Content Distribution for the Future

Current methods of content distribution work well, but leave quite a bit to be desired when you look under the hood. Major organizations in most forms of media charge a premium for distribution services. There can be numerous third parties between creator and viewer, and at the end of the day this means viewers pay more and and content providers receive less.

The Blockchain Technology Group aims to solve this problem with Alexandria, a decentralized, open source, peer-to-peer library. This idea could change the way we share every type of digital content.

“I was highly intrigued by the idea of using the technology behind Bitcoin, the blockchain, to open up a whole world of decentralized computing processes.”
— – Devon Read, Blockchain Technology Group Founder and CEO

Talking to the CEO and Founder of Blockchain Technology Group, Devon Read, enthusiasm permeated our conversation, and the high level of passion Read has for Alexandria quickly became clear. “My mind started racing with possibilities [after] the realization that you can now remove the central points of failure from the internet apps we use all the time,” he explained.

Originally Reads plan was to make several different projects, each with a specific function. “Makerchain, a hybrid of Quirky and GitHub to enable decentralized, crowd-sourced hardware development,” he elaborates. “Moviechain, a server-less [peer to peer] iTunes or YouTube competitor, [and] Archivechain, a library of history collected from social media platforms.”

Plans began to grow as he discussed his ideas with the community. Read met Joey Fiscella, a core developer for Florincoin, and brought him on as lead back-end developer. Reads numerous ideas for Blockchain applications needed a backbone. Florincoin fit well as a permanent public publishing ledger due its specialized blockchain.

“Florincoin will be used to power the decentralized applications of the future,”
— – Fiscella

Transaction messages on the blockchain are 528 characters and block times are only 40 seconds long making it ideal for storage, and quick updating. It also features a decentralized messaging service which can be attached to transactions, giving Florincoin a built-in commenting system. The team decided to combine Archivechain and Moviechain under the title of Alexandria, putting Makerchain on the backburner as a future addition.

“Our goal for [Alexandria] is to democratize digital media distribution, to enable independent artists to monetize in ways they hadn’t been able to before, and to enable popular artists to have direct control of how their art is distributed and monetized.”
— – Read

The team is currently focusing on perfecting an authorization process for certain types of media. Making this process easy and accessible will be a big selling point for those looking to publish and monetize their work through Alexandria, “because submissions cannot be removed from the blockchain, this is a mechanism that allows users of the Alexandria front-end to only be given access to content authorized by its creators,” Read went on to say.

Private beta testing of Alexandria is scheduled to begin within the next few weeks, followed six weeks later by a public beta test. “The first public release of the app will allow anyone to create a publisher account and publish media in the following types: movie, video, music album, podcast, thing (3D printable object, CNC paths, manufacturing recipes, etc), and book,” states Read. Users will be able to browse and share content, tip publishers with bitcoin, and leave comments attached to Florincoin tips.

Though Alexandria is designed to be attractive to all types of content creators, Read notes that the greatest incentive is for those who publish their work independently. “[We] let publishers block their content with a ‘pay what you want’ wall and accept voluntary tips from their audiences,” he explains. This means that small content providers will no longer have to rely on shared ad revenue from partnering with giants such as YouTube, and their audience will no longer have to deal with skipping annoying ads or closing pop-ups that block the video.

“By removing the expensive middle men that can sometimes take as much as half of their revenues, and by reducing their publishing and distribution costs so dramatically, we think that Alexandria will be highly attractive to the indie-media crowd right out of the gate.”
— – Read

Read has much larger goals in mind. “We see Alexandria as two things – a public facing open source library of art, history, and culture, as well as the publishing, distribution, and payments rails for any number of other apps to be built on top of.” This draws some focus to the total reinvisioning of media distribution he and his team have in mind. “Our long term goal is for Alexandria to be a robust enough platform, with enough security and daily users that it can actually be an attractive enough decentralized [content distribution network] to compel major labels and studios to distribute their content with it.”

Having the opportunity to speak with the visibly spirited leader of a team that has great vision is always wonderful. “This has really been a passion project for my team and I, but the responses we’ve been getting since we started talking more about it have been highly validating,” Read says. It’s hard to imagine how this project could be seen as anything but equal parts innovative and revolutionary. “I’d personally like to see a Star Wars film distributed using Alexandria protocols before JJ is done with his trilogy, so we’ve got about 4 years to get there,” finishes Read with a noticeable smile.

Innovative platforms such as Alexandria are incredibly exciting to have in the cryptocurrency industry. This project is putting more power in the hands of those who deserve it, and in doing so will promote the bitcoin ecosystem in a big way. I’m sure we’ll be seeing some wonderful developments from Read and his team in the future.