Video streaming has become increasingly popular because it offers a more enriched visual experience, causing a shift in people’s entertainment preferences from text and image-based formats to quick video illustrations. This shift has led to a significant increase in internet traffic, and video streaming now accounts for a large part of online business. Consequently, there is a high demand for network bandwidth and storage. Currently, centralized cloud servers handle storage, data transmission, and streaming. However, content creators using centralized cloud servers do not have complete control over their data and must abide by the rules set by the central cloud servers. Therefore, there is growing interest and need for decentralization in content transmission and video streaming.
When a streaming service’s content delivery cannot be controlled by a single entity, it is called decentralized. Decentralized video streaming platforms use blockchain to enable ownership, providing an ideal base layer for applications. The blockchain layer connects all the pieces through a single decentralized ledger, acting as a thin layer. All off-chain transactions must submit proof to the blockchain layer to verify their legitimacy, becoming the single source of truth.
Although blockchains cannot store complex data sources like videos or images, off-chain solutions like IPFS or simple peer-to-peer storage make the data available. Decentralized video streaming is Peer-to-Peer (P2P) video streaming using blockchain technology. It directly transmits media content from creators to the audience, eliminating intermediaries’ involvement. If you’re familiar with the principle of torrenting, where users share files directly, you’ll understand how blockchain streaming sites work. Through blockchain technology, participants can create, upload and promote their own content, and decentralization allows for a wider range of content creators. Audio and video broadcasts are also gradually becoming postmodern mass media with the use of blockchain technologies.
Role of Blockchain in Decentralized Video Streaming
Blockchain technology plays a crucial role in decentralized video streaming by enabling secure ownership, content licensing, and effective monetization. To optimize storage space, a blockchain-based content delivery network is crucial as it allows for the utilization of the collective ideal storage space from users across the world. By converting this space into P2P cloud storage and data delivery systems using a blockchain-based management system, content creators can use the collective unused space. Online media and the OTT sector have a common issue of security of ownership and access to creators’ content. Blockchain also helps address this issue at a protocol level by encrypting and storing videos permanently using the IPFS swarm. With the help of various relay nodes and IPFS, blockchain broadcasts video content in an autonomous manner, thereby maintaining transparency and integrity of ownership in a decentralized way.
Blockchain smart contracts facilitate direct communication between creators and audiences to establish an independent relationship, eliminate intermediary costs, and ensure license security. Blockchain enables users and content creators to make micropayments online without incurring any transaction expenses or service fees. On-chain payment eases transactions between users and content owners. Content licensing and effective monetization Blockchain technology simplifies defending copyrights, ensuring that content owners have total control over their work. Blockchain removes the need for middlemen, enabling more flexible and seamless exchanges. Participants may check their transaction records directly on the blockchain, and the peer-to-peer network allows for decentralized content distribution models.
Benefits of Decentralized Video Streaming
Blockchain technology eliminates the need for a central authority by functioning as a peer-to-peer network. In a P2P network, media content is distributed rather than relying on a single server. This decentralized mechanism benefits video content curators, as they can directly publish and deliver their video content to their audience without intermediaries or central servers. Decentralized video streaming using blockchain technology offers several advantages over a client-server CDN structure. The replication rate of video streaming is higher in P2P networks, making it less likely for a stream to fail. Both content creators and audiences can join the blockchain network without the involvement of intermediaries. Content curators independently broadcast their content on the network, which is confirmed and approved by other nodes before it reaches the audience.
Blockchain-based video streaming allows content curators to earn revenue directly from their audience. They can provide content based on audience demand, with viewers only paying for the content they are interested in. Content creators can also use blockchain technology to securely encrypt their video storage. Through blockchain, content curators earn crypto tokens when viewers pay subscription fees to their favorite streamers. Additionally, viewers can earn rewards by renting their unused disk space and network bandwidth for video storage and distribution. The next section will discuss the ways in which blockchain technology transforms video streaming.
Components of Decentralized Video Streaming
Blockchain-based video streaming is a complex process that comprises numerous interdependent components, each of which plays a crucial role in enabling decentralized, secure, and transparent video delivery over a network.
Broadcaster
This is the entity that wants to deliver the video content to the audience. They encrypt and package the video and distribute it across the network with the help of nodes that validate their tasks in exchange for crypto payments.
Blockchain-based CDN
The content delivery network can be centralized or decentralized based on the requirements of the blockchain-based video streaming platform.
Relay nodes
These nodes help to distribute the video for streaming, minimizing network latency and increasing scalability.
Consensus algorithms
Blockchain-based video streaming platforms use consensus protocols such as PoW (Proof-of-Work) or PoS (Proof-of-Stake) to reach agreement among nodes on the network.
Smart contracts
Smart contracts enable transactions between the broadcaster and the end-user, including predetermined terms to be followed.
Communication sub-module
This powers the connection protocols between nodes for decentralized storage communication during the video streaming process.
Events sub-module
This module monitors various communications such as video transmission, user-interaction and display during the streaming process.
Services Offered by Genesis Convergence for the Development of Decentralized Video Streaming Platforms:
Genesis Convergence can assist in the development of decentralized video streaming platforms in several ways. Firstly, we can provide expertise in blockchain technology to design and implement the necessary infrastructure to support decentralized video streaming. Our team can develop and deploy smart contracts, consensus algorithms, and other necessary components of the platform. Additionally, our team can work with clients to identify and integrate appropriate content delivery network solutions to ensure high scalability and low network latency. We can also provide support in the development of communication and events sub-modules for the platform.
Furthermore, Genesis Convergence can assist clients in developing user-friendly interfaces for the platform and integrating necessary features such as micropayments and content licensing. We can also provide ongoing maintenance and support to ensure the platform runs smoothly and remains up-to-date with the latest developments in blockchain technology and video streaming.