The no 1 most subscribed youtuber, Pewdiepie, announces that he will exclusively stream on Dlive, a video streaming site running on blockchain. On April 9th, both he and Dlive announced via youtube and twitter that the partnership will commence with the first stream set for April 14th.
Youtube is starting to realise they aren’t the only person in the room anymore. For many years they have had the monopoly on the video sharing industry online. In November 2006, youtube became a subsidiary of google further consolidating the stronghold of the internet giants. We have seen time and time again, anyone who becomes successful and could be seen as a competitor is either shut down or bought out by groups like google and amazon. No longer will this occur with such a crippling effect.
With the introduction of blockchain, video streaming sites like Dlive have developed, pushing against all that these internet giants stand for. They are decentralized, transparent and fair. Content cannot be moderated or pushed with corporate agendas. Cuts as big as 50% going to the man in the middle are a thing of the past. And it looks like the world is starting to notice.
Who is Pewdiepie
Pewdiepie started his youtube career in 2010 focusing on becoming a figure in the gaming industry. He is best known for his Let’s Play commentaries. Over the years he has grown to become the number 1 most subscribed channel on youtube and the highest youtube earner in 2016 with $15 million as mentioned in Forbes.
Right now he has almost 94 Million subscribers and a popular video he posted only 11 days ago has already received over 70 million views. That is on average, over 4,400 views every minute for 11 days straight. And now this man is not only supporting blockchain, but he is on blockchain.
In the recent past, Pewdiepie has been openly critical of youtube’s algorithms stating that poor quality and even inappropriate content is being promoted above genuine creators’ original content. He has also been involved in many controversial conflicts, the latest being a subscriber battle with India’s leading music distributor.
Who is Dlive
DLive is changing the whole game by putting platform ownership in the hands of the users through blockchain technology powered by Lino. The users of DLive are rewarded for their contributions as the platform grows. Both content creators and viewers are valued. Unlike traditional platforms, DLive takes absolutely zero platform cuts from users’ donations and subscriptions. Instead, the economic system has been designed to revolutionize revenue distribution by rewarding the community for their contributions rather than a corporation.
The Announcement
In a youtube video titled ‘Here’s the mf tea’ published on April 9th, Pewdiepie started the video by dropping the announcement of him joining Dlive. It was easy to miss and could be seen as a fairly quite announcement, except this video has already received 5.4 million views already.
<a href="https://medium.com/media/271e1d47404fdc3781ec0b0b8b83d572/href">https://medium.com/media/271e1d47404fdc3781ec0b0b8b83d572/href</a>
On the same day, Dlive also announced the partnership on twitter, which was shortly commented on by Pewdiepie, confirming the partnership openly.
What does this mean for blockchain
For anyone who is involved in the blockchain industry, it is common to see big named corporations named as partners in blockchain exploration and research. But adoption is still a work in progress. Over the last 24 months, following the recent boom in cryptocurrencies, there has been a strong push transferring Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), or blockchain tech, into real use cases around the world. There have been a number of challenges hindering this task, most notably, lack of clear regulations as well as the blockchain trilemma. As a result many people in the mainstream industries are generally reserved when it comes to openly showing support for this new industry.
But when the biggest creator of youtube, turns his back on the giant to openly support blockchain, it is safe to say things are changing. Fear of the unknown is being replaced with the excitement of joining a pioneering movement. It is no longer the public’s view of ‘blockchain: the cryptocurrency scam’, but rather ‘blockchain: the technology that will change the world’.
It is common now, to hear of banks employing blockchain tech in some manner; to hear of large technology companies partnering with blockchain firms to transfer their applications onto the DLT. It is normal to see governments working with organisations to enhance the use case of blockchain throughout the world.
And now, it is normal to see some of the biggest names online to openly support blockchain and adopt it. People have been asking me, are we in a new era with blockchain. And I would say yes! We are moving into the Era of Blockchain Adoption. So get ready world, we are here to stay and together we will make a positive difference.
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