Upon reading a post by @cryptoviking found here about LBRY providing free tokens, we thought 'what the hell, let's try it out'.
LBRY is a free, open, and community-run digital marketplace.
You own your data. You control the network. Indeed, you are the network.
Hollywood films, college lessons, amazing streamers and more are on the first media network ruled by you.
We have spoken to LBRY users and developers on Slack, as well as read up on the ongoing discussions and issues, to bring you this information.
We'd particularly like to thank 'Jiggytom' from LBRY slack for helping answer some of the questions.
Free Credits
The intent is that active participation in LBRY will earn you some sort of reward.
Referrals
Each time someone signs up (puts in their email) using your referral code, you get credits.
https://lbry.io/get?r=i0Sfr
^ This is ours.
Once you sign up you will get yours in an email. Whenever someone signs up using your referral code, you will be allocated credits.
This is NOT a pyramid scheme -- meaning, we will NOT get extra credits if you sign up using our code and then your buddy signs up using yours.
The credit referral mechanism is still in development. You will not get instant riches.
Signing Up
You will need a valid email address for the first round of verification to enter the LBRY site, at which point you will be able to download the LBRY client.
We did not incur any undue issues while installing or uninstalling LBRY.
The LBRY Client
Once that is downloaded and installed, you will see what looks like a cross between a mini-browser and YouTube.
The way LBRY works is users upload and share content.
Content can be free or for a price of LBRY credits. If you look at the following screen grab, you'll see some of the entries have "free" underneath and some have amounts, such as "12.7". That is the price for viewing the content.
Glitches
Watching content isn't instantaneous as LBRY is still in active development. There are also myriad glitches.
For this reason, if you are actually interested in this project, we'd strongly suggest signing onto the LBRY Slack and sharing information regarding your user experience and glitches.
Limits
For those interested in using LBRY and doing so actively, there are monetary limits you can preemptively set in order to prevent overspending. The below image is the control options.
Identity Confirmation
This is something most people don't quite seem to comprehend about LBRY.
Remember how at the beginning of this post we mentioned that you receive free LBRY credits for referring users?
YOU MUST BE VERIFIED TO CLAIM YOUR CREDITS!
Credit Card Verification
Verification on LBRY is done via credit cards.
When you provide your credit card you will see an authorization charge of $1. That is not a legitimate charge as in it is not a charge that will cost you $1. It is only for verification purposes and should it show up as a line item on your statement, it will show as a refund on a subsequent line.
In short, you will NOT lose $1 and you should NOT waste anyone's time complaining or speculating about said $1.
Currently, there are no alternate methods of verification that are being considered.
You MUST use a credit card to become verified.
Content
While it is possible to hide content on the platform, similar how content can be hidden via flagging on Steemit, there is currently no way to take it down. That is just the nature of the blockchain.
The bar for what qualifies as "quality content" or "acceptable content" has not yet been implemented and will likely see future imlementation via "verified channels".
The LBRY proponents and developers on Slack don't seem to be too concerned about the potential that the platform will become utilized by pedophiles for sharing child porn or by criminals selling proprietary content.
There is an excellent potential that, due to it being a lesser-known and in-development platform with an additional payout potential, LBRY will attract these types. We hope that in the future, strict procedures are put in place to address this.
Currently, the uploaded content seems to be a soup of random short videos and images, including those typically found on shitty cartoon porn sites. This is unfortunate but should not be held against LBRY developers.
Conclusion
If you're interested in LBRY and wish to part with your credit card information, try it out and earn some credits while providing feedback and helping build the community.
We doubt it will make you rich and it is miles away from replacing YouTube, but the team is working on it and are actively trying to build something they believe in.
This account and posted content are the explicit property of http://www.guiltyparties.com and its team of rednecks and have been written, re-written, adapted and/or intended for Steemit. Additional credit is given where applicable. Watch and follow for our site re-launch in the near future.