The Joystream Manifesto

Our
Manifesto sets out both the issues we believe are related to
digital media platforms in their current type in addition to our proposed
solution to these considerations.

Problem

We
believe that artwork, be it as literature, music, movie, games or
efficiency, is a critical software through which societies set up a
shared understanding of what is frequent knowledge amongst all members.
These expressions define values and narratives that end up shaping
tradition, religion and even public policy. It subsequently issues deeply
how it’s financed, distributed and paid for.

Digital media has turn into the first medium through which such expression is
distributed, and digital media platforms have turn into the key
institutions organizing this exercise.

Unfortunately,
as a result of community effects, economies of scale, laws and political
pursuits, we are today left with handful of massive institutions
which set the phrases for how this occurs. They are almost completely
unaccountable to normal market and political mechanisms.

As
a result, our tales, expressions and interactions are managed and
filtered on their terms. This continues to generate an ever altering
set of problems, be it

rigid
monetization, censorship of controversial speech, inequitable sharing
of features with creators and audience, low platform innovation or lack
of credibility with third get together builders.

Goal

We
call for an association the place media platforms are accountable to the
people they influence, which are primarily their customers, be it as
shoppers, creatives, third celebration developer or workers.

It
is the absence of such accountability which is the elemental supply
of any specific drawback at any particular time.

Thesis

Our
core thesis is that there are two basic challenges which must be
addressed to achieve this aim, and that an appropriate software
of latest distributed systems technology, together with
blockchains, smart contracts and tokens, is the right means to do so.

The
Wedge

First
is the question of how to create another from scratch in the
face of platform externalities which make any new platform almost
useless, regardless of any of its inherent characteristics. The
means of doing this type of bootstrapping has historically been
principally an artwork, the place success has rarely been reproducible.

We
believe that blockchain tokens, earned by and issued to early
members, have been proven to be extraordinarily effective at
mobilizing, integrating and motivating an international and dynamic
neighborhood.

This
has now repeatedly allowed nascent communities, like the Bitcoin
neighborhood, to overcome the preliminary network impact hurdle. There is not any
certainty that this will be enough, however we consider this mechanism
is as promising as anything which is prone to have an opportunity in a
long time.

Accountability
at scale

Second
is the question of tips on how to create and maintain accountability in such a
platform when it really reaches scale.

We
understand there to be two basic ways that members can
maintain establishments of any sort accountable: Voice and exit, within the
tradition of Hirschman A. O.

Voice

Voice
is the method of attempting to improve or reform the functioning of
an establishment from inside. The effectiveness of this depends on some
capacity to each share dependable information with different members, and
have some influence on inside governance processes. Current media
platforms provide users no effective method of doing either.

We
believe that blockchains present an organizational and economic
infrastructure which can tackle both issues. The public,
verifiable and immutable history of financial and administrative
data, offers a wonderful foundation for users to understand the
present and previous state of the platform. This permits anyone to make
incontestable claims about related information and circumstances.

Further,
blockchain tokens permit us to make use and control of a platform
inseparable, giving users an automatic seat at the table in
deliberating over platform degree selections.

All
that’s required to establish, train or transfer the capability to
participate in such activity, is the power to sign messages with
identifiable cryptographic keys. Perfectly dependable contracting provides
a big, dynamic and unrestricted set of users the technique of governing
the platform. This can serve a variety of purposes, similar to
enterprise initiatives, regulating participation in several formally
specified roles, or even updating the institutional guidelines themselves.
This integration of reliable contracting into the financial rails
offers an organizational infrastructure rather more according to our
goals of inclusive management than the normal jurisdictional trust
based mostly infrastructure.

Exit

Exit
is the approach of totally ending participation in an establishment in
favor of either joining or creating another. The effectiveness
of this depends on prices of leaving, and either becoming a member of or creating
an alternate, all being low in comparison with the deprivation within the
present establishment. This is currently not the case.

By
constructing platforms based mostly on free open source https://www.joystream.org/ software, open
protocols and open knowledge — as is the case with Blockchain
systems, one dramatically lowers these costs. Since customers management
their own knowledge, id and assets, they’ve a a lot simpler time
becoming a member of new platforms, and even taking their friends with them.

Open
protocols and knowledge will make multi homing interfaces plentiful, the place
customers may not even need to switch, however instead use multiple platforms
concurrently, which encourages platform degree competition.

Even
more dramatically, reliance on open supply means that all the
software program capital of a platform can simply be reused, and for the reason that
complete organizational state can also be public, entire ecosystems may be
forked to create new alternative platforms with modified insurance policies and
objectives.