Blockchain technology, which is powered by peer-to-peer computers all around the world, is gaining popularity. So, can we expect decentralized multimedia apps built on blockchain to replace streaming services like Netflix or Walmart, effectively killing out wire?

Video production studios have already been subjected to significant interruption. Companies such as YouTube and Twitch have established a broad market for user-generated content, dethroning cable networks and studios as the exclusive makers of widespread media content. Despite the development of these gigantic, the majority of elevated scripted entertainment content today is still distributed through a mostly centralized format. Studio and networks (recently expanded to include streamers Netflix and Amazon) pay for content development, and the content is distributed systematically – from the company to the end consumer via those before streams: Cable, broadcast, mobile device, or online.

Since it introduces a new, decentralized mechanism for content distribution, blockchain has the potential to disrupt the entertainment sector drastically. In a bitcoin, machines from around the world collaborate in a friend system to complete a task – there is no central server or authority.

Netflix and Cable continue to rely on the concept of “centralized” aggregation and delivery. Content providers must pass through several “gatekeepers” and reach economic agreements with the network, which then places the content on a computer and transmits it across the air, through coaxial, or, less lately, directly over the internet via CDNs (Content Delivery Networks like Akamai or Amazon CloudFront). Choices over what information is provided, once it is decided to offer, the pricing, and the distribution route remain highly confidential and bureaucratic.

In a decentralized world, no single website or authority would have a say in how content is delivered or reaches the “last mile.” No website would be able to restrict access to a particular material. With decentralized apps (Dapps) for amusement, either live streaming or on-demand video, thousands of computers worldwide would operate as transmitters in a non-hierarchical distributed system.

These “super nodes” will overcome the last problem by broadcasting the signal to computers near. This will be especially useful in nations where existing CDNs do not have a significant presence. New cryptocurrency initiatives that employ current blockchain applications or entirely new blockchains as infrastructure for decentralized video streaming have emerged. Some of them, such as LivePeer, built on the Steem blockchain, and Viuly, developed on Ethereum, are geared for ingesting and reducing material before making it public.

Some are Ethereum-based compiled code tokens enabling broadcasters and influencers, such as Stream Token and YouNow/PROPS. Spectiv VR is focused on the advertising model and ensuring that content creators receive a more significant share of the revenue, mainly for Virtual worlds. Furthermore, LBRY & my business, Theta Labs, are developing new blockchains/protocols to support third-party DApps for entertainment, esports, and other applications.

Not only could these bitcoin initiatives utterly upset the distribution sector by eliminating the need for centralized architectures, but they could also wholly disrupt the Netflixes of the world and render the concept of channels on Cable obsolete. A channel is nothing more than the delivery of handpicked information over a well-defined distribution network.

Also, read – Blockchain Analytics – 5 ways Blockchain is Impacting the Data Industry

A few examples how completely decentralized blockchain-based independent company could disrupt the business sector:

Make Room for Content Providers. Content creators could start creating shows and instantly make them available on a decentralized platform, eliminating the need to pitch a studio or try to get Netflix to put you on their system. There will be no censors to authorize your material.
Streams are being added. New “streams” may develop in an entirely decentralized manner. Channels for esports, live events, fantasy, sci-fi, news, and so forth may be imagined. Anyone can create these channels, and content providers can join them.

Free Content and Advertising By utilizing tokens on these networks, free programming could even undermine the traditional TV advertising paradigm (which sites like YouTube are already adopting). Newer cryptocurrency media initiatives typically provide coins or tokens that marketers may use to purchase visibility on these decentralized networks. They can specify that those coins go straight to the content producer without needing an intermediary to take a considerable portion of the revenue – a significant break from current procedures in which the middleman takes the lion’s share.

Content purchased. Regarding paid entertainment or the subscription model, viewers might subscribe to particular channels or spend a specific content creator using the new tokens produced by decentralized content networks. This might replace cable on-demand and provide viewers with a limitless selection of what they can watch “on-demand.” HBO and other subscription networks have lately created their apps, allowing you to stream them without a cable connection. The future HBO might be a truly decentralized network that is not dependent on Cable!

Technological developments have an impact on the entertainment business. Whereas the web has given rise to new ways to watch content, the creation and dissemination of elevated programs have still been controlled by a few players, including studios, TV networks, cable providers, and aggregators such as Netflix. This has not resulted in the democratization of material that the internet promised.

Blockchain technology has the potential to profoundly disrupt the entertainment business by breaking down the centralized gatekeepers and replacing them with a peer-to-peer network.

Many of these projects will go online by the end of the year, and we can expect new players to increase in 2019 and 2020. Just as it took Netflix several years to supplant Blockbuster and video rental outlets as the dominant means to enjoy on-demand entertainment, the new decentralized strategy may take several years to become the dominating trend. The 2020s are expected to be the decade of blockchain in entertainment.