For the last 15 years or so, content creation has taken place largely on platforms owned and controlled by a few giant corporations. Having content on a blockchain-based platform means that the content creator and his/her follower relationships do not have to be controlled by any single entity, which exposes them to being banned, shadowbanned or demonetized at any time. For example, on the Hive blockchain each content creator has access to an uncensorable back end for storing their content on that acts as the financial layer as well. Who follows whom is stored on chain, which means that if one website starts censoring one’s content, a content creator’s content can still be seen and interacted with through other front ends. Most importantly, a content creator cannot be cut off from his/her followers by the platform itself.
Why does this matter? Because a lot of content creators have been kicked out of YouTube, for example, which as caused them to lose their livelihoods. Losing a major audience like that can be a serious setback for any content creator. This is why many of those who have fallen victim to that have expanded their presence on platforms that allow them to back up their text, audio and video content in a decentralized and censorship-free manner.
Another application is NFTs (non-fungible tokens) used to manage digital rights or represent in-game assets, for example. Why do that on a blockchain? Because it is far better to use a public blockchain as the back end for storing those because it cuts out all corporate middlemen that have been leeching value from creative artists for the longest time. For example, the fees on the NFT Showroom on the Hive blockchain are very reasonable compared to any centralized counterpart.
Are blockchains too expensive for scalable solutions? No, because you don’t have to use the Proof-of-Work consensus model. Delegated-Proof-of-Stake, for example, is cheap and scalable but secure enough for applications like that.
The whole industry is barely older than a decade. Before 2013 there were scarcely any projects but Bitcoin in the whole space. In 2015, which was merely five years ago, a number of altcoins sprang up, including Ethereum that has the second largest market cap. To write off any and all applications of blockchain but cryptocurrency would be rather short-sighted at present.
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