The Breez Lightning Network client now includes a native podcasting network, allowing content creators to become self sufficient.
The Breez Lightning client now includes a native podcasting network — a major step toward bringing the decentralized economy to podcast creators.
As consumers increasingly turn to podcasts for digestible content, content creators have found the world of podcasting rife with adversarial monetization. Traditionally, creators must rely on advertisements embedded within their podcasts. This not only breaks the natural flow of the content, but encourages podcasters to pander to their advertisers, and not their audiences.
Enter Breez: By integrating the streaming of podcasts with an instantaneous payment system like the Lightning Network, podcast creators become self-sufficient and self-monetized. This is often referred to as “Podcasting 2.0.”
“When we started the Podcasting 2.0 movement, we anticipated Lightning service providers and wallet developers would see the use case of value for value streaming payments,” said Adam Curry, an original champion and long time proponent of podcasting, in an announcement about Breez’s new support for podcasting sent to Bitcoin Magazine. “The whole team at Breez made the vision a reality with their in-app podcast player. This is a game changer for podcasting and Lightning.”
The legacy podcasting industry is largely dominated by centralized services which take large portions of earned ad revenue. By eliminating this extraneous drain on revenue, streamers can reconnect their effort with their earnings. In addition, Podcasting 2.0 encourages creators to reconnect with their audiences, as they become the financial driver of the podcast’s growth rather than advertisers.
“Streaming sats to podcasters is a great example of how we can expand the P2P Lightning economy into many new areas,” Breez CEO Roy Sheinfeld explained in the announcement. “The fact that users carry a Lightning node in their pockets adds a lot of freedom, and it can really improve our overall quality of life.”
The increasing ease with which consumers will be able to directly pay content creators is going to play a large role in the decentralization of the economy. Breez mobilizes this economy via Lightning and Bitcoin, and is leading the charge in offering real alternatives to traditional, centralized streaming platforms.
