
Lbry.io – decentralized digital library - rmm
http://lbry.io
======
pgl
Would love a quick explanation of what this is, especially after clicking
through to "Learn More"[0]. I don't want to watch a video, I don't want to
read an essay, even the FAQ[1] (which wasn't exactly prominently linked to)
doesn't seem to have a "What is LBRY?" anywhere.

After a few minutes on this site, I still have no idea what this is. "Watch,
read and play in a decentralized digital library controlled by the community."
sounds intriguing, but... what does that _mean_? What exactly is a
decentralised digital library? How can I watch, read, and play in it? How does
the community control it?

[0] [https://lbry.io/learn](https://lbry.io/learn)

[1] [https://lbry.io/faq](https://lbry.io/faq)

~~~
kauffj
It is tough to strike a balance between a good introduction for technical
people and non-technical people.

[https://lbry.io/quickstart](https://lbry.io/quickstart) is good practical
introduction.

[https://lbry.io/what](https://lbry.io/what) is a more theoretical
introduction.

We've got a WIP new homepage (more of a wireframe) at
[https://lbry.io/home2](https://lbry.io/home2) if you want to share any
feedback!

~~~
pgl
Fair enough, I recognise that it's hard.

This article does a good job of introducing LBRY, btw:
[https://bryanalexander.org/2017/03/19/what-is-lbry-and-
what-...](https://bryanalexander.org/2017/03/19/what-is-lbry-and-what-does-it-
mean-for-education/) (h/t @doctornemo).

I also saw it described as "A cross between Bitcoin and Napster", which was
fairly illuminating. I'm sure you wouldn't consider it accurate, but as a
starting point perhaps something like this would be useful to have?

At the very least, #1 on the FAQ should really be the answer to "What is
LBRY?"

~~~
kauffj
I re-ordered the FAQ, this was a great suggestion. Thank you!

------
QasimK
I recall lbry.io being posted here before and there were concerns around the
naming system, where anyone could take control of a particular name just by
giving more money to it at any point.

There's an FAQ up ([https://lbry.io/faq/naming](https://lbry.io/faq/naming))
which addresses this concern, and I think the system that they have designed
is fantastic. It seems fair, although I'd give a slightly longer time period
for a "counter-bid" personally. I'd taking a look at the FAQ before you move
away or comment because they answer a lot of different questions

~~~
CJefferson
My problem with all of this is I don't care about having the "best name". I
want to make a new name, and then work increasing it's value.

This system seems like anyone who wants to make a name but not monitise it
will lose. How much of the value of (picking the first things that come into
my head) the names FSF, GPL, GCC and clang come from the organisations and
products? I bet those names would be worth much more to someone willing to use
adverts and spam.

And even if we raised enough money to keep the names out of the hands of
spammers, all that's happening is that lbry gets to charge a tax to anyone who
has a name that has got even slightly popular.

~~~
OJFord
Isn't that addressed by this FAQ entry?

> _Rest assured, we’re implementing permanent URLs that are always yours._

[https://lbry.io/faq/no-auction-options](https://lbry.io/faq/no-auction-
options)

~~~
CJefferson
Yes, but they will just be randomly generated strings, that doesn't really
sound appealing. Also they don't exist yet.

~~~
kauffj
That FAQ article is old and I'm going to update it to point at
[https://lbry.io/faq/naming](https://lbry.io/faq/naming). You can get names as
short as:

lbry://name#a

Where #a can actually be that short.

If you want a name with no identifiers or filters at all, the voting system
will continue to be used.

~~~
tyingq
What are valid characters for an identifier? Can I have lbry://foo## for
example?

~~~
kauffj
It matches by claim id, which is a much longer hash, but the system will do
partial matches. In the case of conflicting partial matches, the first claim
(temporally) is resolved.

~~~
tyingq
Edit: Ignore below...you already said earliest claim is preferred. I need to
stop skimming. (or I missed a stealth edit?)

Ah, so everything after the # is random then. And if you choose to abbreviate,
you are risking whatever the collision likelihood is, in 4 bit increments,
assuming the hash is hex digits.

There doesn't appear to be a throttle on claims, so choosing to abbreviate
with just one character could be risky? Or does your substring match prefer
earliest claim?

~~~
kauffj
Yes, substring matches prefer earlier claims.

~~~
CJefferson
So i can still quickly camp on all the single letter extensions to popular
names?

~~~
tyingq
Well, a-f and 0-9, and they are randomly assigned.

------
reimertz
Am I the only one who looked at the page for 2 seconds, clicked learned more
and then went back here again?

It's sad how "good looking" demo pages have turned me into a robot, ignoring
everything that doesn't satisfy my preferences and therefore result in me
missing out of a huge amount of valuable information.

