For the half dozen or so of people that might manage to care, I have decided to start synchronizing my piddly YouTube content over to LBRY. I’d say this is nothing against YouTube but actually, it is. Although I will still use and enjoy YouTube, many of their decisions have shaken my confidence in their ability to be a truly open platform, therefore, I am following the lead of many other “content creators” and also putting my stuff on LBRY.
LBRY is a decentralized video platform that uses blockchain (that cryptocurrency magic) to distribute the video content. That said, I don’t really understand or frankly care how it works, but I do wonder if some videos will eventually get lost in the ether due to this decentralized nature.
Bottom Line Up front: I am not expecting much to come from it and since most of the people I personally enjoy are on YouTube. I am starting to use LBRY a bit, from time to time, because, why not. It’s something somewhat new and shiny and I want to see some sort of competitor to rise up and challenge the top dog.
Sync from YouTube to LBRY
Not that I have much to manually copy over, but the fact that there is a process to synchronize your content over, this was the way I would start. The process is very straight forward. Once you have an account set up with LBRY, you have to “claim your channel” on it. This is done by navigating to https://lbry.com/youtube
Then, just follow the directions. You will essentially log into your Google account and like an addon, have LBRY connect with your YouTube things. The synchronization process takes a while, as in, a few days. Once the content is on LBRY, you will have to claim the channel. Truthfully, this part scares me a bit, is it possible for someone else to claim your channel? No idea. Regardless, I claimed it without any issues and now my stuff is there.
I did find a rather well put together video on YouTube (ironically) for this process. It was about the same for me if you would like to watch that.
What I Like
Using LBRY is not any different than YouTube, really. At least, from my very non-power user look at it. I just want to look up Linxy things or other nerdy content and I seem to be able to find some very interesting things there.
It’s another platform, I don’t have to do any additional work to mirror my content. Now, I don’t have much content but I am working on that. I also want to have more than one place to store it. YouTube, for the time being is my primary but it’s nice to have a back up.
I like that it is decentralized so that there is a bit more user freedom in this. The idea of federation of systems, seems like the future of services. Give the end user a bit more control as opposed to some unknown, faceless authority.
I like that you get LBC “rewards” for watching content. What does it really mean? Supposedly you can cash it out. Like all crypto currency, it fluctuates in value so I am not sure it is really worth that much either. There is this feature where you can “tip” creators with the funny-money as well. I kind of like that idea. Though, I don’t see any advertising so I don’t know how the funds are generated.
What I Don’t Like
The analytics aren’t quite as interesting as what you are given on YouTube. Perhaps it is by nature due to the decentralized system. I couldn’t say for sure. Either way, not as entertaining for me.
The LBRY application client just doesn’t seem to run for me. I keep getting this Daemon has exited error and I have yet to find the solution for it. I have tried the Flatpak and AppImages but I get the same result. I have searched a bit for this and I am wondering if my firewall is stopping it from working. Not the computer’s firewall I have tested it and get the same result. I am wondering if it is the main edge device / firewall. I should probably check before publishing this but that would require extra work and this is just a blatheirng.
Final Thoughts
My video content is nothing impressive, my views are very minimal and I am okay with all of that. I do it all for fun and to share. My intent is to continue to share whatever it is with as many people as are interested. Some people do not want to use YouTube, so I have made an alternative.
I don’t really know how the whole things works. I don’t know if it will last and I don’t truly understand the business model. Regardless, I will use it and see how it grows or doesn’t grow and hope the best for this platform. It could be great or just another flash in the pan.
References
LBRY Home
LBRY CubicleNate Channel
LBRY Youtube Partner Program – How to Sync a Channel
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