I originally posted this on Reddit about a year ago, but I figured some of it may be useful here. I think some of these monetization tools could be useful for Datt. I especially like the idea of Bitcoin polls on profile pages for content creators. Posting half of an article/song/video and then having a crowdfunding effort to unlock it may also be useful. You can view the original Reddit thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2ggkgp/how_reddit_could_use_bitcoin_to_become_a/ TL;DR - Bitcoin tips have been unable to overtake advertisements as the main source of revenue for content creators due to the fact that not many people are willing to make donations. This problem can be solved with unique schemes that give audiences incentives to tip content creators. One option involves having audience members vote on upcoming content with their bitcoins. This model can be applied to movies, music, books, news organizations, free software development, and much more. It would also solve the “problem” of Internet piracy. Content could be freely available everywhere after the creator’s initial donation goals are met. New videos, songs, albums, blog posts, and more could be posted by content creators directly to a Reddit-like platform. This would allow the best content to gain more exposure. * * * Introduction The ideas explained in this post evolved out of the original goal of creating a decentralized media publishing platform where content creators could release their content freely on all platforms while still getting paid for their work. This new decentralized media platform uses Bitcoin and Reddit to create a direct connection between content creators and their audiences. The platform proposed in this post will be referred to as “BitMedia”. The Problems with Current Content Publishing Platforms To understand the value of BitMedia, we must first take a look at the current issues facing the relationships between content creators and their audiences. - Internet piracy - One of the main issues with creating content right now is that there are plenty of people out there who will be able to access that content for free through torrents, streaming websites, and other sources. My view is that there’s nothing wrong with sharing content freely once it is already available. After all, it’s not stealing if the original owner still gets to keep their copy. But how can content creators get paid while also allowing their work to be shared freely on the Internet? - Donations don’t work - While donations and tips are a nice idea in theory, they aren’t very effective as a tool for monetization. The fact is people don’t want to pay for HBO to watch Game of Thrones when they can simply download it for free. - Advertisements, paywalls, and product placements are annoying - This one is pretty self-explanatory. - Content isn’t available on all platforms - When someone releases a piece of content, it should be available on all platforms. Going back to the Game of Thrones example, it probably wouldn’t be pirated as often if it wasn’t only available to HBO subscribers. Imagine if it was available on Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and by download too. - Advertisements and media companies can censor content - This issue is most problematic in the news industry. The clearest example would be a TV news channel not reporting negative news about their advertisers who are paying their bills. Of course, there can also be censorship from the owners of the media outlets. One of the reason Louis CK’s show on FX is unique is that FX isn’t allowed to tell him what to do with his show. He just turns in a completed episode and then they air it. Another good example here would be South Park. Censoring artists does not allow them to illustrate their true vision. - Monetizing free software is difficult - Monetizing free software is somewhat similar to monetizing media content right now. Just to clarify, we’re talking about [free as in freedom](http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html). A lot of people don’t see why they should pay for free software when it’s available free-of-charge and completely open source. How BitMedia Solves These Problems The way to solve the problems mentioned above is to give audiences an incentive to donate to content creators. There’s also value outside of just money that can be brought to content creators with BitMedia. Content could be shared directly on Reddit without the need to link to outside sources. The creators of the content could be rewarded with the following perks: - Exposure for their brand - The value brought to content creators by posting to BitMedia is not strictly monetary. The author of a Reddit post should be easily seen, and various social media accounts should also be placed next to the name. There needs to be a general social media aspect brought to Reddit for this portion of the overall value proposition to be effective. Content creators will be happy to post to Reddit because there is real value in Twitter followers, Retweets, Facebook Likes, and anything else that simply makes them more visible to the general public. - Direct bitcoin tips - Although it isn’t something that I expect to takeoff in large numbers, there are people out there who are happy to send bitcoin tips across the Internet as a “Thank You” for content creation. I was even tipped on Reddit recently for simply sharing the fact that someone purchased nearly $2 million worth of bitcoin over the weekend. - Vitalik Buterin’s content monetization model - Before he was the creator of Ethereum, Vitalik used to write about Bitcoin and post his articles on bitcointalk.org. He created a unique way to monetize his content without any ads. The basic scheme was that he would post part of an article and then ask for tips before posting the rest of it. Once he received enough money in his posted Bitcoin address, he would then post the rest of the article. This is kind of a hybrid between donations and a traditional paywall. - Bitcoin voting for audiences - This is an idea I’ve been toying with recently, although I’m sure I’m not the first one to think of it. In this form of monetization, content creators use polls to give their audience an incentive to make a donation. For example, a journalist could leave a poll for the next topic they cover at the end of each article. A Bitcoin address is placed next to each option, and bitcoins sent to each address represent votes for that particular topic. Some people may vote with an amount as small as $0.05, while others could tip $10 or more if they’re fascinated by a certain article idea. Obviously, the journalist will base their next article on the topic that has the Bitcoin address with the most bitcoins after voting has ended. This could also be particularly helpful for funding free software where the users of the software can vote on new features. - Other unique Bitcoin funding options - There are undoubtedly more unique options for funding content not mentioned in this post. I like a variation of Vitalik’s scheme where the entire article is posted, but the readers must tip a certain amount if they want the journalist to keep posting stories. I’d love to hear other ideas in the comments if you guys have them. - No overhead costs -When you’re creating content for someone else’s organization, there are plenty of added costs that could be removed by BitMedia. Whether you’re talking about the business development team who works with advertisers or the shareholders who are skimming their profits off the top, there is plenty of money that is taken from