A deeper look into 3Speak.online: Video playback, donations and the onboarding process. Pretty damn impressive so far!
3speak.online is a platform developed for video hosting and live streaming build on Steem and will initially start as a home for the deplatformed content creators of the internet.
Later it will open the doors to more content creators and introduce an advertisement model for revenue.
The platform revolves around two currencies. The STEEM token and their own SPEAK token.
In this post, I will showcase the features of the platform I like best.
The most impressive one for me is their Steem onboarding feature through Facebook, Google, Instagram or Twitter.
But to start off this is what it looks like:
On the top, you find the trending video's. You can also find featured channels and new video's on the same page.
When you click on a video you are taken to the player.
The video loads instantly in HD and all the playback options are there: Full screen, HD on/off and speeding up of the video. It's also possible to leave a comment under the video here.
(I actually asked for the speeding of the video option a couple of days ago and it was implemented about an hour later. It sure shows the development speed of this project.)
Just like on Steemit.com it's possible to upvote content on 3speak.online by users.
3speak.online also have their own curation team and have access to currently 3.6 million Steempower which is very decent and this will ensure a decent payout for the current content creators.
Of course, with more content creators joining this will dilute (if the price of STEEM stays the same) so focusing on other revenue models makes sense.
They are working on this.
Besides upvoting, it is already possible to donate to your favorite content creator.
This model works well on Twitch (Streaming platform) for instance.
I can see it working here especially because this model is what most people know.
This is how it works on 3speak.online.
Donations and the SPEAK token.
On the bottom right you might have noticed a donate button.
This is where the SPEAK token comes in.
On the platform, it's possible to buy SPEAK tokens with your credit card.
The SPEAK token is a non-blockchain token and it can be used as a donation towards your favorite content creator.
I currently have none in my wallet as you can see:
So I invested in some tokens. I decided to buy 285 SPEAK tokens.
After filling in my CC details and going through the payment I was greeted with this message:
And the tokens were instantly credited to my account.
I went back to the video I showed in the top and pressed the "donate" button.
This message popped up.
If you donate more than a 100 SPEAK you get to send a personal message with the donation.
I went with it.
When I pressed the button it was awesome again! :)
I do believe donating works better on live streams when there is engagement with the audience but this was just to show how it works.
My balance after donating adjusted accordingly.
The donating aspect was a very smooth experience.
And this brings me to the last feature I want to show and what I think is the best one of the platform so far.
The onboarding process.
When you log in to 3speak.online for the first time you get to choose from several signup options.
When you choose a non-Steem option you can still use the platform like normal.
The way that works is well thought out.
Your Google, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account will under the hood be connected to one of the six 3speak proxy Steem Accounts.
So while you think it's you making the comment on 3speak on the underlying blockchain level it's actually one of the proxy accounts. But you will never see those as a user and the comment will be done in your name and displayed as such.
While you comment and interact with your favorite content creators a virtual score is being kept of how much STEEM you would have earned if you did have a Steem Account.
If you earned enough STEEM through your interactions you then will get rewarded with a free Steem account and that looks like this:
When you click that button and create your Steem account you are now onboard the Steem blockchain.
I think this experience will feel frictionless and this whole idea is pretty damn genius IMHO!
Conclusion
I'm very impressed by the way 3speak.online functions so far and how all the features work.
But the real test is, of course, dealing with the masses.
They already managed to get deplatformed content creators to the platform but what will happen when they bring their whole following over is yet to see.
When all those people start to watch the videos and interact everything still needs to be smooth.
It will be a true test!
But the first premise. Pretty damn impressive!
Staying up-to-date.
If you want to stay up to date about 3speak and all the development that's going on a good place to start is their discord channel. This is the link: https://discord.me/3speak.
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It is good for the ecosystem but I prefer to stay and continue to support DTube. The version 0.9 is on the way and I leave 3 Speaks for others.
One of the big risk I see is they use Steem to simply test the water and leave like DLive.
Hello,
thanks for sharing your thoughts on 3Speak. Oracle-D and theycallmedan both do fully believe in the success of steem. We do not work on our own blockchain an will certainly not leave steem as it gives our creators the unique possibility to reward their audience with upvotes and allows them to stay connected easily.
