http://LBRY.io - LBRY CEO Jeremy Kauffman answers community questions in an ongoing "Video AMA" (Ask Me Anything!) series. Got a question for us? Leave it in the comments below or use #LBRYAMA on Facebook or Twitter!
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The revolutionary decentralized LBRY protocol operates thanks to a blockchain, which is made possible thanks to mining computers around the world (similar to Bitcoin & other cryptocurrencies). To learn more about mining LBRY Credits, visit https://lbry.io/news/lbry-blockchain-live-mine-lbc-now
LBRY Credits, or LBC, are the unit of account for LBRY. A LBRY Credit is somewhat similar to Bitcoin, but it is better classified as an "appcoin" -- a cryptocurrency that is designed specifically to power an application, with only that application’s precise functions in mind.
The purpose of this appcoin is not to compete as a better form of money than Bitcoin, but to function as a special purpose tool in ways Bitcoin cannot. We believe our appcoin is the best tool to succeed at our mission of putting every film, song, book, and game ever made onto a blockchain – without trying to displace Bitcoin as a global currency.
One of our key goals is for LBRY/LBC to be easy to access for everyday people. Initially, users will get some just for downloading the app. And anyone will always be able to earn LBC by offering some of their disk space to store encrypted file slices for the LBRY network. Because it won't involve linking bank accounts to exchanges or even converting any of their precious fiat money, we hope LBC will serve as an easy entry point for John Q. Public into the world of cryptocurrency. They might not even realize at first that's what they're using!
Visit https://lbry.io/faq/credit-policy to learn how LBRY Inc. plans to administer the LBRY Credits currently in their control.
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What *is* LBRY?
LBRY is a decentralized, open-source protocol that is controlled by its users. LBRY facilitates a similar experience to services like YouTube, Netflix, and Apple TV... but LBRY is entirely decentralized! Services like YouTube are centralized platforms controlled by a single corporate entity. These companies can change the rules unilaterally, as well as censor content to appease authoritarian governments or corporate partners. LBRY can never unilaterally change the rules on publishers or consumers, making it dramatically trustworthy.
The aforementioned video providers—along with P2P file-sharing clients like BitTorrent and IPFS—also do NOT support direct payments to publishers for the content or data they create and publish to the network; LBRY does, and LBRY also creates market incentives for data to be as widespread and available as possible!
LBRY also supports the sharing of free content, but if you are earning money from your videos on YouTube right now, you are likely familiar with the recent controversies over videos being “de-monetized” for containing content unfriendly to advertisers. It’s no surprise that YouTube caters to advertisers, because those are its ultimate customers.
LBRY is not an ad-driven media service. In fact, it’s not a traditional media service at all. LBRY is an open protocol that allows you to publish your videos to the network at no cost to you and set a price per stream or download. Because LBRY is a protocol and not a corporate store, there is no approval process for content to be listed and no authority that can “de-monetize” your videos. That’s between you and your fans.
With LBRY, pricing is completely at the discretion of the creator and up to 100% of that price can go to the creator. (Compare this to iTunes’ fixed pricing tiers and 30% cut of every sale.)
Because LBRY uses digital currency (a la Bitcoin), creators can accept micropayments for every view without worrying about credit card processing fees. Or a studio could use LBRY to distribute a theatrical release to independent theaters and charge thousands of dollars per download. The only constraint on pricing is what your viewers are willing to pay. (You can also set your price as zero if you are not looking to monetize your content!)
LBRY also allows users to automatically earn rewards in exchange for contributing bandwidth, disk space, or processing power to the decentralized LBRY network!
What’s more, you can share content of any type – video, music, ebooks, images, podcasts – all on the same platform!
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* Want to learn more about the revolutionary LBRY protocol? *
Visit https://lbry.io/what and watch our "LBRY in 100 seconds" video: https://youtu.be/DjouYBEkQPY
Are you a YouTube publisher interested in syncing your videos onto LBRY? Visit https://lbry.io/youtube
Chat with us: http://slack.lbry.io
http://facebook.com/lbryio
http://twitter.com/lbryio
http://reddit.com/r/lbry
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Music Credit:
Molten Snow by Jesse Spillane (http://freemusicarchive.org)
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