With the advent of the internet, various art forms have become infinitely reproducible and shareable. This is in stark contrast to the way in which arts such as music were distributed in decades past. Today, with the blockchain offering customers a decentralized means of sharing content, most creative material is distributed as digital data that is essentially a string of 1s and 0s.
LBRY can be thought of as the world’s first digital marketplace that is controlled entirely by its participants rather than some centralized governing body. In addition to being open, non-biased and user-friendly, LBRY is also quite efficient and employs a unique incentive design which makes it highly attractive.
Furthermore, this platform creates a bridge between users and digital content like movies, books, games, and music. As a result, LBRY makes content access and delivery highly streamlined and hassle-free.
Additionally, it should be noted that LBRY performs all of its internal transactions via a native protocol and not through the use of a proprietary service or network. Users of this platform do not need special access passes or permission cards to make use of the tools being offered.
Overview of LBRY
- Owing to its technological capabilities, this platform decreases the cost of content creation.
- This service facilitates self-publishing in an efficient manner, thereby allowing artists to harness their full creative potential.
- Content creators can charge a fee for their digital data, allowing them to earn a steady stream of revenue on the side.
- All of the digital content published by LBRY is not localized to a specific server or computer. This makes the platform free of issues related to network failure and disruption.
- No single user or party can unilaterally remove or block content on the LBRY network.
Key Features
LBRY acts as a well-defined service protocol as well as an external protocol enabler. The native protocol provides the fundamental architecture of this system with its current technological capabilities.
Similarly, the service layer which lies beyond the external framework provides users with a platform that helps them to discover and purchase a piece of digital content published by anyone in the world.
LBRY’s user interface
The primary LBRY application allows users to interface with the network, while the secondary client package helps power the native protocol to streamline content searching, payments, and downloads. In addition, the design of the platform is such that it allows users to passively earn rewards in exchange for contributing bandwidth, disk space, or processing power to the overall network.
In addition to all of the aforementioned applications, LBRY can be used beyond the realm of standard computer-based services. This basically means that through the use of devices such as the LBRY television dongle, LBRY radio, and other existing content access mechanisms, this platform can be used across a wide array of digital mediums.
How does LBRY work?
To start off, we can see that the primary LBRY service module helps users source relevant digital content. Additionally, this platform also allows for the implementation of customized search features, making data acquisition highly streamlined. Not only that, owing to the use of metadata, all content is cataloged and stored in a much more efficient and secure manner.
A simplified sample entry of metadata within the LBRY blockchain
At this point, it should be mentioned that content discovery on LBRY takes into consideration featured data which is distributed through special channels that enhance overall data flow within the ecosystem.
From a distribution standpoint, LBRY uses a P2P model in lieu of a server-client model, which greatly improves financial transparency. In addition, content can come from a wide range of sources and cannot be stifled or controlled by any third-party organization or user.
Lastly, it should be noted that all internal transactions are governed by a native currency called LBRY Credits. These tokens are used to maintain balances internally and settle a smaller number of transactions to the core chain.
About LBRY
This project is the brainchild of Jeremy Kauffman who also serves as the company’s CEO. Jeremy has been involved with blockchain for nearly a decade and has been involved in a wide array of start-up projects that make use of decentralized technologies. According to his LinkedIn profile, he previously founded TopScore, a startup that deals with monetary transactions in the multi-million dollar range on a monthly basis.
Alex Grintsvayg is the project’s chief technical officer. He holds multiple degrees in computer science and psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and previously worked on SaaS as an infrastructure engineer.
Token Performance History
Since its launch back in late 2016, LBRY has remained relatively stable in value over the past couple years.
LBRY token one-year performance data (courtesy of Coinmarketcap)
Upon its launch, the value of a single LBRY token was around US$0.64. The currency hit its market high on the 14th of January, 2018 after rising to an impressive price of US$1.19.
However, as of March 5, 2018, LBRY’s price is US$0.48.
Final Thoughts
With so many developers looking to create decentralized content distribution platforms, LBRY comes with a pre-existing solution that is not only intuitive, but highly accessible to everyone.
Owing to its low fees and overall usability, LBRY has the potential to change the way creative content such as music, TV shows, and movies are distributed among network participants in a transparent yet efficient manner.
However, like any other investment, users should do a bit of research themselves before they invest big in this currency.
If you would like to purchase LBRY tokens, trading pairs are being offered on a host of online exchanges including Bittrex, Poloniex, and Cryptopia.