~~~
ndh2
Most of these "good looking" pages suck at getting their point across. I
really have no idea what they're trying to optimize for. Curiosity maybe?
Retention? These pages are trying to be advertisements when they should
provide actual information.

∙ What is it (in one sentence)?

∙ What can I do with it?

∙ Where can I learn more about what you just described using meaningless
buzzwords?

Edit: This page has more information, but no tl;dr either:
[https://lbry.io/what](https://lbry.io/what)

~~~
abraves10001
Their essay has a tl;dr at the bottom, I didn't bother reading the actual
essay. It was way too long, when all I wanted was the answers to the three
questions you posed.

>TL;DR Digital art is one of the first goods to evolve beyond scarcity. This
evolution is changing the way content is discovered, publicized, paid for and
delivered. Heretofore, the lack of transparency and monetization mechanisms in
peer-to-peer sharing networks has largely enabled piracy. By equipping a peer-
to-peer protocol with a digital currency and transparent decentralized ledger,
the LBRY protocol opens the door to a new era of digital content distribution
making peer-to-peer content distribution suitable for major publishing houses,
self-publishers and everyone in between.

If LBRY succeeds, we will enter a world that is even more creative, connected,
and conservatory. We will waste less and we make more. We will create a world
where a teenager in Kenya and a reality star in Los Angeles use the same tool
to search the same network and have access to the same results -- a world
where information, knowledge, and imagination know no borders.

~~~
visarga
Good description.

I think the problem with paying for content is not that it doesn't have a
fancy protocol based off blockchain and its own coin.

It is that access to content is not straightforward and it is easier to
pirate. What guarantee does Lbry offer that someone won't post a pirate copy
of copyrighted content for free?

~~~
kauffj
LBRY offers the same or better protections against infringement that HTTP
does.

------
doctornemo
I poked around a bit and shared some notes here:
[https://bryanalexander.org/2017/03/19/what-is-lbry-and-
what-...](https://bryanalexander.org/2017/03/19/what-is-lbry-and-what-does-it-
mean-for-education/) LBRY's Twitter team was also very responsive.

------
franciscop
Small tip: you can add a dark background to the header through CSS for those
who don't have the image in cache. Right now, while loading it's white text
over white background.

~~~
kauffj
Great suggestion! Done.

[https://github.com/lbryio/lbry.io/commit/ab6a3fe538f5c55e1f3...](https://github.com/lbryio/lbry.io/commit/ab6a3fe538f5c55e1f3a7d3020659e868496392e)

If you're in our Slack, DM me a wallet address at @kauffj for a tip!

------
geoah
I'm still going through the docs and all so this probably has been answered
before :

How do you deal with takedown and dcma requests? I know ipfs for example has a
blacklist for dcma requests.

I'm trying to understand what keeps someone from copying a video and sharing
it for less or uploading a movie or TV series.

~~~
kauffj
Similarly. We will maintain a similar list and official releases will respect
this list.

This does not remove the blockchain entry, since this is impossible, but it
would be irresponsible and illegal in most countries to continue to host
content on this list.

Here's a legal memo the wonderful people at Cardozo drafted for us:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/70uezh44ct0244c/LBRY-
SecondaryLiab...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/70uezh44ct0244c/LBRY-
SecondaryLiabilityandIndecencyMemo.docx)

We've also spent an unfortunate amount of money on legal fees.

------
wyldfire
Some good discussion between kauffj (LBRY) and someone on steemit [1].

[1] [https://steemit.com/lbry/@hipster/stop-buying-lbry-
credits](https://steemit.com/lbry/@hipster/stop-buying-lbry-credits)

------
sklivvz1971
My favorite bit so far from the LBRY FAQ: "we’re basically, fundamentally the
same as a toaster"

------
j_s
I believe most here recognize that something like this is needed (disrupting
payment for content from "the little guys"), and I personally hope something
like this will happen soon. Best of luck to the LBRY team making this happen;
their "growth hacker" seems to be getting a lot of stuff on the HN front page
this week! (That and/or LBRY is genuinely about to hit the big time...)

------
ozo
I tried to access the developer program (from this
([https://lbry.io/quickstart](https://lbry.io/quickstart)) link on this
([https://lbry.io/get](https://lbry.io/get)) page) and got a blank page.

~~~
kauffj
It's back, sorry about that!

------
animex
It claims no censorship but what if someone starts using it to distribute
content that I'd say almost everyone would deem offensive. Can content be
removed?

Is there privacy built into the protocol? Can everyone see what I've
downloaded & published?

What if someone uploads pirated works?

