I would like to tell you two short stories that have left me with unique perspectives and motivations for starting the Viewly project.
My rather short YouTube journey
Back in 2008, I tried building my YouTube career for fun. I was heavily into gaming at the time, and I've produced content that is best described as completely amateur and unedited version of Markiplier. I've enjoyed some moderate success, by amassing an aggregate of a couple million views (which was A LOT at that time), and I was featured on British Television.
We were the early adopters of the online video, and at the time it was common practice within the gaming community to play music in the background, or in intro/outro sections of the video. Being completely oblivious to the copyright laws at the time, I had done so on several videos of mine as well.
Unfortunately, powers at be did not like this, and Google under the pressure of copyright related lawsuits, finally caved in, and built the content ID system to catch copyright violations.
And then one day they flipped the switch. My YouTube account had been terminated over night, and all the videos I've made were permanently lost. And so were the videos of thousands of other people.
This has been a highly painful, but also perspective shifting experience, carrying a realization that the internet is comprised of counterparties, that have the power to eliminate your online identity, your legacy, on a whim.
I am not trying to make a case for copyright violations. I have broken the rules, and got booted off the platform as a result, which is fair enough.
The elephant in the room of online advertising
Shortly after my YouTube project had flopped, I stumbled into the online advertising business.
By serendipity, I've got a chance to work at a retail ad brokerage. Our core services were based on inventory arbitrage and campaign management. This is where I learned the ropes of the business, as well as its dark side - the rampant ad fraud.
At that time, the majority of ads, have been viewed by bots, resulting in a very poor ROI for advertisers. The issue of ad fraud has been brought to light in the recent years, and the industry has created a seemingly strong response (they even have their own conference now), however the problem remains largely unsolved.
Impression and CPC based advertising have been the cornerstone of monetization for online content, and despite all the recent advancements in tracking technology (spying on people), retargeting, and machine learning based optimization, its effectiveness remains questionable for many.
Can we do better?
Introducing Viewly
Viewly is a highly ambitious project aiming to address the two major challenges:
1.) Can we build a decentralized video platform, that doesn't obsessively track its users just to serve them pesky ads?
2.) Can we leverage the innovation of the crypto tokens to create a sustainable, and scalable monetization models for content creators?
The proposals on how we plan to address these challenges are non-trivial, and deserve their own posts.
If you'd like to learn more about the project, and/or participate in the discussions, please sign up on Viewly and join our Telegram group.
Nice .. I like leaving it open to the imagination.. Sorry for your experience, goes to show how impractical is it to try and have a system of copyright after information is released into the wild.
The mindsets are slowly shifting, and if we can build a compelling solution that drives new behavior, supportive of creators, the legacy copyright system will dissolve.
Furthermore, the production quality of UGC is converging with that of the incumbents. The key objective is to empower these creators.
I strongly believe this new technology that the cryptocurrencies has brought to us will literally changes the world into in too many aspects, I think now we a just having a glimpse of the future, that's why I'll support any Idea ti build up a new stuff using this tech, it will always have a huge potencial.
This Video Platform for instance can rise fast and strong mainly now so many people are unhappy about bad decisions Youtube has been taking.
I'm totally in with this Idea, and I hope I can contribute for this to grow somehow too!!
Lets go to the moon together
Hi @furion
It will open more inovation in decentralized world. This platform will change the video network
Well said
Upvoted!
Well said @jamesc1
I am in advertising business and I've been very strictly not following Facebook recommendations for my ads. For example, Facebook boost post is a total waste of money. Facebook earns a lot of money by recommending people to run this type of ad. I totally agree with @furion. Resteemed!
You may as well play the casino instead of paying for FB advertising. There are better odds of a return.
Correct!
Upvoting it for sure, do check my profile if possible, thanks
That looks like a fascinating project. Keen to learn more about how it all works. I can't really imagine the architecture at the moment.
We will break it down into a series of blog posts, one topic at a time. Similar to how EOS is communicating the complexity on their part.
looking forward to read it!
That's great!
is it going to be a blockchain based video platform
Looks quite promising! It's great to know about your journey as well. I've signed up for the mailing list and looking forward to more updates from you on this! Good luck @furion! :)
Thank you :)
:-)
In your design, you might want to consider the Patron model where subscribers donate a scheduled monthly payment to the content producers of there choice. Implementation could involve privacy and get a little advanced, however if you just consider it now to see that your design will work for this later I think it will be good overall.
For various reasons, YouTube keeps demonetizing content and attracting a lot of negative PR. Demonetizing acts as a form of censorship when the producer really needs to paycheck. As a result, viewers are getting reminded constantly by producers to please support them via Patron. Scheduled donations helps reduce the censorship (ad money can bring in a conflict of interest) and keeps the content free from distracting Ads. Combine this with steem style payouts and I think you'll have a very attractive economic model for content producers.
