The GRAPE-MEDIA Network
A primer for building censorship-resistant streaming communities
A community is more than just its people; its also the rules and the tools that it develops, discovers, and integrates over time. Our OG process is integral to our community just like our new validation processes. Our toolset will include multiple applications including payments, gaming, and data visualization to name a few. Some tools we are building ourselves, and some are outside of our scope.
As we near the launch of our first tool, we’ve begun to explore ahead and ponder the problems and solutions involved with decentralized communities. In that exploration, we are identifying the current tools we use to host and engage. Tools like Discord, Twitter, and Twitch are essential communication tools for online communities.
It would be amazing if there were a slick and polished version of Discord or Twitter on Solana, but that seems far from being a reality today. Twitch however, well…there already IS a slick and polished decentralized version; a platform that can build and support 100's “Twitch”s and “Youtube”s.
That is Media Network ($MEDIA)
Censorship-resistance is pointless if you can’t decentralize your media touchpoints. That's why we knew we wanted a partnership with MEDIA and I’m proud to announce that partnership today.
MEDIA has created a platform that empowers users to spin up their own version of Twitch or YouTube, removing the usual gatekeepers like AWS and Akamai from the equation. Anyone at anytime can make a network of decentralized content without asking anyone’s permission and with no fear of being shutdown. Stream literally anything you want with MEDIA and never get “de-platformed”.
Protect the Origin Server
I am super simplifying how Media Network accomplishes this (they have one of the best whitepapers you can read here), but the essence is to defend the “Origin Server”, the source of the streaming content. This is accomplished by using Reverse Proxies that are in front of the Origin Server; with iptables this means that no other server can speak to the Origin. If you cant find the source, you cant shut it down.
Another advantage of streaming on a decentralized network is that you remove threats to privacy.
Third-party companies will have all your private information at their disposal and a “kill-switch” to all your content, whenever it fits their or somebody else’s needs.
The $MEDIA token is at the center of these interactions, and there is good incentive to hold. Whale’s Friend has streamed multiple times over the Media network and it is always butter smooth. By using peer-pools, the bandwidth requirement is decreased by 90%, and the viewers act as peers. That means anyone holding $MEDIA and watching something on the Media network receives $MEDIA rewards! MEDIA MEDIA and more MEDIA!
The GRAPE-MEDIA Network
One of the issues a decentralized streaming service would have is where to host those links. On Twitch, you can see a library of what streams are available; but it is a central location which means it is vulnerable to the issues we discussed before. Any website with a library of the streams available would live under the constant threat of closure. With GRAPE, we can change that.
This partnership creates the framework for a CDN to provide streaming services to holders of a token. Users that hold MEDIA and GRAPE will be able to see exclusive, censorship-protected streams, accessible anywhere a Solana wallet can be verified. We will be launching this experience first on Discord.
The Grape discord server will host several streamers with their own exclusive channels. Each streamer can choose the holding amount required to watch their stream; amounts would vary based on what the streamer wants to accomplish (ie grow viewership vs generate revenue).
We have big plans for our partnership with Media. The work has begun on building out our own streaming network, grapes.network, powered by Media Network. Eventually, you might even be able to watch it all holding a MEDIA-GRAPE LP token that is farming rewards while you kick back and watch some Whale’s Friend. The potential is just now being explored. The Media Network team has built something that is very difficult to comprehend for non-technical users, but its significance will be understood for many years to come.
Whale’s Friend is streaming on Media every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 6:30 pm UTC
Media Network is a privacy-first and community-governed CDN. Media Network promises decentralized peer-to-peer bandwidth market, media streaming and content delivery on blockchain technology. You can find their whitepaper here.
