If you consider yourself a part of DIY or 3D printing community you most certainly regularly look at other peoples projects or publish your own work on some platform like YouTube, Thingiverse or Instructables. There is an incredible amount of knowledge and value being contributed by users every day but do they get the fair amount of value back from those platforms?
Since all of the biggest platforms are privately owned, what would happen if those companies decided to close them for any reason destroying all the content in the process? Or decided to charge you a fee for publishing your content or decided to remove your content for some arbitrary reason ... or got hacked ... thee are many very negative outcome scenarios since there is too much power accumulated within a single point of failure. Currently, many YouTube creators in DIY space are faced with random demonetization and there have been major
problems with Thingiverse in the past.
Is there an alternative? Looks like there is! It is a decentralized, open-sourced blockchain based system named LBRY (Library). With LBRY there is no middleman.
LBRY is best described as a content platform (YouTube or Thingiverse) that works similar to a BitTorrent network where each user downloads and re-publishes the content he viewed.
You can read the full description here:
https://lbry.io/faq/what-is-lbryOr watch this short description video:
LBRY is currently a great platform for video creators who want to increase their reach, secure their presence, improve monetization and are not satisfied with YouTube policies and uncertainty due to demonetization or censorship. If you are an existing YT creator, there is a simple YT import procedure you can find here:
https://lbry.io/youtubeThe application interface is simple and easy to use, here is a short overview by Wayne Beach:
In the future, there will also be a mobile app available.
LBRY is not only for video, you can also publish all your project files, code or any other digital format on the Library app. LBRY is open sourced so it can be used in a variety of roles as a specialized platform. One current implementation is
spee.ch website which "takes" the content from the LBRY chain and acts as a decentralized image hosting site. Any developer could use the technology and develop a web browser accessible Thingiverse alternative for 3d printing files.
Publishing .STL files is very easy, just click on the green "Publish"icon in top right corner:
Your content can be monetized with LBRY credits cryptocurrency or you can receive tips for your work. LBRY crypto can be exchanged on many exchanges for Bitcoin or the regular money.
Do keep in mind that LBRY is still under development with a constant stream of new improvements and features being added. I know that most of you are more than capable of using this type of software and even give some feedback to the developers to make it even better.
Now go and give LBRY a test run to distribute that great content you made!!! Sharing is caring!
https://lbry.io/For more in-depth insight, have a look at this interview with LBRY CEO Jeremy Kauffman by Bryan Lunduke:
