LBRY describes itself as an open source, decentralized, and community-driven digital content marketplace (think BitTorrent + Bitcoin) that enables the discovery, distribution, and payment of digital content. LBRY was launched in June 2016 with a working protocol and end-user product, the LBRY app, which is used to watch videos, publish content, earn rewards, and manage one's wallet. As of March 2019, the LBRY network reportedly has over 800K pieces of content published such as movies, videos, images, games, documents.
This reportedly includes content from YouTubers (https://lbry.com/youtubers) a movie studio publishing films like Howl (https://open.lbry.com/howl), starring James Franco, and 'It's a Disaster' ( https://open.lbry.com/itsadisaster), starring David Cross. LBRY utilizes a rewards program to incentivize app users and publishers by allowing them to earn LBC for completing tasks within the apps, both as new users and on a recurring basis (i.e. watching weekly featured content).
The LBRY blockchain aims to provide a global namespace and database of content available on the network including searchable content metadata, signed publisher identities, rights, and access rules. Included in the metadata is a pointer to a decentralized data network like BitTorrent. It also provides publisher identities, human-friendly URLs (e.g. lbry://@MinutePhysics/magnetic-levitation), and a payment mechanism. Learn more about the tech behind LBRY: https://lbry.tech
Beginner introduction to LBRY: https://lbry.com/faq/what-is-lbry Block Rewards and Mining: https://lbry.com/faq/block-rewards Credits Policy: https://lbry.com/faq/credit-policy Content Policy: https://lbry.com/faq/content YouTube Partner Program: https://lbry.com/youtube
Download the LBRY app for Desktop or Android (Web app coming in mid-2019): https://lbry.com/get Download the CLI interface and SDK: https://github.com/lbryio/lbry/releases Download Full LBRY Blockchain Client: https://github.com/lbryio/lbrycrd/releases