------
rabidrat
I tried to add myself to the mailing list at
[https://lbry.io/signup](https://lbry.io/signup) and got a 500 error.

~~~
kauffj
It's back, sorry about that!

------
joshstrange
Was the video flashing for anyone else while playing? It would flash in bars
of black every second or so. Watching it directly on YouTube "fixed" it.

------
corbinpage
Looks cool! I'll give it a try.

Looks like you guys created your own blockchain for the service. Any reason
why Ethereum wasn't used? Any limitations?

------
arcaster
Talked to some of the Lbry team members at Coindesk Construct in SF a few
months back. You guys are awesome, keep up the good work!

------
RRRA
I'm eager to see how IPFS integrates the IPNS & IPLD layers and how it affects
the open linked data context...

------
antocv
Blockchain based?

~~~
cyborgx7
Seems like it.
[https://lbry.io/faq?category=mining](https://lbry.io/faq?category=mining)

~~~
tromp
Missing the most important question:

what proof-of-work algorithm does LBRY use?

~~~
tromp
Searching around for a while, I came across

[https://github.com/lbryio/lbrycrd-
gpu/blob/master/algorithm/...](https://github.com/lbryio/lbrycrd-
gpu/blob/master/algorithm/lbry.c)

which shows it to be Hashcash with some mishmash of existing hash functions
(SHA256,SHA512,RIPEMD) cobbled together.

~~~
wyldfire
Would be nice if the site featured a diagram showing how the functions and
inputs are composed into the output hash. If this is an original function,
what is it about LBRY that necessitates this new function?

------
vasili111
Is there anonymity in LBRY?

~~~
webmaven
Good question. I'd like to know whether pseudonymous interactions are
possible, and what protections are in place to prevent snooping on buyers and
sellers and de-anonymization or de-pseudonymization of user accounts.

------
jiggytom
Great job LBRY Team!

------
CiPHPerCoder
> Subsequent attempts to engage sincerely were also met with derision, so I'm
> not sure anything could have ever been done that wouldn't have been met
> similarly.

Some people are like that, where if you respond to their snark, your response
will be used against you to tarnish your reputation in the eyes of bystanders.

It is important to never let them get the moral high ground.

If someone says something like...

* "Your team is all white."

* "Your team is all male."

* "Your team is all American."

* "Your team is all able-bodied."

A better way to respond would be something like, "That's true. We're always
looking for new talent and embrace diversity, just haven't had much luck yet.
<hiring page URL here> if anyone's interested."

It addresses the problem, and contains an open invitation for people of
diverse backgrounds to apply.

(All of this is assuming you're willing to work with people who aren't white,
aren't male, aren't American, and/or aren't able-bodied, of course.)

~~~
nananonymous
This type of social control is so bizarre to me. Like, here's a literal script
for you to read from if you'd like us to stop attacking you in the future.

~~~
CiPHPerCoder
> Like, here's a literal script for you to read from if you'd like us to stop
> attacking you in the future.

Us?

I'm talking about them, in a third person sense, not a first person sense.

Them, in this case, is meant to refer to trollish individuals looking to cause
trouble under the facade of caring about the plight of women, people of color,
etc. but actually are just in it for their own emotions. The people who want
to stir the pot, not make things better.

Rather than a script furnished in a list of demands from said subset of the
populace, this is more of a suggestion to defuse conflicts in a way that
doesn't let them win.

------
wsgrah
Company is a bit tone def when it was pointed out they have a all male team
[https://twitter.com/LBRYio/status/843865332771164160](https://twitter.com/LBRYio/status/843865332771164160)

~~~
legostormtroopr
Why is it even worth pointing out there team has no women? The original "call
out" tweet was very snarky.

There are 9 staff, not including a few advisors. So its probably the case that
they all knew each other before the comapny existed. If there were no women in
their lab, theres not much they can do about that.

What would the correct response be? "Sorry we didn't know any women when we
started, we shouldnt have done anything until the right quota of women showed
up."

Should they fire and replace 4 staff with women or just hire 9 women even
though they might not have enough revenue to do so?

~~~
StavrosK
I agree with your general sentiment, but their response does sound a bit
weird. It would have been fine with me if they had said "oh it's just by
chance, plus most of us knew eachother from before we started". Saying "we
have no female roles" and "oh we get paid less so we're all women" (wtf?)
isn't handling the situation well.

~~~
kauffj
It was a crass and tone-deaf attempt on our part to signal awareness.

Lesson learned. Subsequent attempts to engage sincerely were also met with
derision, so I'm not sure anything could have ever been done that wouldn't
have been met similarly.

~~~
haldean
Your attempt to respond sincerely was to say you don't have any women on staff
because you don't have any executive assistants or office managers, which even
a generous reader would call a sexist reason:

[https://mobile.twitter.com/LBRYio/status/844194654656626688](https://mobile.twitter.com/LBRYio/status/844194654656626688)

~~~
beaugunderson
yeah... clearly they haven't learned :/

~~~
StavrosK
To be fair, I think that was even before my reply.