Looks like a BOOMER. Will Viewly run on STEEM?
The current version is leveraging the Steem blockchain for immutable storage of root hashes.
How will SP holders have interaction with platform? Will the videos show up on Steemit and related sites? Will rewards on the Viewly platform be decided by Steem blockchain votes?
Viewly does not interfere with Steem's economy, nor are the posts visible on Steemit.
Thanks for the response. It is saving data on the Steem blockchain though?
Ideally, only the merkledag root should be on the chain. The actual content is on IPFS. This way, the blockchain stays very small in size.
Sounds sexy. I'm interested in learning more and signed up for updates. Thanks for your positive energy. keep BOOMIN over here!
It means? Steem will benefit also in this project. Also us steemians :)
Great work so far. Looking forward to this project!
very happy to see this!
great work mate
keep going
I hope you manage to pull it off. I'm seeking for a cooler way to both express my videography creative voice and earn for my efforts. I'm a YouTuber but the algorithm is somewhat unfair how it expects everyone to fit into an identical box sort to speak. Individuality seems to be going out the window as well as originality for the attempts to please such. I have no issues with copyright online or there on such a video platform. I hope Viewly once fully launched can deal wisely regarding any online violations via video format. I'm sure the admins will be very busy :) good luck! I subscribed for updates.
Please keep us all in the loop.
I love the idea behind this project. First time I heard about it, I thought it will be completly realised on the Steem Blockchain. But after looking at the Website, I see that this project is so much more as I thought. Can't wait to hear more about it and directly applied for the newsletter =)
Congrats for starting this up. It's not a trivial project. Also, I had no idea you had such a consistent trail in the digital world. In 2008 I did my first exit.
Very excited to be involved in this. :)
Hello made a infographic to help spread the word of this awesome project. Just wanted to share it with you here in the comments, all the luck to you and the team @furion. Peace to all of you.
(See full infographic here)
Looks fantastic and signed up. Take your revenge and make it more popular than Youtube, we are with you for sure!
I assure you, there are no vengeful motivations behind this project. We are simply interested in starting fresh, re-thinking some of the old problems, and creating something with a purpose of empowering creators.
Yup, I know, it was just a random thought and being a human being, it comes :)
I assume you will be using webtorrent? IPFS can not host videos effectively
Why is that?
As far as I know, neither will magically host anything - both require seeders. We will be proposing an incentive based system to address this challenge in an upcoming post.
point of entry is too complicated.
with webtorrent you could give fans the option to seed videos via their browser, which is super easy to realize
Looking forward to it!
Looking great, eager to see how future will look like with all this new innovation going on behind the scenes... :)
Sounds interesting. So can you upload your videos on both YouTube and Viewly? I signed up btw.
Cross uploading is being developed as one of the first features. YouTubers will be able to sign up with their accounts, and have the option to cross-post all the videos with a single click.
Have you heard of lbry.io it seems quite similar to what you're doing.
I have been following LBRY for over a year, and they have done some really good work. We are however interested in a different approach to both distribution and monetization.
I see. I think it's good that you're aware of the project. Are you planning to be in competition with them?
I joined lbry.Io waiting list and all I got was a referral link. I wonder if I will ever get a chance to join it any time soon.
It is great! : )
Cool Bro.
Single click video migration of existing videos or only new videos?
Because I have a few hundred videos on my youtube channel and I would love to upload them all on view.ly.
Both, new and old.
Cool.
Sounds good.
I'm also interested in this. I assume that by default there would be no issue with viewly, but what Youtube? would cross-posting interfere in someway with the Youtuber's account (negatively)?
Google will always show YouTube videos first in their search results.
Will they shadow-ban people who use Viewly? Possibly, but that would be just another reason to make a switch.
It's a very interesting idea, although I would like to see some more details. Trying to create a peer to peer online video platform is something I've considered in the past, however, I was never able to find a scalable solution for competing with centralized services that use CDNs to deliver video to home internet connections which are quite slow.
Admittedly I was trying to use the Bittorrent protocol which meant that if the uploader of an unpopular video turned off their computer then it would stop being available to users and it had to be stored on home PC not servers, so maybe you won't have that problem using whatever technology you have.
Where are you planning on storing the videos? IFPS?
Steemy McSteamFace - A Steam inspired dark-coloured skin for Steemit
IPFS is used as a transportation layer, the storage will be incentivized in a content hosting marketplace. More details on that will be published as a separate blog post.
Ey @furion. Would it not be great if steem could be integrated into the new system at least for describing / commenting and up-voting the video content?
Whats up everybody. This article is so cool. I got lot of info. Thanks. Hit thumbs up, i will visit your blogs.
