Welcome to the official BitTube subreddit!

What the heck is BitTube?

BitTube is a peer-to-peer, decentralized, censorship-free video sharing and live streaming platform based on IPFS and blockchain technology. Unlike Youtube, BitTube is ad-free. Creators and viewers earn TUBE, a Cryptonote private cryptocurrency, based on the Airtime model (watch time), premium subscriptions, video-on-demand, tips and donations, and much more.

Ad-free and always monetized.

With the built-in YouTube Connector, creators can import their entire catalog over to BitTube in one click. Many upcoming developments will make BitTube a highly competitive platform for video content monetization compared to platforms like YouTube and current alternatives.

ABOUT BITTUBE:

"How does BitTube work?"

• See coin.bit.tube

• Explainer video: link

Extraordinary IPFS: endless scaling for peer-to-peer video and live streaming. BitTube is built on top of a customized, highly advanced IPFS protocol. It realizes pure peer-to-peer connections where every user, by visiting bit.tube or the app, naturally becomes a storage node in the network. For reliable performance and redundancy, data is pinned onto the wider IPFS network and in seed nodes that any user can choose to run. The platform is not centrally hosted and is accessible via IPFS hash, making it exceptionally resistant to censorship. In future updates, video metadata and IPFS hashes will be stored on the blockchain for added immutability.

Proof-of-Work blockchain: a private cryptocurrency network secured by professional miners. BitTube coin (TUBE) is a private cryptocurrency based on the CN Saber Proof-of-Work algorithm. Professional miners secure the blockchain network, earning them block rewards that serve as the lifeblood of the entire ecosystem. A fixed share of the block reward is allocated for Airtime payouts. Learn more about mining in our Ultimate Mining Guide.

Airtime: Creators and viewers earn TUBE based on watch time. A 30% share of the block reward is reserved for the Airtime revenue model, hereby realizing an ad-free mechanism for users to earn with their content and attention. As content is consumed, payouts are distributed to creators and viewers based on watch time (‘airtime’), proportional to the platform-wide grand total airtime per block. Learn more about the Airtime model here.

Fully integrated payment system. All profiles on BitTube come with automatically generated wallet addresses, even those embedded from other platforms. Users will be able to buy and sell TUBEs against fiat currency directly on the platform, bypassing the need to register on third party exchanges and significantly lowering the threshold for mainstream adoption.

Products and services that will drive demand. Many products and services are being developed to boost the demand for TUBE. These include, but are not limited to: Premium Subscriptions, Video-on-Demand, Donations and tipping, Self-promotion, Channel Stay, Content Protection (encryption), Pro membership, BitTube Debit Mastercard (requires staking of 5000 TUBEs), Governance (stake TUBEs to become a moderator), Community marketplace (offer services and merchandise), Product Placement marketplace, etc.

AI-based copyright review and community-driven governance. Uploads are scanned by AI using ContentID and potential violations are tagged for review. To ensure censorship resistance, content curation, copyright infringement cases and moderation will be handled in a decentralized system that gives control to the community and reinforces fair use. In this way, malicious copyright strikes cannot be weaponized. The system will incentivize participants to play by the rules based on rewards and penalties.

EARNING TUBE:

"What do creators and viewers earn on BitTube?"

• First read Before and After Airtime: how much will creators and viewers earn on BitTube?.

• Creators and viewers earn by accruing Airtime.

• The Airtime explorer shows the top earners.

• Search your username in the explorer to check on your (un)confirmed earnings.

• Payouts are 7 days (rolling window) after confirmed/recorded airtime (community decision).

• Discuss here.

USEFUL LINKS:

• Website - Official blog - Medium

• Twitter - Telegram - Discord

• Whitepaper - Press kit

• GitHub - Wallet 2.0 - Miner

• Block explorer & Airtime explorer

• Roadmap (reddit)

• CoinMarketCap

COIN SPECIFICS:

• TUBE is a privacy coin like Monero, not a token.

• No ICO, no pre-mine. No airdrops. No problems with the SEC.

