It is widely acknowledged that decentralized systems are the way forward for the Internet. However, despite this theory, transitioning to this future has proven difficult. The current state of the web is dominated by centralized hosting provided by large tech companies such as Meta (which owns Facebook, and Instagram…), Google (which owns YouTube), Apple, and Microsoft, which exercise complete control over the digital world and exploit users to maximize profits. It feels like we have fallen into a dystopian cyberpunk reality, where the bleakest predictions have become a reality.
The current situation may seem bleak, but there is hope on the horizon. As history has shown, good always has a way of triumphing over evil, and we can take solace in the fact that the roots of a decentralized future are starting to push their way through the restrictive barriers that currently exist. Just like plants that can grow through the asphalt, the movement towards decentralization is finding a way to break free from the confines of proprietary systems.
YouTube censorship
The drawbacks associated with centralization are well-documented, including its potential as a single point of failure, the risk of censorship, and a closed ecosystem that can render individuals as mere “users” without any voice.
One notable example of this problematic system is evident in the case of YouTube, which currently dominates the video hosting market. As a result, it is able to establish its own rules and regulations, leaving little room for negotiation. For instance, the Blender Foundation, which provides a free, open-source animation and 3D graphics editor known as Blender under the GNU GPL, was confronted with a variety of issues. Specifically, YouTube unexpectedly took control of the official Blender channel and blocked it without explanation, in addition to blocking other popular channels such as the MIT OpenCourseWare lecture channel. Consequently, these channel owners had to agree to a new content monetization license agreement and enable advertisements on their channels.
After a few days, the official Blender channel was reinstated. However, the incident did not go unnoticed, and the Blender organization eventually opted to switch from YouTube to PeerTube, a decentralized peer-to-peer video hosting platform that offers censorship-free and unblocked video sharing.
Several other companies have also come to this realization. Living in constant fear of a looming threat can be psychologically taxing and lead to nervous exhaustion.
Decentralized future
Currently, there is a noticeable surge in the development of decentralized services such as file systems, which allow files to be distributed across multiple user computers, decentralized hosting, financial settlements that don’t rely on a centralized issuing authority, and many others. It is possible to replace almost any centralized service from the last decade with a peer-to-peer alternative that aligns with the principles of Web 3.0.
While numerous video hosting sites that even offer monetization options exist on the internet. They are often closed proprietary platforms akin to YouTube. Some examples of such platforms include Dtube (which leverages the Avalon blockchain for monetization), BitChute, Dlive.io, and Odysee (formerly known as LBRY.tv). Although content can be uploaded to all of these platforms simultaneously, they remain relatively closed off.
Fortunately, the emergence of new-generation decentralized systems such as PeerTube offers a viable alternative. As anyone can establish an instance of it on their own server.
Monetization
While the process of setting up an instance on PeerTube does not offer a simple one-click monetization option like YouTube. It provides a greater level of independence. It does, however, require a certain level of technical literacy and entails paying for traffic.
Each client connects to the distribution, which subsequently opens a player in the browser and initiates playback.
It would be wise for popular YouTube channel owners to back up their videos in case they need to resort to hosting them elsewhere. Ideally, they should transition to using their own hosting services and utilize YouTube as a mirror site. For instance, the technical channel BattlePenguin has a devoted audience that watches the channel on PeerTube, whereas viewers from Google’s search engine. Recommendation system, and other services are directed to the old YouTube. It is therefore not advisable to close old YouTube channels after transitioning to a standard hosting service but rather, to use it as a backup.
Ultimately, your own hosting service may be the only viable alternative if you happen to be banned from YouTube.
PeerTube
PeerTube is a streaming platform that provides hosting services with P2P support. The developer of this platform is a non-profit organization based in France called Framasoft.
The concept of PeerTube emerged in 2017, following the censorship of autonomous content on popular proprietary platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Around the same time, WebRTC and WebTorrent technologies were integrated into web browsers. Enabling the distribution of content through P2P networks among users. This feature allows for an infinitely scalable system without the need for costly centralized servers.
In order to make a video publicly available, it is necessary to create a PeerTube instance on your computer. An official Docker container is readily available. However, it should be noted that while the load can be distributed among other peers. Some of the traffic will still be generated from the original video instance.