Hey @furion, awesome initiative... Totally in love with the idea of having a decentralized video sharing platform where no one's fate would be bound to someone's decision. I do not have any issues with YouTube. YouTube does provide a great platform for people and there are many youtubers who have made it big on it, but there are still a lot of constraints that one has to work under. Waiting for this alternative to YouTube where people will be able to express themselves with a lot more freedom. Thanks 👍👍
@furion this is an awesome post and i upvoted it for i love this post. Am also thinking of starting an contest on @steemit community and i hope you will cooperate with me and with the help of this i will have some growth on this platform. @naseerbhat
Thank you have anice day
I also have experience plays youtube, youtube adsense account has reached $ 170, but the confirmation code to the pos has not been sent to date, it's almost a year of verification code I have not get, I surrender and ignore it ...
I am sad ? Of course ...
I wasted editing videos for uploaded in vain ...
The time I spent was really worth it ...
**Thanks friends for this nice post,and steemit has removed my grief **
@alanmirza
Well done post You deserve for getting Upvote from me. I appreciate on it and like it so much . Waiting for your latest post. Keep your good work and steeming on. Let's walk to my blog. I have a latest post. Your upvote is high motivation for me. Almost all Steemians do their best on this site. Keep steeming and earning.
This comment has received a 0.11 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @hamzaoui.
Can't wait to hear more about this project, this is going to be another game changer like Steemit.
@furion you have an innovative mind and I am so impressed. Wanna be part of this innovative product and send in my support. If all goes well, this viewly will add more value to steem?
Thanks and more success to you and your team.
Sounds like a very ambitious project. I would love to know more. Signing up now.
Nice project. The highly potential. It week open new inovation in decentralization
Hi @furion
Nice project. The highly potential in the decentralized world. It will open new inovation in decentralization.
God bless!
This is pretty interesting. A blockchain for a video platform, this can be a good combination with the Steem blockchain for posting videos. :)
I love the idea,i would love to be part of this great initiative
😎😎"Early Adopters"😎😎
good luck
Sounds good! keep it up :)
Nice post friend. If you dont mind, would you like to see my steemit account and give your up vote to my post? Nice to get to know you @furion.
This is an amazing idea and I just signed up! Have been making art, drawing, painting, and videos since 2004. My journey started because I wanted to find a way to monetize my creative work. I have also had to learn html, setting up various different services to work together, and ending up with a price tag so high that it made any profit very difficult. As an example a patched together system of email or listbuilding, video delivery, digital delivery, payment collection systems, even my own html (shaky at best). While these "systems" worked for a while, what I have noticed is that the prices go up, or the rules change and then my balancing act comes all crashing down.
So this is why I have called myself @granblock - "a grandma who loves blockchain" ideas!
So - great journey ahead.
Keep up the great work.
Oh very cool! What kind of development timeline does this project have? And how will the video files be stored? IFPS or something else?
That's the future and it won't take much longer since already exists some complex decentralized services like the YoCoin Insurance and Sikoba Financial Platform. Well done!
Congratulations on creating such a fantastic platform. I hope I will get to use it soon.
A lot of people have suffered because of Google's copyright rules, I lost one of my most popular videos due to such rules, and there is no possible way of getting the video back.
Can you give us an estimated timeline when we can get to use it?
I am already excited to upload my Game Play videos on view.ly.
Nice ilike
A big undertaking but you are the boss level engineer who can succeed at this!
I think it's a good idea that someone would try and provide either an alternative or some fix to counter this issue. I remember what it was like for many youtubers at the time who relied on the income from their channels to live. It was hard to witness considering the changes just came out of nowhere. I still feel like it was BS for one incident that steemed from pewdiepie could affect changes on an entire platform.
No matter what was the real reason they claimed it was, I feel like it was a power play even though things are looking much better today.
Let's see how long that lasts though and for anyone just starting a channel and wanting to know how to hit the ground running with some views check out my tutorial here: https://steemit.com/blog/@antoniowestley/5vlqes-how-connecting-your-youtube-channel-to-a-wordpress-can-help-with-view-count-online-guide #Upvoted
The journey of your life is very interesting .. a very nice job, I am one of the less active people in social media, my job as a nurse makes me spend more time with the patient .., one day I was introduced by my friend @alanmirza about Steemit .., I feel in this steemit more able to pour out my mind to write .. greetings best friend steemit
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYmq2expvE1ojGViXZboGrw
Please support and subscribe my channel
Amazing. I was just talking about this in a crypto group on facebok 2 days ago. Hook me up for inspiring the discussion. I will invest if you can deliver.
Nice post.. I like this post
Wow great. Good luck bro. I am very happy to be part of this viewly project. :-)
How they can just terminate you at any time is crazy smh
i signed up, very interesting indeed! thanks for sharing