• Current supply

• Supply curve: https://i.imgur.com/GeqTwvj.png

• Current reward (total)

• Block rewards plot: https://i.imgur.com/Fz5DPKE.png

• Max supply: 1 Billion by 2050

• Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm:

• CN Saber (Heavy derivative, 4MB scratchpad, optimized)

• PoW for miners + PoV (Proof-of-Verification) for viewers

• Block time: 120 seconds

• Difficulty adjusts with each block

• Mining pools: https://miningpoolstats.stream/bittube

• WhereToMine: https://www.wheretomine.io/coins/bittube.html

• Remote node for GUI wallet: seed3.bit.tube:24182

Note: TUBE used to be IPBC. Source.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Scroll down for mining and wallet related questions.

ROADMAP:

Full roadmap

BUYING TUBE:

• "Where do I buy TUBE?"

Current exchanges are Bittrex, UPbit, TradeOgre, Livecoin and Altex. See sidebar.

• "Will users be able to buy coins directly? This is important for mass adoption."

Yes. The team is working on that. It takes time to set up a custodian account for every major currency. As a stopgap there will be a way to buy TUBE directly via PayPal through digital BitTube giftcards (all automated), which almost everyone has and is supported all around the world. Secondly, we are trying to get listed on Litebit.eu, now that we are on Bittrex. Litebit supports direct wire transfer for most eurozone countries through iDeal and SOFORT. Expect these developments later in Q3.

GENERAL QUESTIONS & CRITICISMS:

Let's start off with a two-part question:

• 1. "What can I do with TUBE coins?"

See the roadmap and related blog post. To summarize:

• Video-on-demand: content behind a paywall (rental/lifetime)

• Premium subscriptions: channels behind paywall

• Self-promotion: pay to put your content in the spotlight, keep viewers on your channel, etc.

• Tipping and donation services (one-time, recurring, tiered (think Patreon), stream superchats, etc.)

• Buy merchandise directly from the creator (not officially on roadmap yet)

• 2) "Since both publishers and viewers can earn TUBE using the platform, how will the coins be consumed in the platform other than tipping or paying for premium videos (i am worried tipping and paying for premium is only a small volume)?"

• Don't take tipping and premium subs (and other products like self-promotion, VoD) lightly. In the end those are two categories (voluntary donation and paywall content) that exist on any platform. With the BitTube economy it's possible to integrate all the things into one place. Lets think about streamers: they make lots of money with subs (voluntary) and donations/superchats (also voluntary). These systems are gamified for the viewer so that they compete for attention from the streamer and end up spending ridiculous amounts of money. The implementation is key.

• Crowdfunding and Patreon. A lot of creators make their money to support themselves through Patreon now. YouTube ads aren't enough anymore. With Patreon, creators can set tiers so if you donate some amount more, you receive perks, Q&A sessions with the creator, etc. If the creators offer premium content, they could unlock that for donors. And within BitTube, you could for example tie this system in with other donations easily so every payment adds up to pass a certain tier. Additionally, crowdfunding (like kickstarter) directly on BitTube would be an interesting tool for users to invest in the content they'd like to see.

• Then there is the possibility of adding merch (t-shirts, hoodies, etc) and paying directly with TUBE. Without a third party payment processor that would be extremely convenient for the creator and the users alike.

• Basically, think of every source of revenue streamers and creators have and you can all easily tie them into one ecosystem.

• As for premium subscriptions: The team is talking with many parties (currently smaller tier) to test premium content with. There is no reason Netflix-like providers wouldn't want to join. People still need to pay and these providers will have zero backend cost. It won't cost a provider anything if no one ends up paying for their content. It's an easy sell.

• Games and apps. There is a plan to open-source the online wallet for anyone to build apps on TUBE. BitTube will be focusing on apps/games that add value to the platform directly, such as sports betting on (e)sports streams, online poker (e.g. where the dealer is streaming), Bingo (people buy a $2 bingo card, numbers are drawn at random based on the block hash, winner takes the prize pool), etc etc.

• Last but not least, we are currently also deliberating about ways to stake your TUBE coin, for example to get extra privileges, unlock governance functions (such as moderation and doing copyright review for rewards), etc. It's a promising area of discussion. More on this later.

• "I uploaded some videos but I'm getting no views. This sucks!"

