LBRY is a new Blockchain-based, open source platform for sharing digital content. It is gaining popularity as a decentralized alternative to YouTube but LBRY is more than just a video sharing service.
LBRY is an open source blockchain based platform for content sharing
At the core of it, LBRY is a new protocol which is a peer to peer, decentralized file sharing and payment network secured by blockchain technology. Anyone can build apps on top of LBRY protocol that interact with digital content on the LBRY network. But these technical stuff is for developers.
As a user you can use LBRY platform for watching videos, listening to music and reading eBooks.
As a content creator, you can use LBRY to share your digital content like video, music, images, podcasts, eBooks etc.
Unlike YouTube, your activities are not tracked to serve you ads. In fact, LBRY is ad free. If you are logged into the network, you won’t see any ads anywhere on its website.
No ads, and you may even earn cryptocurrency for viewing videos on LBRY
The LBRY is ‘governed’ by its own cryptocurrency called LBC (LBRY Credits).
Like any other cryptocurrency, you can mine it, buy it or get it from someone else. Content creators can set a price in LBC for streaming their content or they can provide it for free and get tipped in LBC by the viewers.
Don’t worry, you don’t necessarily need to buy LBC. Since its new, you’ll get LBC as rewards for doing simple tasks as viewing videos, exploring LBRY, following channels etc. In fact, you’ll get a few LBC simply for creating an account at LBRY and setting up your profile.
You’ll also get LBC in rewards for inviting other users to LBRY platform. For example, if you join LBRY from It’s FOSS invite link, both you and I get LBC as reward.
The LBRY reward system will change once the platform grows. Remember initially Bitcoins were also readily available and now it values thousands of dollars.
Open source, peer to peer, blockchain: LBRY ticks all the right blocks for a privacy-aware user
While the cyptocurrency is essential to create a fair and open marketplace in LBRY, its main feature is the peer to peer, decentralized network using blockchain. LBRY puts emphasis on treating you as user, not a product.
Everything built to power LBRY is open source. You can find the entire source code on its GitHub repository.
The LBRY FAQ page is a good resource to know more about LBRY and how it works.
Using LBRY
If you want to give LBRY a try, you can check out its video sharing platform. If you are logged in or using its app, you won’t see any ads.
Creating an account on LBRY will also let you get the LBRY rewards (i.e. the LBC cryptocurrency). You can watch the videos on LBRY web site or on its application.
I have noticed that video streaming is slightly faster when you use the app instead of web browser. LBRY app is available for Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.
As a web publisher, It’s FOSS is on all major social media channels. We appreciate and respect such decentralized services and try to make a presence on such offbeat platform. You can find us on Mastodon, a decentralized alternative to Twitter. You can also find It’s FOSS on LBRY.
While we will be putting our video content primarily on YouTube and Vimeo (for ad-free experience), our YouTube content will be automatically available on LBRY as well.
So if you are going to use LBRY, you can follow us there to watch all our videos on LBRY.
Conclusion
There may not be a lot of content on LBRY right now. LBRY is trying to encourage and reward creators who publish on LBRY first instead of YouTube.
LBRY is in early stages but its team is working hard to become a viable alternative to YouTube. It has an open road map where they have shared an insight into all their future plans. You may check it out yourself.
By the way, LBRY is not the only platform of this kind. PeerTube is a similar service that provides a peer to peer video sharing platform.
If you are someone who doesn’t like tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Huawei ‘spying’ on your data, keeping a profile of you to serve you targeted ads, you may try platforms like PeerTube and LBRY.
What do you think of LBRY? Are you already using something like LBRY or PeerTube? If not, are you willing to give it a try? What’s your overall feeling about P2P platforms like LBRY? Do share your views in the comment section.
