LBRY is a decentralized, open-source protocol that is controlled by its users. LBRY facilitates a similar experience to services like YouTube, Netflix, and Apple TV... but LBRY is entirely decentralized! Services like YouTube are centralized platforms controlled by a single corporate entity. These companies can change the rules unilaterally, as well as censor content to appease authoritarian governments or corporate partners. LBRY can never unilaterally change the rules on publishers or consumers, making it dramatically trustworthy.

The aforementioned video providers—along with P2P file-sharing clients like BitTorrent and IPFS—also do NOT support direct payments to publishers for the content or data they create and publish to the network; LBRY does, and LBRY also creates market incentives for data to be as widespread and available as possible!

LBRY also supports the sharing of free content, but if you are earning money from your videos on YouTube right now, you are likely familiar with the recent controversies over videos being “de-monetized” for containing content unfriendly to advertisers. It’s no surprise that YouTube caters to advertisers, because those are its ultimate customers.