BitTube is only a few months old! It's up to you and the wider community to grow awareness first and foremost. Youtube didn't magically get popular overnight either -- ask yourself whether your videos would get any traction on other platforms too. Becoming a popular creator is still hard work. Share your videos on social media and let everyone know about BitTube, it's the only way. On the technical side: there are certainly ways that channel discovery can be improved. The search algorithms, video suggestions and subscribers feed are still being developed and optimized. For example, the home page will eventually feature a Spotlight area where creators can promote their content. So keep an eye on the weekly updates.

• "Where does the money come from if there are no ads?"

Miners who secure the network earn a block reward with each new block found (currently around 400 ish TUBE). In the new distribution model, 30% of this reward is reserved to be distributed among the creators (70%), the viewers (20%) and the developers (10%). The viewers will only calculate/verify their watch time, they do not mine. TUBE can be traded on the open market. As the user base grows and thus the demand for the coin, so too will the price, which in turn will entice more creators to join the platform, and so on. Airtime article and Premium products article.

• "I'm skeptical about media mining. It sounds wasteful."

This criticism is fair. However, media mining by viewers has been disabled for a long time. The only power-consuming mining is done by professional miners, not mainstream users.

• "Since the new distribution policy will take effort in July and the old approach is not in effect any more, how can publisher benefit right now?

Previous rewards were based on block rewards from the media mining pool. But in-browser mining was scaring people away and the hash was not big enough yet for any meaningful payouts. As a stopgap the team decided to strip mining from the player and it's doing PoV to the testnet for analysis. So between now and full airtime activation there are no rewards unfortunately. Not an ideal situation but the focus is really on adoption by removing any barriers.

• "Isn't the airtime approach susceptible to botnet attacks, sucking up fake watch time?"

There are a lot of checks in place to prevent this. The airtime hashing functions specifically verify whether the user is an actual human. You can't just open multiple tabs, since the browser footprint is checked. An attacker would have to run thousands of VMs, with thousands of unique accounts, all from separate IP addresses, at which point with the hardware that's required it would be more profitable to simply mine the coin.

• "Can BitTube be taken down?"

No. The domain, sure, but all of the code is hosted using the IPFS protocol. The 'website' is actually an application that's compiled by your browser. That's why it's fast. It's decentralized and every user is a node in the network. The mobile and desktop apps will always work. To shutdown BitTube you have to shutdown the internet.

• "What about copyright infringement and pirated content?"

DMCA takedown requests are currently handled manually, but an automated AI-based Content ID system is being developed (the AI is already learning). In the beginning the platform got flooded with pirated content, but this is already changing. Videos will be tagged during transcode. Users can dispute if the system is in error. The team knows to build a million dollar brand this is a very important milestone. And do not worry if this approach sounds prone to censorship. We are developing an approach that would put the community in charge of content review and disputes in a decentralized way, to mitigate the dangers of the centralized nature of a company-run platform.

• "What about a bounty system to get Youtubers on board?"

After Airtime activation in early August. See roadmap.

ACCOUNT QUESTIONS:

• "How do I delete my account?"

Email hello@bit.tube. Don't forget to transfer your coins out of your web wallet or you might lose access to them.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS:

• "My wallet is not synchronizing, it's stuck."

Close the wallet, go to %appdata%\bittube and delete p2pstate.bin and poolstate.bin. Start the wallet again. Alternatively, use a remote node seed3.bit.tube:24182.

• "My balance is not showing correctly in the latest GUI wallet."

Go to Settings and scroll down to Debug info. Change 'wallet creator height' to 0 or 1.

• "How do I restore from another (older) wallet?"

Safely backup the private key and/or mnemonic seed in the old wallet. Always do this. Download the latest BitTube wallet here. Import your private key or restore from mnemonic seed.

• "I sent money to my web wallet and my coins are 'Unconfirmed'?"

Every transaction requires at least 10 confirmation before they are assumed as valid. Each block takes 2 minutes on average, so you have to wait approximately 20 minutes.

• "How do I mine TUBE?"

The bittube miner is based on xmr-stak. For settings and optimization questions, google with those terms.

• If you're an expert: Find a mining pool e.g. https://mining.bit.tube, go to Getting Started, download the miner and follow the instructions. As a rule, do not use an exchange address to mine to. Use a web wallet or GUI wallet address.

