I've got a friend on Twitch who has been trying to make a living Streaming video games on Twitch for the last few years. He's a small timer, but he's been partnered, so that's good. The network effect is quite a slow and steady grind. Feel free to check him out.
Every once and I while I tell him he should try Steem / @dTube. I had him make an account last January but he hasn't done anything on it. @generalandrews. He recently gave me the master password to this account so I can mess around with it a bit.
I've thought about trying to program using the Twitch API, but then I got super into crypto and haven't really looked back. I tell my friend he should Stream on our blockchain, but he is partnered with Twitch, and it is actually against the rules for him to Stream elsewhere. However, he can embed his Twitch stream elsewhere, because anyone can embed a stream anywhere. Unfortunately/fortunately, the Twitch API is much more advanced and professional than our Podunk API.
We were trying to come to an arrangement the other day to promote each other and such, so I decided to take a look at the Twitch API dev page. This is what I found:
https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/embed/everything/
<html>
<body>
<div id="twitch-embed"></div>
<script src="https://embed.twitch.tv/embed/v1.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
new Twitch.Embed("twitch-embed", {
width: 854,
height: 480,
channel: "generalandrews1_0"
});
</script>
</body>
</html>
So I threw this code into a text file and booted it up:
Imagine my surprise when it worked perfectly. This code embeds a streaming Twitch window directly into the web page... complete with chat window, subscriptions, and most of the other functionality you'll see if you were to go directly to the Twitch web site.
I seriously can't believe how easy it is to do this, AND NO ONE AT STEEM IS CAPITALIZING ON IT. We could straight up be embedding the Twitch API directly onto the blockchain and linking Steem accounts with Twitch accounts. We could be programming animations for OBS broadcasting that makes Twitch Streams interactive when they receive an upvote from our blockchain.
The amount of notoriety we could generate from working on a project like this is insane. I really feel like @dtube is dropping the ball here. I might even make the claim that all the Steem frontends (Steemit, Busy, Steempeak) are dropping the ball because none of them have the option to embed a Twitch Stream into the service, even though it's super easy to do.
This is basic-bitch JavaScript we are talking about. Twitch/Amazon have already done all the heavy lifting for us. They are practically begging for us to profit off of them because at the same time they would profit off of us. I'd say that deal is heavily tilted in our favor. We can piggyback off of the work they've done much more than the other way around.
Tips
Being able to tip Steem, SBD, and upvotes on Twitch would be a huge deal. More importantly, the work required to get er done is minimal. This is one of the reasons why I was super excited about the @steemtipper project. I figured they'd of cranked out functionality for Twitter by now and hopefully moved on to Twitch, which I feel is a smarter platform to target.
For the love of God, target the Twitch API
Why? Because users on Twitch are conditioned to tip, it is a mainstay foundation of the platform. Tipping on Twitter is counter intuitive for the users that have been using it for the last decade. In addition, Amazon has already created a digital currency hard pegged to the dollar (Twitch Bits) and Amazon is primed to make cryptocurrency plays in the future. We should definitely get ahead of the curve and capitalize on these eventualities. Keep on truckin @crimsonclad, I believe in you.
Imagine if we could approach the users on Twitch and offer them a deal: buy Steem coins as an investment, something that they actually get to keep instead of tipping it away. Then they can tip with upvote inflation everyday. If we were to create graphical interactions that linked Steem upvotes to OBS streaming, we would successfully create a positive feedback loop that would create a cycle of users constantly wanting to power up more coins. This is just one way Steem could go viral. We could go viral in other ways like this a hundred times over. Steem is not Social Media.
Do you have any idea how Twitch Bits work?
What an exploitative system.
$1.40 for $1.00? $7.00 for $5.00? $308.00 for $250?
Wow, thanks Amazon, what a deal.
AND PEOPLE PAY IT.
Why? Because of the positive feedback loop. You tip and the streamer has a macro set up to display graphics on the screen. There's a leaderboard that users compete on to see who can outdo the other. The entire system is rigged to promote excessive tipping to streamers, which in turn generates massive revenue for Twitch and Amazon.
Steem is a Japanese tentacle monster. We can creep our tendrils out into the Internet and leech these centralized services for all they're worth. They are practically allowing it to happen with their professional grade APIs. We can turn their own APIs against them in our favor.
@steemtipper
By using the API of the given platform, @steemtipper allows users to login to Steem through a proxy. Let's say I had an account on Twitch under the handle of 'someguy123'. I could login to @steemtipper using my Twitch 'someguy123' credentials and @steemtipper would create a proxy STEEM account in my name using these credentials. Therefore, the only one that can access the proxy account is someone that knows the password to the real account. The native API provides the means to log in without exposing the password. The best part is, the proxy account gets created even before that. It get's created the second someone tips them.
Users with a proxy Steem account can make a real account to claim the funds, or they can pay it forward and tip their tip somewhere else. Given the centralized nature of Twitch, this is perfect for us. Viewers that get tipped Steem will re-tip that Steem to streamers, and streamers are bound to create their own Steem accounts because these guys will do anything to make an extra buck to fulfill their dreams of becoming professional video game players.
Using this concept we can practically force users on Twitch to become part of our network. We can offer them a superior deal and we can do it all without them even having to create an account at first.
Low/Mid level Twitch streamers are hardwired to make more money with micro-transactions anyway they can. A lot of these guys claw and scrape for every last penny they can get. I guarantee these guys are on board and ready to help if approached with an opportunity like this.
Twitch viewers are hardwired to spend tons of money. Some of these guys spend thousands of dollars just tipping their favorite streamers. It's insane, but not as insane as the fact that we haven't tapped into this obviously parallel market. Steem is a tipping blockchain. Twitch is a tipping platform. Our currency is 1000 times better than their currency. How has no one pulled the trigger on this? Because crypto is still in the Wild-West phase. Guys, I'm super serious. Digital gold is literally everywhere. All we need to do is develop the software to mine it.
@dtube, you don't need to reinvent the wheel so hard. It isn't blasphemy to piggy back off of other streaming sites. This is a huge missed opportunity to integrate a built-in community that shares our values directly to our blockchain.
This is a great chance to undercut greedy ass Amazon and show them that they can't make a better digital currency than ours, because they are greedier than we are. Greedy corporations aren't capable of creating a digital currency that they don't fully control and profit from. We can use this greed against them as we siphon users to our blockchain.
It is a mistake to engage Twitch directly in a competitive battle. First, we should merge with their API, then, once we are actually ready, we can compete with them directly. The real question we have to ask ourselves then is this: is it actually worth it? Or should we simply allow them to continue operating unabated while we siphon value from their platform? You never know, it could turn in to a relationship of mutual benefit. Work smart; not hard.