II. THE VIDEO SHARING PLATFORM

The VLOKR platform is a Proof-of-Concept that applies the principle of a social blockchain for a video sharing platform. It is a fork of the DTube platform that has been reworked to include new functionality and performance according to our specifications.

We have considered the possibility of launching it on the Steem blockchain. This is the first generation social blockchain that received some recognition. We realized that the Steem blockchain had some limitations to be a feasible choice. We decided to use the Avalon blockchain as a starting point for our product instead. We then developed our own system that is a second generation social blockchain. It is called VLOCITY and has some features and improvements that make it more suitable.

II.1. Online video market

The online video platform market was valued at 6.98 billion dollars in 2021. It is forecasted to increase at an annual growth rate of 18.4% from 2021 to 2028. The online video platforms receive fees from users and provide creators with the possibility to manage, store, organize and publish various content on the channel. Such platforms also allow users to stream live videos, record them and host them as required. The online video sector is getting some support from smartphones and tablets. The gadgets are compatible to play live or recorded content.

The online video advertisement market is bigger and represented 61.6 billion dollars in 2021. This confirms the idea that the owners of online video platforms receive most of their revenue from advertisements and not from fees and subscriptions paid by viewers. The wide audiences allow them to close significant advertisement contracts.

Viewers as content curators

The social blockchain provides a new interpretation of classic online medias by rewarding viewers who contribute. This contribution can be in the form of sharing knowledge by searching for the best content and posting it on the platform for the community.

Viewers can curate content by posting a link of a third-party video from the Internet or by voting and tagging the most relevant videos for ranking purposes. Such activities are not rewarded on other social medias and this is the novelty of this platform.

“The curators can grow their user base and gain increased recognition with the VTV tokens. This rewards influencers in a new way that wasn’t available until now.”

Protecting creativity for creators

The videos that are posted by the users need moderation to avoid copyright infringement or inappropriate content broadcasting. The question is how to conduct moderation properly. The social media automated moderation was not effective in blocking troublesome content.

The content creators risk demonetization so they are not able to earn revenue. They can also be confronted with censorship if the content infringes platform rules and these are updated to meet the requirements of brands that need to advertise.

The VLOKR platform has a decentralized infrastructure that is resistant to censorship so that creators can safely post their content. The moderation is done by the millions of users in the community that can block inappropriate content or obvious copyright infringement. The team will not have to take a lot of actions that concern moderation of content. This makes it possible that the team can concentrate on more important matters such as improvements and additions to the platform.

Figure 7: How content is ranked and rewarded.