If you’ve been in the cryptocurrency world for a while, you may have heard of an open market app known as LBRY. This is one of the first marketplaces of its kind, as it isn’t run by a company, but rather the people participating in the market themselves. And LBRY has become a hub for people to post digital content that can’t be censored, or removed based on the political views of the platform owners—as there are none!
Well, recently, LBRY received a further upgrade to its blockchain system making it even easier to use than before. And this update hopes to bring in new users that are tired of being censored by the competition. This update is called Odysee.
Odysee is a dapp that has been built on top of the LBRY blockchain to make it more user friendly. For example, think of the relationship of a website to the internet, that’s what Odysee is to LBRY. This particular app, however, was built by the creators of LBRY and is therefore owned by them. In addition, the Odysee platform uses the LBRY token to function.
Odysee is basically the non-censorable version of YouTube, and it functions much of the same way. If you are a video creator, you would upload your videos to the Odysee platform, and do whatever you would normally do on the YouTube platform to get views. Once you reach a certain level of verified viewership (based on verified accounts that watch your video) you would be paid on a per view basis. The rates you are paid per view varies, depending on several factors such as how long the video is watched, and the engagement that results. You can also receive tips from people who enjoy your video. Both of these balances will show in your wallet and will be paid in LBRY credits.
Unlike YouTube, creators do not rely on advertisements for their income. Nor do the creators of Odysee take a huge cut. Rather, creators are simply paid by the view, it’s that simple! And although Odysee does take a small cut in order to keep the platform running, it is nothing near the 50% cut that YouTube can take from creators.
There are a few rules before you are allowed to monetize your channel. Your content must be original, i.e. not based on anyone else’s content, it cannot violate community guidelines, nor can it be spam. The content must be tagged properly, and your account must be at least one week old. Although Odysee is not censored, you will be unable to earn tips or money per view on any content that is illegal, or a depiction of real violence, abuse, or torture. You also are prohibited from making money off of a video that offers specific content based on viewership (such as saying you will shave your head if a certain number of tips or views are reached).
The cool thing about Odysee, is if you wish to move your YouTube channel over to their platform, as long as you already have over 500 subscribers, your videos will automatically be included to make money on Odysee. Otherwise, if your channel meets all the above regulations, you can email Odysee to find out how to specifically monetize your channel.
Since you will be making all your money on Odysee in LBRY credits, but these credits can’t generally be spent anywhere besides the LBRY platform, you will need to know how to convert your credits in order to spend them. You unfortunately cannot do this on the LBRY platform, and instead you will need to have an account on an exchange like Bittrex, Lbank, CoinEx, or Hotbit. Most of these exchanges will allow you to swap LBRY for BTC, or a stablecoin, but not USD. If you wish to switch to USD, Bittrex is currently the only options on the market.
You can, however, purchase LBRY credits directly from the Odysee using a credit or debit card, as well as with several other cryptocurrencies. It is only when you wish to change these back to fiat or BTC that you will need to use an exchange to do so.
Well, on the surface it may seem so, but under further review, it turns out that Odysee has much of the same rules for posting as YouTube does. The only real difference between YouTube and Odysee is the lack of advertisements (you’ll spend more time watching actual content than ads), and the fact that the creators get to keep more of the money they make. In addition, YouTube will also edit search results to hide, or place videos they don’t like, lower on your search results. They will also bump news and government sources to the top of your search window.
Odysee doesn’t engage in this type of behavior, and when you search you will be able to find whatever it is you are looking for, even if the video doesn’t follow the political views of the creators of the platform. And in a world that is increasingly becoming more politically divided, this can be very valuable to getting correct information.
And if there is content that you absolutely don’t want to see, Odysee lets you create your own account moderator. This means when you search for something on the platform, it will hide any videos that you have told it that you don’t want to see. This puts you back in charge of your channel rather than relying on YouTube’s biased search algorithm.
The best way to use Odysee on your computer is to download the Firefox add on that will automatically redirect you to Odysee when there is a video that you want to watch on YouTube that is also located on the Odysee platform. This way the creator you want to support will be directly paid rather than relying on YouTube’s advertisers.
If you are a YouTube creator, you should work to move your videos to the Odysee platform. They will still be available on YouTube for your subscribers to find, but you can also begin to build a following and monetize your content in a whole new way on Odysee. You may just be surprised by how many of your users are willing to watch you no matter what platform you are on!
Overall, Odysee is the upgrade that the LBRY platform needed to make it more accessible and user-friendly to viewers and creators alike. And with the option to connect your videos directly from YouTube, hopefully this service will be able to take off and become the world’s new preferred source of media. So whether or not you are sold on Odysee, you should give it a try, you might like what you see!
This article was brought to you by the New MintDice Gambling Platform. Originally posted on the MintDice.com Blog.
