Flixxo CEO Adrián Garelik - Decentralized video streaming services take on Youtube

Since its inception, blockchain has become much more than infrastructure underlying cryptocurrency transactions. Lots of industries that cannot be any farther from bitcoin, like real estate or logistics, are gradually embracing the innovations offered by this technology. Decentralization and utter security offered by blockchain also appeal to the industries that have to rely on huge arrays of data. The world of video content is maybe a perfect example of such industry. Services like YouTube or Netflix store all content on centralized services, which offers a great vulnerability point for hackers and costs a fortune: for instance, Netflix reportedly has to spend $1 billion a year only to store all the content it offers to its subscribers. Monetization models for YouTube video bloggers leave many of them dissatisfied as they miss huge revenues from advertising that go straight to the company. Blockchain-based solutions, on the other hand, offer models that are way cheaper regarding infrastructure maintenance, and at the same time try to come up with a solution that would seem fairer to all parties involved in the industry: the community, the content creators, and, of course, the advertisers. There is much innovation in the way such services approach those long-standing problems. I interviewed, Adrian Garelic, the CEO of Flixxo, one of such blockchain-based companies, explains what’s so innovative and disruptive about the decentralized approach towards content sharing and monetization. 1. As you have been in the technology industry for a while now, especially developing new blockchain video streaming solution, could you share some insights on video streaming industry? How big it is and what opportunities are there for businesses? Streaming industry is huge, there are basically 3 business models: subscription (dominated by Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu), transactional (pay per view, like iTunes) and advertising (where YouTube is the king), every model is used both for showcasing professional content and user-generated content (UGC). Even though there are some regional competitors for Netflix, Amazon Prime and iTunes, YouTube has practically no competition in UGC based on advertising. YouTube generates revenues up to $10 B a year, and they keep the biggest cut. Authors are being demonetized in the last years, and users have bad times trying to reach the content they want to watch. 2. How a regular video streaming differentiates from blockchain based video streaming? Pros and cons? Blockchain video streaming is a vague concept. Blockchain cannot be used for storing nor streaming content; it would be super slow and expensive. But it can be mixed with other technologies bringing transparency on the revenue sharing and ownership of content. We have also partnered with other blockchain companies, bringing solutions that can benefit our network. The latest one is with iex.ec, a decentralized cloud computing network that could help us transcoding videos for different devices, and even improving our network if we decided to start streaming live content. 3. I know that a very popular video streaming channel for gaming called Twitch which is really popular amongst gamers. Is there a way to replace Twitch or maybe even Youtube with blockchain solutions? If yes, then how would that happen? YouTube and Twitch both could be replaced with decentralized solutions, whether it be blockchain or other technologies or a mix. Bringing decentralized solutions for distributions and monetization of content create a fair ecosystem in which users and authors build up stronger bonds! 4. What role does smart contract play in a blockchain based video streaming program? Smart contracts bring transparency on how a content is distributed and how it monetizes. Basically, a smart contract is a contract that automatically handles value or a value with rules attached to it. You can see a piece of content as a value, and the license as the rules. So a smart contract can handle every "if" and "then" of content distribution. 5. Regarding security, let’s say if millions of people share their live videos, are there any possibilities that at least 10% of sharers will be hacked and exposed? If you are re-uploading your live videos, they will be available for anyone to watch. If the content were leaked and published in other torrent platforms, there would be no incentives for users to seed it out. I mean, why would you use a network that is not rewarding your contribution? The big differential here is that you can monetize your social engagement!