Decentralised YouTube alternative Odysee no longer serving ads
Odysee, a decentralised YouTube alternative focused on free speech, is officially ending the serving of ads on the platform, starting today. The post:
"Dear friends of Odysee, Starting today, we're removing all ads. We don't need ads to make money as a platform and we are confident in the development of our own new monetisation programs that will help creators earn a living and at the same time keep Odysee alive. Ultimately, sacrificing the overall user experience to make a few bucks isn't worth it to us and nor is it even sustainable for a platform that wishes to make something truly open and creatively free.
As we take this decision, one thing is certain to us, media platforms (even ones that market themselves as 'free-speech') typically devolve into advertising companies and end up becoming beholden to their paymasters. It's been that way for centuries and is never going to change.
As we see YouTube become more aggressive with their ad deployment and 'Free Speech' platforms try to build their own ad businesses it's apparent to us that we're building a model for Odysee that will keep it sustainable not only financially, but in its ability to provide an incorruptible user experience.
Our approach may be considered niche or unconventional, that's fine by us. Odysee will be used by the world on terms that are agreeable to its users, and we know our users don't like ads.
Best, Founder & Creator, Chief Executive Officer. Julian Chandra"
Are they still using LBRY? Or did they switch to a different protocol?
They officially announced they were switching to the Arweave protocol in a post a little under a month ago, but I'm not sure if it's happened yet; haven't looked further into it yet, and it was revealed by other sources a little while prior to that.
I was curious what Arweave was, so I went to their site.
Turns out it's yet another crypto scheme.
I thought this statement on their landing page was particularly funny:
It's a blockchain system, but that doesn't mean it's related to cryptocurrencies in any way. Maybe it is, idk, but blockchain != cryptocurrencies, many cryptocurrencies use blockchains though because it's useful for what they're trying to do.
I am aware that blockchain is not the same thing as cryptocurrency.
And they do have a coin:
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/arweave/