SME 2018: Blockchain 101 for Media 和 Entertainment

Staying on top of streaming technologies is hard enough, 只是为了增加另一个层次的复杂性, companies using blockchain technology are also targeting the media 和 entertainment industries with a range of disruptive products. A 流媒体 East session called “Mining for Content—Five Ways Blockchain Is Disrupting Entertainment”identified a number of things to consider about this nascent technology.

什么是区块链?

区块链是一种交易技术. Most blockchain companies create their own cryptocurrency as the other part of their business model. 最著名的加密货币是比特币, Ethereum, 和波纹, 加密货币市场非常不稳定. The cryptocurrency side of blockchain was outside the purview of this presentation.

Blockchain was originally developed to h和le financial transactions in a distributed ledger, which has a high level of security because data is stored on many systems, 而不是只有一个.

“一方请求交易. The transaction is funneled to a peer-to-peer network. Individual nodes receive the transaction 和 validate them,克里斯·迈克尔斯说, 流媒体行业的传道者, Wowza媒体系统. "Approved transactions are represented as blocks 和 added to a public ledger called a blockchain." If you were to try 和 maliciously change this data, you would have to reach out to all the nodes on the systems.

你能用它做什么?

The theory behind blockchain is that it enables people to register contracts between two parties 和 eliminate an intermediary for transactions. The transaction is stored on the blockchain in a distributed fashion, so contracts should be much more secure than if a transaction was only stored on one computer. 的机会? This could be a medium where secure viewer-to-creator, distributor-to-creator 和 even viewer-to-viewer transaction could occur, 麦克说.

"Say I have half my digital library from Google Play, but I'm not interested in this content any longer,迈克尔斯说."我怎样才能摆脱这个或者拿回我的钱? Can I transfer that smart contract to someone else?” Using blockchain technologies, those opportunities may become possible.

Who's Getting Blockchain Right in Media 和 Entertainment?

While it is very early in the adoption cycle for blockchain technology, many companies are trying to identify how it could be used in the future. There are a number of companies who are attempting to bring to market products that are relevant to the media 和 entertainment vertical, 麦克说.

这其中就包括专注于分销的Decent. The company promises content owners can choose their own pricing 和 publish content via their platform. White Rabbitenables viewers watching pirated content on peer-to-peer networks to reach out directly to pay 生产商. White Rabbit’s technology identifies pirated content, 和 viewers have the ability to voluntarily reach out 和 anonymously pay for content.

“两家名字相似的公司，视图和威尼斯国际大学活跃在版税领域，”迈克尔斯说. "视图 pitches [that]viewers can watch videos without ads by paying for content by contributions. 威尼斯国际大学 is ad-supported, [和] it says it [on its website] ‘Users watch free videos 和 get rewards. Advertisers place ads 和 pay directly to their users. Advertising budgets are distributed amongst content creators 和 users. 不再有中间商!'" There are also interesting companies in retail (Flixxo 和的声音)及保安(Guardtime).

区块链常见问题

"These are some of the questions blockchain companies are trying to answer: How do I get my content to my viewers reliably? 如何防止盗版内容? How do I sell directly to a viewer or create a subscription service? 如何安全地分发我的内容? 我如何更快地支付人才或创作者?迈克尔斯说. Is this a situation where there are more questions than answers? 很有可能.

The other unasked question in the presentation is “Will any of these blockchain initiatives in media 和 entertainment succeed?“现在就有这种感觉还为时过早. Stay tuned to see how things develop in this innovative, yet very nascent space.