DECENT
DECENT is an open-source decentralized content distribution platform. The goal is to revolutionize data distribution on the Internet. The biggest advantages of DECENT over Bittorrent are:
- complete anonymity both on a payment layer and content consuming layer
- decentralized P2P micropayments
- direct relationship between consumer and author.
In comparison to Bittorrent, content on DECENT is encrypted. Even publishers (seeders) don’t know what they are seeding. Unless a user explicitly wishes to reveal his/her identity, he/she stays anonymous. In Bittorrent there is no anonymity. Micropayments are enabled via DCT tokens, which can currently be bought at Bittrex, HitBTC and Yuanbao.
Reputation system
Author’s reputation depends on the ratings received from content consumers for each content. Such ratings are saved in the blockchain. As a result, the lifetime reputation for each author and each piece of content is ensured. Authors can start publishing their content for free if they want, build a reputation and later begin to charge for their digital content (music, books, videos, articles, etc.)
Free speech
DECENT came to guard free speech and empower people over media behemoths who control content flow and keep a big portion of the industry gains. DECENT Blockchain technology provides maximum anonymity and peer to peer sharing network and eliminates any kinds of third parties or middlemen.
Implementations on top
As an open source protocol, DECENT platform allows everyone to build their own applications on the top of its protocol. PUBLIQ was announced in the beginning of July. It is a free of charge application for sharing digital content (specifically news and articles) built on top of DECENT Network by an independent development team. All rewards distributed in PUBLIQ are reputation based, which is built exclusively from the views and feedback of its readers.
Another implementation recently announced was ATMChain. It is an intelligent, trustworthy and open digital media ecosystem with a focus on improving and streamlining transactions and the exchange of metrics between advertisers and viewers.
Highlights
DECENT aims to offer the possibility of sharing and receiving genuine digital content worldwide in the exact way and form as it should be in a free market, avoiding manipulation, censorship and any third party influence. As an open source platform it also enables everyone to build their own application on top of the DECENT protocol.
Note that DECENT will be especially beneficial to people whose voice is normally censored, manipulated or who are simply tired of involving third parties in order to get published.
Decent is also unique thanks to the micropayment system which is combined with strong encryption of the content and several advanced cryptographic technologies (e.g. shared secret sharing, proof of retrievability, zero-knowledge proof) in its protocol. Only authorized users can get access to the content. In sum, DECENT is anonymous. Authors and customers are identified only by their ID and protected by advanced cryptography. Unless they wish to, users cannot be associated with any given content.
Authors can decide how much they will charge for sharing (and a price of zero is defintely an option too, especially for new authors who want to spread their content quickly before starting to charge their customers). In terms of security DECENT is designed to ensure:
- authors get paid for all of the viewed content
- consumers are only charged when they get access to the content they paid for.
There is an escrow system where miners ensure both happened before sending DCT for the author if content is not free. There is proof of custody of those tokens nearly once a day.
Moreover, there is a recommendation engine that helps users to filter out content that is for some reason malicious or does not meet the quality standards.
In the near future, subscription and streaming will be enabled. After that... well... There are so many possibilities... The potential is huge and this article is definitely unable to cover everything.
jvper
DECENT Witness