Communication between servers takes place through ActivityPub. Which enables users to subscribe to channels from different instances as well as Mastodon, Pleroma, and other ActivityPub-enabled servers.
PeerTube also supports the download of subtitles in VTT and SRT formats. For those looking to download YouTube captions, youtube-dl can be used to achieve this, or through the web interface.
The peer-to-peer concept is familiar to many from torrenting. Once the content is downloaded, the user automatically becomes part of the distribution network. The same principle applies to PeerTube: the more popular a video is, the more users will help distribute it. This concept is also being considered for implementation in the BitTorrent File System. Where users may receive compensation in the form of BTT tokens for sharing files.
A fourth version of PeerTube
The developers of PeerTube have been continuously working on enhancing the platform. Recently, on November 30, 2021, the release candidate for version 4 of PeerTube (PeerTube v4) was made available. As of now, there are almost a thousand decentralized instances on the platform. Along with a functioning search engine and numerous plugins designed to customize individual instances according to the needs of their specific audience. The platform hosts a vast number of videos, amounting to half a million, and tens of thousands of lines of code have been written.
Version 3 and Version 4
The number of PeerTube instances currently stands at 916. A significant feature of PeerTube version 3, released a year ago, was the ability to stream content directly between peers in real time. With version 3.1, developers made improvements in video transcoding, while version 3.2 focused on enhancing the video player’s user interface. Including automatic restoration of viewing position after a download interruption and additional channel management options for owners. Version 3.3 featured a homepage setup allowing for banners, highlighted channels, arbitrary text, and shortened URLs. The testing phase of PeerTube version 4 is nearing completion, with the most notable feature being a tabular view of all videos on the platform.
The developers of PeerTube have been continuously working on enhancing the platform. Recently, on November 30, 2021, the release candidate for version 4 (PeerTube v4) was made available.
As of now, there are almost a thousand decentralized instances on the platform, along with a functioning search engine and numerous plugins designed to customize individual instances according to the needs of their specific audience. The platform hosts a vast number of videos. Amounting to half a million, and tens of thousands of lines of code have been written. The number of PeerTube instances currently stands at 916.
Version 3
A significant feature of PeerTube version 3, released a year ago. Was the ability to stream content directly between peers in real time. With version 3.1, developers made improvements in video transcoding, while version 3.2 focused on enhancing the video player’s user interface. Including automatic restoration of viewing position after a download interruption and additional channel management options for owners. Version 3.3 featured a homepage setup allowing for banners, highlighted channels, arbitrary text, and shortened URLs.
The testing phase of PeerTube version 4 is nearing completion, with the most notable feature being a tabular view of all videos on the platform.
The tabular view
Having a tabular view simplifies file management on the hosting platform, especially when dealing with a large number of files. With this feature, you can select multiple files and apply general actions to them, such as deleting, transcoding, or blocking. Moreover, you can select files based on specific criteria such as video format, date of publication. And whether they are your own original videos or uploaded by others.
This tabular view is also available for third-party users who register on the instance and upload their videos on the platform. This trend of enlarging nodes in the system is becoming more common. As users prefer to place their files on other people’s instances within a common federated network instead of hosting them on their own. Hence, there is a need for both an interface for users and a tabular view for administrators dealing with a large number of files.
Low-tech feature
A new low-tech feature has been added to PeerTube: the generation of low-resolution 144p videos. Which is useful for audio broadcasts or situations where the visual quality is not important.
Framasoft
Framasoft, one of the most respected organizations in the French open-source community, is behind the development of PeerTube. The project was crowdfunded three years ago and has been growing ever since.
It is not just peer-to-peer video hosting that is developing at a rapid pace. But also related to third-party projects such as the PeerTube Live Chat plugin and the PeerTube Live App. The latter allows users to stream videos from their Android smartphones by connecting to their instance where the stream will be broadcasted and recorded.
Once version four is released, the developers plan to take a break and consider future plans for version five. They are open to suggestions for new features. Such as a video editor, remote server transcoding, or automatic import of channels and videos from other PeerTube instances or YouTube.