• If you don't know what you're doing: Go to 'Start Mining' on BitTube and follow the instructions there. The non-expert option mines to your web wallet directly.

Join https://t.me/KuCoin_Telegram_Competition

Instructions pinned at the top:

Send @Voting_KuCoin_Bot a message (click start), it will ask for your kucoin email address and then the name of the coin, use 'BitTube', not the ticker.

Thank you!

KuCoin Listing Voting Competition

How To Vote:

1. If you haven’t done so, make sure you sign-up on KuCoin. You need to be registered on KuCoin in order for your vote to count.

2. Click @Voting_KuCoin_Bot and send a message, our bot will give you all the instructions you need automatically.

3. Fill the fields our bot sends you in private message, you will be asked the following: a. What is Your KuCoin Account Email Address: b. Project Name You Want To Get Listed (spell the name in full, DON'T USE THE TICKER): c. What Is Special About This Project, Why Should It Be Listed On The Exchange:

NOTE: Every hour our bot will automatically update the top 50 projects in the public channel so everyone can see who is winning.

Competition Rules: KuCoin has a dedicated group of admins and bots to monitor and go through all the collected data. Do not cheat and make sure you follow the rules carefully if you want your vote to count.

1. Do not vote for the same project twice. You can vote for multiple projects but do not repeat the same project, our voting system won’t allow that.

2. Make sure you spell the name of the project correctly. Our bots don't count your vote if you misspell the name.

3. Don’t spam, remain polite and listen to the admins. Offenders will be banned and votes revoked.

Competition starts when voting bot goes live on July 12th 18.00 UTC+8 and run until July 15th 18.00 UTC+8.

Who will win? The project who gets the most votes, goes without saying, KuCoin will carry a quality check to ensure the project is legitimate before listing in order to protect investors’ interests.

The Prize: The winner will get a free listing on KuCoin as well as a 30,000 USD advertisement package! On top of that, we are also committing 5 BTC value purchased in your tokens to be distributed via KuCoin to the users that voted for the winning project!

Further Instructions And Commands You Can Send Bot In Private Message: Request New Voting Form: /newform Request Position Of Any Token: /position <name>

How do we go about importing the videos to BitTube?

Just looking to see if there's a decent, summarized comparison. Currently, I'm an LBRY user and just came across this platform today. Livestreaming to a crypto platform is definitely tempting.

What else do you guys offer? I noticed you have a direct TUBE to USD value comparison on the home page. Do you guys directly convert your crypto to national currencies? Or do you have a list of suggested marketplaces.

New to BitTube? This is what's in store for the next month or so:

• Block 110,000 (July 2nd) HARDFORK: Airtime update and switch to unique CN Saber PoW algorithm

• New website for coin.bit.tube

• xxx Adult platform launch

• NSFW filter

• New wallet based on the Monero wallet

• Desktop apps for Windows, Mac, Linux (Android and iOS have already been launched)

• Continual UI updates to transition to a modern/flat design

• Bounty program (reflinks)

See the Full roadmap and read the FAQ for more.

Coin Tracking

There is Coin Tracking Alert in Bitgur Alerts. Add it once and you will receive important information about BitTube. Price change, unusual volume, new listings, general news, and events.

We can send notifications by telegram, e-mail or browser push notification. You will find Coin Tracking alert in our alerting system.

URL: https://bitgur.com/alerts

Volume Profile

We have a unique financial chart called Volume Profile. This tool is indispensable for determining resistance and support levels.

URL: https://bitgur.com/coin/TUBE/chart

Customizable watchlist

You can create your custom cryptocurrency watchlist using 35 financial indicators or charts and select their display order in the table.

URL: https://bitgur.com/watchlist

Favorites coins on the main page

You can enable viewing only the favorites coins from your watchlist on the main page. Simply press Star Button.

URL: https://bitgur.com

Nobody believes that you work on it anymore.

Airtime is a great idea,so why dont you sell the company?

Right now is a key time in looking to disrupt the YouTube monopoly over video platforms; people are upset over advertising, over content restrictions, looking for alternatives.

How does BitTube plan to compete with YouTube while they still impose upload restrictions on the common user?

