Thanks a lot for actively participating in the LBRY AMA held on 2nd January 2020 at the Game of Bitcoins Channel. We really appreciate all your support. This post is a recap of the entire session held with LBRY
We have with us
Jeremy Kauffman (CEO)
Q1. If LBRY becomes more HTML friendly and supports more web technologies, could it become a new type of decentralised blockchain Internet that can't be controlled by governments and corporations?
Well "can't be" is a strong phrase when talking about the power of nations like USA or China :D
but we are trying our best to create tech that is more censorship-resistant than anything that came before it
and we think we have done that
and yes - LBRY is designed for all kinds of content
and we've started to improve app support for text and HTML
but LBRY is not good for websites that provide highly customized user-experiences, e.g. Facebook
it's more about distributing and/or selling content that others want to watch, read, etc.
digital media
Gary - great, some people assume that LBRY is only for video however you can store any type on content on it... FYI I am going to put the transcript of this AMA in PDF after the AMA on LBRY 🙂
Q2.Viewers, Creators, Advertisers and Sponsors are the key factor contributing in enduring development of LBRY flatform. What's your plan to attract them and keep them stay?
first, fundamentally, we've aligned our incentives much more closely than those of major platforms
the incentive of the current digital content industry is one of exclusive silos that then attempt to rent extract from those inside
it's capture then exploit
as open-source protocol we don't have the ability to do this, even if we wanted to
not only does this apply to cases of arbitrary decisions/bannings like recent YouTube actions (and actions over last few years)
but is also applies to things like monetization
creators lose 30, 40, 50+% of revenue distributing media through apple, amazon, cable companies, etc
this is wild because bits are very cheap and easy to replicate and distribute with high fidelity :)
LBRY takes no transaction cut, can't change this if it wanted to, and has incentives to make protocol as successful as possible
beyond this, we also work directly with and engage with creators
we work with some directly on marketing/promotion
and will be doing even more of this in 2020
another thing for 2020 is improving offboarding
this was a big challenge for us in 2019 (as well as onboarding)
by this I mean conversion between LBC and other currencies/mediums
Q3.What is the importance of developers and the community in LBRY and how easy and convenient it is to connect and apply LBRY technology in the existing enterprise infrastructure?
developers are the technical community are essential to LBRY's past and future success
more than 200 people contributed to LBRY in 2019, and open source is in our blood
(will plug https://lbry.tech and https://lbry.tech/contribute)
I've built a software company before and have a CS background
Building a killer user experience is something I care deeply about both at the typical user/creator level as well as the developer level
And that goes from everything to how good is our documentation, how easy is it to get up and running, how well designed are the APIs etc
I think enterprise adoption comes from showing the tech works
I do not expect to make an enterprise software sales hire in 2020
so if enterprise adoption comes soon it would come from awareness of the tech spreading
(which it has been, LBRY-SDK, the most common tool to use for building, has 4.2k stars: https://github.com/lbryio/lbry-sdk)
Q4. Can you talk about your process of dealing with legal versus illegal materials, and how you might handle materials that are currently legal and might become illegal in the future (if hate speech laws are enacted, for example)?
so the first part of this answer is about making sure we understand difference between protocol itself and ways protocol is used
HTTP which powers the web and SMTP which powers email have no built in process for interacting with the legal system or having ways to censor
Instead, it's the people and companies that use the tech that have to follow the law
The same is true of LBRY
LBRY cannot remove something from other people's computers any more than you could call up Tim Berners-Lee and have him delete a website
But we do strive to follow the law the maximum that we can, we are a registered DMCA agent, we process takedown requests and honor them on our servers (e.g. lbry.tv)
We also provide a register of content known to be illegal in the US
here's a bit more on this topic if you like essays: https://lbry.com/what#combatting-the-ugly
Gary - So, just to be clear..the content which you might remove from the LBRY servers.. it can still be accessed on the LBRY protocol, if it resides on other systems which are seeding it?
if people continue to host the files itself, it would remain available
Q5. Some other Project Like Video Coin, VIDY Coin and many other Working On Same Business Model. How LBRY is Better than his Competitors? What advantages LBRY has but not Other?
I'm not aware of these projects specifically, but I can say in general to go on Twitter and other social media and look at the reactions
The consensus is generally that LBRY is the best option for truly free digital content sharing
A lot of these sites fall prey to not truly being decentralized
E.g. if you can only access through a website, it is not decentralized
https://lbry.tv is not decentralized
LBRY is
so one thing to look for is: is there a real, P2P client?
Another is: is the tech real? Do they have a site comparable to lbry.tech and a spec like https://lbry.tech/spec?
Again, most if not all of these do not
And then finally, I'd say look at the content on the networks
LBRY has a long list of top YouTube creators: Verisatium, 3Blue1Brown, Tim Pool, etc. etc.
something like 40 YouTubers with > 1,000,000 subs
as well as people releasing original content with large followings, like eevblog
there's even Hollywood content on lbry, you can watch films from Oscilloscope Laboratories
tl;dr - we're winning on all three fronts
1 - perceptions
2 - tech
3 - content
Q6. Where does the LBRY tokens core profit comes from, How does it become a win-win solution for both investors and users?
first let me say my lawyers love questions like this
second let me say that we explicitly disclaim and discourage purchasing lbc as an investment
we encourage you to purchase it to use the protocol/network now or in the future
that said, we do acknowledge that a significant part of our intent in profiting is from selling tokens
we also believe there is an ability to make recurring revenue from providing value-added services (e.g. financial exchanges)
there is also a decent change lbry.tv (but not full apps) get advertisements
https://lbry.com/faq/lbry-revenue
^ that FAQ covers this question in more detail
we're also very responsible with our token usage, you can see quarterly reports on that going back 3 years here: https://lbry.com/credit-reports
Q7. What is future roadmap of LBRY project in next 5 years ? Do you expect that your roadmap will be achievable in 5 years ?