DTube supported me for over a year and I will remain loyal toward this dapp. In the meantime I wish you guys to have good success in this ecosystem.
How are videos stored on the platform?
Why do content creators have to apply?
Why can't you buy SPEAK tokens with STEEM or other cryptocurrency?
The onboarding does look slick.
Hi,
videos are stored on AWS and on SIA. Playback always uses AWS.
3Speak targets a specific group of creators:
Creators can cash out SPEAK token for FIAT only at the moment. To avoid extra fees for exchanging crypot we only offer credit card payments for now. PayPal might be added in a future update.
Glad to hear you like the onboarding! Many thoughts have been gone into this!
Thanks for the reply. Any concerns about running foul of AMZN or Sia's terms of service?
SIA is a blockchain that has no terms of service.
Sia is a smart move. Similar to Storj is seems. I still worry a bit about AWS.
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Hi,
why do you worry about AWS?
Because it’s overly-centralized. If an AMZN data center goes down, huge swaths of the Internet go offline. And while AMZN hasn’t been too aggressive with censorship so far, that could change. They are already banning books.
Have you looked at Storj/Tardigrade as an alternative? Or Livepeer for transcoding? I’m not sure these things are ready for prime time but seem like compelling decentralized alternatives to AWS for transcoding and storage. Might be worth keeping an eye on.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Competition for Dtube & Vimm
Competition is good for pushing our STEEM ecosystem forward
Very interesting. I like and dislike the idea of a proxy account doing the posting for you. As long as it still shows as you, I don't think it is a huge deal. I think this is definitely a step in the right direction though. So many people just want an easy way to get starting using dapps. Having to deal with keys and all of that is a huge pain for the average user. Being able to just login with your Google account is something that has been needed for a long time now.
Eliminating as much friction from the onboard process is an important step and I think this will go a long way.
I think the proxy accounts method is a well thought out way to onboard users without them even knowing they are being onboarded and ultimately this will lead them to have their own account.
That makes a ton of sense. I am really excited to see what happens with this. I agree, I think giving the general public an easy way to use these dapps will make a huge difference.
Well, they only post for you until you claim your own Steem account. This is a pretty big development imo. Finally we can say check out this dapp and people can start using it like any other centralized application. There's no friction.
Great tutorial Exyle. The interface looks very sleek and the overall esthetic of the site gives off a very professional vibe.
For what I can see they have all the things in place to go far and succeed. They took the opportunity that was left open when the other dapp left us.
I´m sure the community will welcome them very well because it is a type of project that we really need (in my opinion).
Hello @exyle,
thank you for this amazing tutorial and introduction post. Resteemd! I would like to add that once the user has claimed his own accounts all pending rewards are transferred to the new account too.
I am sure @crypto-daily appreciates the donation!
Hey @threespeak, I have been really impressed by what you have been doing here and how smoothly you clicked into the Steem blockchain and its community. I would like to use your platform too but I am not really sure if other types of content (such as, for example, travel stuff) is welcome and wanted on @threespeak. Can you explain what specific types of videos are you guys looking for? Thank you.
Hello,
at the moment we only consider applications where you are:
Fair enough. Thanks for the clarification. Wishing you all the best guys, I think the cyber space needed something like @threespeak really bad ;)
Right, but also 'normal' people would love to have a place on the STEEM blockchain where their videos would last forever ...
Yeah, that is what DTube is for, I hope :)
All my old DTube videos are deleted already, that's why I am using Bit.Tube these days, even if I would be happy about a STEEM based app which fulfilled my requirements.
Wow, really?! I started using DTube just a couple of months ago so I have no experience with it but I didn´t know they delete all content. Hopefully, you have copies of all the videos stored somewhere...
No problem. Thank you guys for adding value to the Steem Blockchain!
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Holy crap, I didn't know 3Speak was using incubation accounts.That is great, this is what I've always wanted to see happening here. It takes care of the onboarding bottleneck just like that. :)
So excited about this project. And can’t wait to try it out myself.
Great team behind it that i’m sure will help grow the platform and raise awareness for steem.
a big win :)
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@threespeak amazing interface and also loving how 3speak works, I'll look forward to seeing them opening doors to other content creators on steem. Splendid one here @exyle