BlockStream: A cataclysmic change in video streaming
I would like to introduce our project “BlockStream”, its features and uses in this blog post.
Over the past couple years blockchain has evolved from its nascent state to include many features such as NFT , financial speculation and IPFS protocol.
InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) protocol allows computers to send and receive data in a similar fashion to the BitTorrent protocol. It uses blockchain which stores the data using various connected stringed blocks. These blocks can be traversed easily, which lead to transparency while maintaining confidentiality of the data it stores.
Blockstream utilizes IPFS to have a approach for media storage where data is broken to bits and stored in series of blocks connected sequentially and spread over different servers over many regions.
Current online services charge increasingly higher fees for storing large amounts of media content on databases. Due to this the respective content storage and hosting agencies profit handsomely, while the costs are passed on to the content providers. On the other hand, our project aims to lower these costs and provide content producers easy accessibility to their revenue sources. We intend to do this using IPFS and ‘smart contracts’ on blockchain.
Smart contracts are the backbone of the present cypto ecosystem. These are programs that run on blockchain and automatically enforce contract, like transfer of digital assets, between 2 parties when certain pre-defined logical conditions are met.
Its ‘smart contract’ function provides a variety of options for sharing and storing video material within a highly protected and secure environment. This was the basis of our capstone project where we intend to create a smoother video streaming experience along with subsidiary benefits of increased levels of security, higher standards of maintaining ownership to the right owner and lowered risk of data loss and dependency on single server.
Nowadays, video streaming platforms have increased in terms of potential and usability. This has led to increased traffic and bandwidth consumption and further paving for opportunities towards improved video streaming platforms and optimizations. The already existing centralized video streaming applications work on client-server approach which directly fetches from its designated server. This approach often succumbs to large client requests with ever increasing traffic. This often leads to situation where the process where video is streamed or uploaded is slowed or bottlenecked leading to increased bandwidth costs and flash crowds. Blockstream being a blockchain based video platform offers a smooth video streaming option with stripped down cost of streaming while also weaving for plausible monetization opportunities for its users. Video streaming is being transformed by distributed blockchain technology, which is altering ways people are creating, distribute, and view video.
With BlockStream our team hopes to create a video streaming and data storage platform which is free from corporate censorship, has huge fault tolerance and is extremely resilient.