What is long term vision of LBRY ?
lbry.com/roadmap is our roadmap from last year, 2020 will be going up within 1-2 weeks
we believe LBRY is fundamentally the most efficient/fair way of distributing digital content
this is > 50% of internet traffic
by digital content I mean essentially static data (same for 2 different people, like images, movies)
and a market of $1-$2 trillion per year
Q8. How LBRY team attract new user toward it's project ?
Highlight some point that attract new users who are unknown about LBRY ?
first - we do stuff like this!
we work with creators and encourage them to promote/link us with their audience
we have a great community, thousands of people in various chats
we try to jump on various actions that can get us traction (e.g. the recent YouTube activity, but also stuff like Alex Jones, who publishes on LBRY)
there are lots of reasons to use lbry.tv, but one really simple one is you can just earn some free stuff for watching great content
if you also want to feel good about yourself, you can know you're watching content on platform that stands for free speech and personal choice, instead of censorship, interference, and propaganda
Q9. I would like to know where all the media is stored? some kind of decentralized network?
What are the main suggestions / criticisms that you have received and plan to improve for your project?
Your team looks very powerful (I saw the photo), I would like to know, basically, what are your financing methods right now? Was there any ICO, IEO?
1 - yes, P2P network very much like BitTorrent, we also run a few nodes but there are thousands connected (details at https://lbry.tech/spec)
2 - A lot of it is just continue to make it work better and faster. We want to match or exceed YouTube in UX, with vastly different network underneath. As well as onboarding/offboarding, which I talked about
3 - We are funded from a mix of VC funding and token sales. We did no ICO/IEO, but we have sold coins on the markets post launch (all credit usage detailed at https://lbry.com/credit-reports)
Q10. How many active creators and users does LBRY platform have right now as well as how is the access traffic per month?
To become an influencer on LBRY platform, which requirements will it be? If famous Youtubers/ Streamers move from his/her old platform to LBRY Platform, will your team have special promotion for this to encourage them?
LBRY had more than 200,000 active users in December
We do offer benefits for YouTubers, these are detailed at https://lbry.com/youtube
Q11. Just above, You've Mentioned that LBRY is Not Decentralized ! Why ? Why any Crypto User or Decentralized User use LBRY Platform as its not Decentralized !
Is LBRY is fully Centralized or Any Product of LBRY is not Decentralized ?
I want to really clear about this
LBRY is decentralized (LBRY, the protocol)
lbry.tv is not (this is a website run by a single corporation, LBRY, Inc.)
Bitcoin is decentralized (Bitcoin, the protocol)
coinbase.com is not
Q12. Let's say I want to move all my content from YouTube to LBRY, what do I need and what are the procedures involved?
As a developer I Know SOLIDITY, can I build dApps on LBRY?
lbry.com/youtube is one click way to sync all of your content
yes, you can build apps as well as contribute to existing ones
for building, start here: https://lbry.tech/build
for contributing, start here: https://lbry.tech/contribute
Q13. How did the LBRY protocol come about? Does this protocol fully meet features such as Coding, Design, Writing?
What is the link to API specifications and META data for entries created with Playground?
I've been interested in P2P tech and digital freedom (including bitcoin) for a long time
But I can point to one specific event that helped me conceive of LBRY, which was this chat transcript: https://twitter.com/jeremykauffman/status/1119251839223050243
I read that conversation and couldn't stop thinking about it
re: APIs, they are on lbry.tech, specifically lbry.tech/api/sdk and lbry.tech/api/blockchain
Q14. What do you think about the future location of LBRY Tv? Do you see Youtube as a competitor? Can LBRY Tv replace Youtube?
I'm going to use this question mostly as a springboard to talk about a common mistake people make
if lbry.tv replaces youtube, it won't just be youtube but decentralized underneath
when amazon.com replaces sears it is not sears but on your computer
when a car replaces a horse it is not the same city
I think LBRY can and will replace YouTube
but the result is much much different world overall
it's difficult to predict all of the other changes
Q15. Only a small portion of people are using dapps due to the hassle and other reasons. How would you address these concerns and persuade other users to use dapp?
yes, don't make them use one :P
lbry.tv isn't a dapp
minds.com isn't a dapp
these are websites
lbry.com/get is a dapp
Q16. -What is the biggest achievement this year, and what is the next step in this 2020, January February?
-Reading your articles a little, you put "Adding basic BitTorrent support", can you explain what this tool would consist of?
-Is your project interesting, what success stories have you been able to observe in the time you have been active? Which users have stood out, any particular case interesting?
The biggest achievement this year is launching lbry.tv
lbry.tv only launched in November
beginning of 2020 will be hardening/improving/solidfying lbry.tv for many people, mobile performance is also a big focus
and we're working on creator sponsorship program
BitTorrent support would mean allowing the client to also ingest/serve/access content that is on BitTorrent
it would still require an entry in the LBRY blockchain
re: success stories I'll share one that hasn't come up yet: UC Berkeley college lectures
20,000 video lectures were going to get deleted and the LBRY community backed them all up
another big one for me personally was having john stossel begin publishing to LBRY
I watched him with my mom growing up so that was cool
and on that note... go sign up at https://lbry.tv!
you're already in 23905 chats, why not 23906?
https://chat.lbry.com
https://t.me/lbryofficial
