New Futures of Decentralized Video: Exploring the Rize App

Rize Up to the 21st Century

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For the last month, The Creative Crypto has been producing a livestream video series “Blockchain & Bourbon” in an effort bridge developments of crypto-tech with a broader audience in a more engaging way. Soon after starting the broadcast, we were approached by the PROPS team to explore their mobile app Rize while it was still in beta form. We’ve done several streams thus far and were lucky to be able to meet their team to discuss the app in person. This post will look at the current state of the application and future prospects of both Rize and other tools coming from PROPS.

YouNow + PROPS

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Before getting into the application, a quick overview of the company and history behind it. YouNow, a successful streaming platform, recently completed an ICO for their own PROPS token which would power a network of streaming applications built on the blockchain. At this time, they’re refining their first mobile application and plan on releasing more in the future with diverse social functionalities.

The projection of PROPS is to create a cross-application cryptocurrency that allows content creators and audience members to interact with micro-payments and potentially crypto-backed emojis. Video makers and streamers would no longer have to rely on platform mediation (i.e. native advertisement revenue on YouTube) nor 3rd-party facilitators (i.e. Patreon) for payment and monetization, but instead be able to directly receive from individual audience members and also reciprocate to the audience with cryptocurrency.

PROPS is one of the rare examples of a bonafide company making steps to integrate blockchain and cryptocurrency into their existing business model rather than creating a new company on a speculative premise. Most of the team working on PROPS were originally employees of YouNow. Their authentic track record has attracted serious support from media influencers and notable venture capitalists.

Exploring Rize

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The Rize app is the first of PROPS’ tools being developed to facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges based on streaming content. The app allows creators to stream and also pull up other parties’ or members’ screens to stream concurrently and host dynamic, multi-person conversations. The host streamer can freely pull up and pull down others and a single chat line reveals messages from the audience.

As of now, the app only allows the exchange of placeholder tokens (not yet backed by cryptocurrency) but is planning on integrating crypto micropayments in the coming weeks. This means audience members can reward their favorite streamers with native financial payments.

Over the course of the next several months, PROPS plans on releasing more applications like Rize that will facilitate the exchange and reward of the native token through diverse interactions and gamified activities.

The crypto community has actually gotten noticeably more active on Rize including weekly interviews by @CoinFund’s co-founder and director Jake Brukhman with other industry leaders. You can rewatch Brukhman’s discussion with Wendy Xiao Shadeck of Northzone VC right here -

The Creative Crypto on Rize

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Rize comes with an diversely enthusiastic community of streamers and content creators. Despite the lack of some desirable functionality at this stage in the beta process (i.e. desktop application, horizontal rotation, backside camera access), Rize has been a welcome transformation to the typical way we at @creativecrypto have been recording and uploading video. The dynamic and multi-screen function in particular makes for a great social atmosphere that adds onto the casual and unassuming feel we strive to create for each Blockchain & Bourbon episode.

The Rize App is a great way to connect with your audience, engage through questions, hand-raising, emoji-polling and more. The future of gamifying and incentivizing engagement through Rize is very exciting.

Our team has enjoyed exploring new streaming resources like Rize, @dtube and @dlive. As new features become available, we look forward to exploring more through The Creative Crypto Magazine and even integrating the platform as part of programming within the @sndbox incubator. Be sure to follow PROPS’ announcements to learn about the latest developments!

Project Details

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Project Name: Rize (mobile app) and PROPS (the token)
PROPS Project: https://www.propsproject.com/
Rize Application: https://rizeapp.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PROPSproject / https://twitter.com/officialrizeapp
Medium: https://blog.propsproject.com/

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thumbnail illustrated by @carrotcake | images from the Rize + PROPS website

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Visit us at thecreativecrypto.com

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