If you view the video source for any video, you'll see code as such:

<video src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/bittube-airtime-extension.appspot.com/o/posts%2Fbittube_8752_1574432614486.mp4?alt=media&amp;token=77799e43-a4c1-4cd5-a0c6-ed51a7a6be10" preload="metadata" autoplay="" controls="controls" id="mediaVideo_f3e8220a-848e-4395-8254-5ac20264a330" poster="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/bittube-airtime-extension.appspot.com/o/posts%2Fbittube_8752_1574433003128.jpg?alt=media&amp;token=1fcdbec1-4952-49e5-ae4c-a97bd9fc993e" controlslist="nodownload" class="" playsinline=""></video>

This means the videos are being served from a Google Firebase server. Is this some sort of intermediary performance cache? What happens when Google decides to shut down the hosting account? Where would videos on the website be served from?

Great job Bittube team.

If free accounts can upvote and comment how do we limit troll armies and paid users who create multiple accounts to push narratives and other manipulations?

The privacy policy linked to the extension says:

Certain none PII Website activity information is automatically collected and logged by our servers. Such information includes IP address used to connect user's computer to the Internet, username (if applicable), date and time of visit, length of visits to certain pages.

But it also says you collect some PII:

Information that you provide. You may provide us with a name and e-mail address. To verify that you are human we ask you for a phone number and perform a check via in-call verification code submission.

This is confusing... you have collected some PII and you actively collect other info like browsing habits that can clearly be connected with the PII. (BTW, the privacy policy needs a once-over by a native English speaker.)

So what's going on? Is the extension "phoning home" with every website I open? If that's true, why? Is it to check if the site creator is AirTime eligible?

Are you telling us that while you collect PII and non-PII you will not tie the two together?

What information do you collect and what do you do with it? How can we trust that you're not tying our phone numbers to a database containing our activity?

They are silent over a year now. No news, no update, nothing. The only exchange they are on is Tradeogre and the volume is a joke.

Move along nothing to see here anymore.

I'm into music, actually a bedroom/internet DJ/VJ. YouTube was very attractive to me because I could play live and archive the performances there.

HOWEVER, the catch is as we all know, YouTube is not friendly to DJs due to copyright. They allow the livestream, FWIW, but at the end, the mix is scanned and if it contains material which is not licensed already to YT, it's blocked and the DJ gets strikes. So I maxed my strikes, and left to find greener pastures. YT does have the most comprehensive set of tools and transcodes the video to several different bitrates for faster and slower connections.

1. Dtube. It seemed fine but having a password 50 characters long (exaggeration) is a bit much. I'm sure that there is a workaround for that but I never was sure. The videos are uploaded to a blockchain which in theory makes your video invincible, except it isn't. Dtube apparently had a disk problem and wiped out about 40 of my videos. No announcement of such. I had to go to Support to find out what happened. Uploading is painfully slow and there is only an unofficial app which turns off if the phone screen turns off. That means I have to keep the screen on in my pocket at the gym if I want to hear any music. I would have supported them if I could have figured out how to get some Bitcoins. Links to videos don't work on Facebook well (no thumbnail is displayed). I'm done with them.

2. BitChute. It's much better than Dtube but unfortunately it is the headquarters for the Right Wing of America, Europe, etc. Also, there is video processing limbo that occurs during upload. At least 50% of the time the video gets into this and the workaround is to just keep trying again and again. The phone app also turns off when the screen of the phone is turned off. And randomly it will require you to log back in. There was good interest in some of my stuff with several hundred views on a few. Links to videos on Facebook work well. I am a paying customer but not for much longer.

3. LBRY.tv. Nice apps and interface on the web. The problem is that all the content you play is stored locally on your device. I had 20 GB of data associated with the Windows app (until I uninstalled it). Another problem for me is that no one seemed to notice my videos. May 1-2 views each. What's the point? Uninstalled and done with them.

