3toN

Streaming is very popular nowadays. There are tens of platforms for streaming concerts, gameplays, conferences and even tutorials. All of these use cases involve upfront registration and some form of payment to be collected and validated from participants.

The web2 way for doing such streams with a paywall is a lot of hassle. You need to sign the users up, have them put their cards, make upfront payments, distribute tickets, and then validate all these details. Users have to trust and pay for all the content even when they may not like it once they get to see it i.e. it is not possible to charge users only for their watch time.

With web3, we have better tools suited to build such a platform. So I tried to build a permissionless broadcasting platform where viewers pay for their precise watch time.

It’s as easy as it can get. Anyone can hop on to the web app and start broadcasting (creating) (you just need a wallet). Anyone with access to the broadcast link can connect their wallet and start viewing the broadcast. The creator decides how much they wish to charge for their content. Participants can join whenever and pay for the exact duration they have consumed the content.

Don't like the broadcast? Drop out. Want to watch a specific part? Go for it! Joined late? No worries, you'll pay less. Also, there’s P2P chat support to facilitate interactions between creators and participants.

I believe 3toN can become way better than conventional broadcasting platforms (YouTube, Twitch, Zoom, etc). Here’s how -

• It is permissionless. Smart contracts don't discriminate based on demographics. There are equal opportunities for everyone to create and view the content.
• No sign-up is required. No personal details are captured.
• Revenue alignment. No advertisements need to be shown. The platform fee can be set transparently to cover the development and infrastructure costs. And everyone wins if the platform grows!
• I’ve made it open-source. Built for all, built by all. It is also possible to write and host your own clients with the customisations you want.

I wrote web(3) client with two interfaces; one for creators and one for viewers. This interface talks to the backend smart contracts, which are currently deployed on Goerli, Optimism, and Polygon.

The interface and smart contract contain all the logic to glue the key technologies together. I have used Livepeer for streaming the video and transcoding, Superfluid finance for making the streaming payments possible, Unlock protocol for adding gating features like max limit & expiry, and XMTP for live chats while the stream is going on.