By Kun Hu   Jan 21, 2020 2 Min Read

What is DTube? 

DTube is an abbreviation of decentralized tube. It is a decentralized video platform built on top of the steem blockchain and the IPFS service.

Like YouTube, you can watch video on DTube. There is no major differences in watching experience. But the technology and idea behind DTube are quite different from YouTube. DTube is blockchain based, which has new features like decentralized, crypto incentive, resistant to censorship, claimed fair platform, free of advertisement.

What are the differences between DTube and YouTube?


(1) Storage: YouTube video is stored in Google's data center. While DTube claims to store its contents on IPFS, a distributed storage and distributed storage protocol.

(2) Ownership: YouTube is owned by Google. DTube is a self-governed. DTube is governed by a group of people(currently 10) being elected as leaders by the community and these governing leaders are “in charge of producing new blocks and securing the infrastructure.”

Crypto incentive

You can earn money by monetizing your Youtube channel, like sponsored content, high number of views and more. This incentive is not uncommon in Internet world. Reddit did it as well. On Dtube, you get rewarded with Steem Dollars, a stablecoin cryptocurrency for the Steem blockchain, by doing what contribute the development of Dtube, like content contribution, share and comment. What’s the difference between “incentive” is the “reward”. For YouTube you earn fiat money and for Dtube you earn cryptocurrency, the stablecoin which is pegged to US dollars. You can exchange the stablecoin for fiat money in cryptocurrency Exchanges.

Resistant to censorship

YouTube has its rule and must abide by relevant law and regulations. It happened that YouTube imposed ban on crypo-related advertisements. On Dtube, there is no censorship to content, but users can do censorship by upvotes and downvotes. But the question here is that are users better than employees or experts from YouTube? What to do when the video really breaks the law or regulation but users like it?

Fair platform

On YouTube there is very complex algorithms to do recommendation, filter “bad” or scam content, calculate values of your follower. On DTube, there are no hidden algorithms on content visibility and monetization. Actually, YouTube can do the same as that of DTube. The question is that is the hidden algorithms of YouTube really bad thing? Or can Dtube without any hidden algorithms can finally lead to fairness or better user experience? And what is fairness in such context?

Ads free

YouTube earns money primarily by advertisement. There is no direct advertising on DTube. Since it is decentralized, nobody actually control the DTube, and there is no embedded advertisement function in it. But user can advertise product or service with their video creation if they understand the risk of losing their subscribers.

Other information about DTube

DTube is powered by Steem, Tube, Ipfs, Asksteem(discontinued already).

The official DTube website is: https://d.tube/

About the author

Kun Hu   
Blockchain brings monetary freedom. It is as important as freedom of speech and natural rights.

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