Can Blockchain Help Democratize Online Content Economy?

The thing about digital advertising and online publishing is that everyone involved in content creation may be equally benefiting from it.

Most of the time, only the ones on the top of the organizational chart are reaping what the creators sowed and gaining huge amounts of revenue. Whereas the creators and the brains behind the brilliant campaign take away so little to nothing at all.

Such situation is soon to change as Blockchain technology opens new doors of opportunities to make the online content economy transparent to everyone involved.

While there had been efforts by publishers to cut out the middlemen in the past, Blockchain aims to completely eliminate all the unnecessary processes and friction altogether.

Blockchain decentralized video
One of such emerging projects is Viuly, a decentralized video sharing platform which allows authors to sell access to their premium content while users can watch free videos and get rewards. Meanwhile, it allows advertisers to place ads and pay directly to our users and essentially cutting the middleman in the process.

Blockchain technology is more than just for monetary transactions
While there had been quite a few people who have been trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, the technology’s applications extend beyond finance.

Thanks to the secure and transparent nature of Blockchain, the very same technology that powers cryptocurrencies, it requires no broker or middlemen. With such efficient system in place for everyday financial transactions, it is also seen to be beneficial not only to monetary exchanges but also applicable to various other industries including publishing and media.

In the online content economy, Blockchain technology has paved a way to platforms where people provide fair contribution and receive fair compensation for all parties involved. It helps deduct fees by offering a platform where publishers do not have to pay intermediaries.

Blockchain technology and digital content and advertising
The best example of this Blockchain-based advertising is the Brave browser, which is co-funded by the inventor JavaScript and many other projects, Brendan Eich. The idea of this model is to award Basic Attention Tokens (BATs) the viewers and publishers when they turn on the ads. The project comes complete with a BAT wallet for every user so they can send BATs to the creators if they like a particular content. On the other hand, the publishers will gain insight of the views and user attention. This way, they can optimize their ads more.

Conclusion
As these projects continue to follow the concept of enabling users to monetize their creations and efforts in sharing and promoting digital content, it helps breed for a more beneficial environment for all stakeholders involved - creators, audience and advertisers in the process.