the audience and not placed directly in the pocket of the content creator. Kind of like how current payment systems involve fees while Bitcoin allows direct transactions between two parties. The Benefits of the BitMedia Platform for Audiences In addition to the benefits for content creators, there are also plenty of positives to BitMedia for audiences. - Give direction to content creators - With the Bitcoin voting model proposed above, audiences are literally in control of the content they consume. They can tell content creators exactly what they want to see. - Content is freely available on all platforms after released - You don’t have to worry about subscribing to dozens of different content distributors. Instead, the content can be found for free after the creator’s donation goal has been met. - No advertisements - In addition to not being bothered by video ads, pop ups, and other annoyances, audiences can enjoy the fact that there is no advertiser who could be influencing the content for their own gain. What Could Be Funded with BitMedia? There are plenty of different types of content creators who could benefit from BitMedia. - Music/Songs/Albums - Instead of expecting their fans to pay for digital copies of their albums when they can easily be found for free, musical artists can run a crowdfunding campaign on BitMedia and post the album once they’ve received the requested amount of funds. Singles could be used as teasers for the entire album. - Videos/Documentaries/Shows/Movies - The perfect example here is YouTube’s Epic Rap Battles of History. At the end of each episode, the audience is asked to vote on the characters who will be portrayed in the next video. This could be an easy transition where they have people vote with their bitcoins. The same concept could be applied to many other types of videos. For example, I’d like to be able to vote on which topic VICE is going to cover next in their series of documentaries. - News Outlets - Touched a bit on this with the VICE documentaries example. BitMedia would probably work better for op-ed pieces than breaking news stories, but it’s also possible that the news outlet could simply ask for a certain amount of funds on a monthly basis. When the quota is not met, the news stops. - Free Software - This is mentioned earlier in the post, but users of free software could vote on which features the developers should work on next. Articles/Blogs/Books/Written Work - Similar options from the above examples apply. An author releasing a book one chapter at a time would be interesting. - More - There are undoubtedly other use cases not listed here. Why Traditional Payment Methods Don’t Work for BitMedia We should also clear up why Bitcoin is required for BitMedia to work. There are three main reasons that something like PayPal would not work properly for this system of donations and tips: - Microtransactions - The base fee on a traditional payment system is usually around $0.30. The 3% discount rate is then charged on top of that flat amount. This means PayPal and debit cards are impractical for donations, tips, and votes under $1. - Chargebacks - Chargebacks would also be a huge issue in this system. We cannot have people reversing payments after they’ve made a donation. Posting original content is basically an irreversible transaction because it’s impossible to get something removed from the Internet after it is already out there. Since the content creator is posting a piece of work that cannot be taken back later, the same concept needs to be applied to the donations and tips. Otherwise, there could be a situation where donors/tippers/voters take back their money after the content has been posted. The content creator would be left with no payment for their work. This is especially troublesome in the Bitcoin vote monetization model because the voters who are able to make chargebacks could impact the results of the poll without having any intention of making a donation. - Censorship - Bitcoin is censorship-resistant money. There would undoubtedly be unpopular content posted on BitMedia. People still need to be able to make their donations when this problem occurs. PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and other payment companies cannot be trusted to always be fair when it comes to who can receive donations. When these companies blocked Wikileaks from receiving donations in 2011, supporters of the document-leaking organization were able to make donations with Bitcoin. _Note: There is still plenty of friction when it comes to going from fiat currency to bitcoin. Companies like Circle will be important for BitMedia to work._ Decentralizing the Servers and Administrators of BitMedia As mentioned above, a problem could arise due to the centralized nature of Reddit’s servers and infrastructure. Because all of this content would be posted on Reddit, the owners of the servers and administrators of the site still need to be trusted not to censor any content. Although Reddit has always been one of the most adamant supporters of free speech in the past, we cannot predict the future. There’s also the possibility that they could be coerced into censoring certain content by a government. The good news is that there is also a solution for this problem. Bitcloud is a project that aims to provide back-end data storage for websites and web applications in a decentralized manner. Think of it as Bittorrent for websites. The fact that so many different people are hosting the website makes it difficult to censor, much like pirated music, movies, and TV shows that are rather prevalent on Bittorrent right now. Another key difference with Bitcloud vs Bittorrent is that nodes are paid for hosting data. This means that the data will not only be hosted by people for altruistic reasons. When someone is being paid to host data, the uptime for that data tends to be much higher. With Bittorrent the most popular data is also the data with the most seeders. In the case of Bitcloud, all data can be seeded properly due to the fact that seeders are paid. Integration with Tor would also mean that no one even knows where the backend data for BitMedia is stored. One last point to mention here is that no altcoin is needed to create Bitcloud. If BitMedia were hosted on Bitcloud, it would be truly censorship-resistant. You don’t need to worry about Reddit admins going rogue and censoring data. A government cannot subpoena a decentralized application, and you cannot seize the servers if you don’t know where they are located. Taking it Even Further? Another thing to note is that BitMedia could be taken even further to the point where someone liking or sharing the content on this sort of social media platform could also “invest” in the content when it is first posted. This would eventually create a situation where social media sharing or support literally becomes a currency. This is rather theoretical at this stage, but you can read some of my and [/u/killerstorm](https://www.reddit.com/u/killerstorm)’s thoughts on it from [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2g5qqq/frozencoin_a_concept/ckg0ork) about Bitcoin preventing Sybil attacks from the other day. This Can Be Implemented Right Now As far as I can tell, a basic version of this idea could be implemented today. We would just need to create a new subreddit and customize the CSS to fit in better with this proposal. If anyone is interested, we can use [/r/BitMedia](https://www.reddit.com/r/BitMedia) as a testbed for this idea. Go there if you want to test this out as a content creator or viewer/listener/reader/etc.