where it is easier and more secure to support great work.

Let me know your thoughts on this product. Do you see the need for it? Do you like their solution? Please share your opinion in the comments.