There are a lot of projects which aim to leverage blockchain technology to give users the possibility of fully express themselves. Some of them are just a social media platform which includes some kind of cryptocurrency as a feature.
BitChute, for example, uses cryptocurrency mining to support developers. BitTube tracks time user spends browsing to reward them with TUBE coins. STEEM -and its forks- rewards users who post new content and participate on the blockchain.
There has been a lot of people posting and talking about LBRY since the SEC suit. It generated even more people asking questions about the "platform" or "the app". This post will try to explain the main misconception about LBRY. It is the same I have been posting on STEEM since the beginning. Sorry for repeating myself.
LBRY is a different kind of beast. It is not a platform but a protocol. To get the full picture of it, it is better to see it as a layered thing.
The apps
LBRY provides two apps. The oldest one is LBRY. It is being published as a "native" desktop app and as a Android really native app. You may also use it as a web application via lbry.tv. On the very near future, this one is going to be the truly decentralized one.
Newer one is Odysee. It is currently available as a really native iOS app -it works really well- and as a web application on odysee.com; and Android app is being working on. This is the centralized one.
Third parties are also providing other apps which could be included on this layer. There is one about audio and other one about analytics, for example.
The data part of the blockchain
Content is not saved on the blockchain. What is saved on it is the required data to be able to retrieve content -which could also be "channel metdata", like accounts on Steem-based blockchains- and additional metadata to validate that content, like amount of deposited credits or descriptions.
Content is called a "claim". A claim could be a video, a text, an audio file, a PDF file, a picture; it could also be a channel, although publishing as anonymous is still possible.
Any claim update or creation or removal is stored as a new blockchain transaction. Reposts -sharings- are also possible.
To create a new claim, some arbitrary amount of credits must be deposited. They can be recovered when claim is removed from the blockchain. Supports are tips which are deposited to boost some content, either user's or other creator's.
LBRY Inc can censor which content is stored on their servers, allowing right holders to create claims so their content is removed from their computers. Claim metadata is still stored on the blockchain and LBRY Inc has no way to remove and make impossible for anyone to access content which has already been downloaded to other computers not controlled by LBRY Inc.
The economic part of the blockchain
This is just the typical token transactional part, LBRY Credits being moved between addresses and mined every two and a half minutes using a proof-of-work consensus model.
Tips and supports are also stored on the blockchain as transactions. LBRY Credits has a use case for publishing new content, as creator needs to "support" itself so it gets discovered by others participants.
The off-chain component
Content is stored on hard-drives. It works like BitTorrent-protocol. Once user downloads certain content, it can be freely shared outside LBRY, as it is saved on user Download folder. If user chooses to, it can also broadcast it so others can also retrieve it from its hard-drive -like on BitTorrent or IPFS-.
Content is located using a lbry:// protocol prefix.
Conclussion
I hope this makes people get a better picture of LBRY.