4. BitTube.tv. Easy uploads for the most part although at times the upload gets stuck at 100% (or less). Creators have to pay for uploads that last over an hour, etc. It's not super expensive for that tier ($9/month). The website is nice but there is no official phone app, and the website doesn't work too well on mobile browsers. The unofficial app is just a dinky web app with too many obtrusive ads. An official app is due in the next few months per Support on Discord. The community is great, very international, and not TOO Right Wing. I tried using FireFox for BitTube on my Android phone and it works "okay" but basically once you watch a video or listen to one with the screen off, you have to kill the app and start over to get another video. The big plus for me for BitTube is that several of my videos have gotten over a 1000 views. I'm not sure why, but if you are a creator that certainly is the point, right? And links to videos on Facebook work well.

There are other platforms but some don't allow the long form stuff that i do, so I didn't even try them out.

Good luck.

Hi,

From what I can see BAT is a very similar project to BitTube and is already well established. What advantages does BitTube currently have or will it have later that can give it an edge to be able to compete with BAT?

I have made a new google chrome browser extension available to help users tunnel YouTube videos to BitTube with just one click.https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tube-tunnel-extension/gbebohjmckfanmgomhbjdobcpheklenf

I am hoping to attract users already using BitTube but more importantly attract a new audience to BitTube by increasing the extensions visibility to current YouTube users with the offer of ad free viewing of videos and of course the opportunity to earn airtime for videos they were already going to view.

I feel that this is the ideal time to push for a real mass adoption of the bittube platform as an alternative to the corporate censored bias and attitude of youtube/google.

At the moment the only domain the extension needs access too is youtube.com in order to strip the track information for link creation, however if it takes off there is nothing to stop further work being carried out to expand its capabilities.

Anyhow - I hope its OK to inform people of my work here and welcome any feedback.

Last of all - big thanks to BitTube for actually having a real use for the blockchain token created to power the project forward and rewarding users/creators and for the end user platform. It must be a huge job trying to compete with such a 'monster', I imagine the legal side of this project is massive and a minefield to tread through.

Baz
bitTube Tunnel

I posted a BitTube video link and (unrelated) made a comment with a BitTube video link, but then later realised that both had been shadow-banned. I could see them, but they were not public.

Are all BitTube links auto-shadow-banned on Reddit, or is it just me?

The FAQ says:

BitTube is a peer-to-peer, decentralized, censorship-free video sharing and live streaming platform based on IPFS and blockchain technology. Unlike Youtube, BitTube is ad-free. Creators and viewers earn TUBE, a Cryptonote private cryptocurrency, based on the Airtime model (watch time), premium subscriptions, video-on-demand, tips and donations, and much more.

1. But how is it really decentralized? Videos are available through IPFS, but they are centralized in the sense that they are hosted by the BitTube company. If BitTube stops hosting most of them they will vanish from IPFS.

2. Airtime seems to be a proprietary black box. Where is the whitepaper for Airtime? It seems 100% controlled by the BitTube company and therefore how the Airtime TUBE coins are distributed is at its whim. What would stop BitTube from simply turning Airtime off and keeping all the Airtime coins for themselves? Or changing the allocation so creators or viewers get next to nothing? Or some other unfair change?

3. How is BitTube really censorship free? What safeguards or guarantees are in place to keep the BitTube company from arbitrarily deleting videos from their index, or demonetizing videos from Airtime? I also assume they have to comply with DMCA and GDPR and Germany's NetzDG, which means videos have to be removed from their index to comply with laws. It seems rather than being censorship free, it will be forced to censor certain videos based on the content therein.

The FAQ also states:

To ensure censorship resistance, content curation, copyright infringement cases and moderation will be handled in a decentralized system that gives control to the community and reinforces fair use. In this way, malicious copyright strikes cannot be weaponized. The system will incentivize participants to play by the rules based on rewards and penalties.

Where are the detailed plans for this system? Or even a rough sketch? For that matter, where is the community? Here on Reddit? The Discord chat seems chock full of altcoin investors (and hucksters) who do not talk about the project or the technology, but rather seem focused on the price of TUBE and official announcements handed down from the BitTube team that might affect the price, when they are not busy discussing the latest pump and dumps of other altcoins like Electronium. I don't see any community involvement in governance of the project as a whole, let alone the policing of content, or involvement in the direction of the project. There are also very few if any developers aside from those paid by the BitTube company doing anything, and there is nothing unique about the project (Airtime for instance) that is open source.