RE: The core concepts of DTube's new blockchain
Thanks for this in-depth comment!
I agree with you on the fact that YouTube has more audience and can help popular video content creators earn money probably better than DTube right now. I just think it's possible to combine the earnings. With the 'upload a link' feature, people can use YouTube as the 'video storage' and earn from YT ads, and earn STEEM/SBD/DTC/PAL rewards on top of it.
I'm not totally against trying something superlinear in the future, but the way it was before on STEEM was way too harsh for minnows. Overall I agree that having this 'snowball effect' on rewards was nice and creating a stronger hive-mind effect, so maybe we can try it one day on DTube chain through a hardfork.
DTube still plans to monetize the same way as it always did, by taking fees on crypto-rewards, currently set at 10% (it's explained in the governance part of the article)
And having a staking mechanism for 13 weeks, doesnt increase the overall price of the token on the markets. It just delays the sell pressure for 13 weeks, but it's easy enough to see who is powering down, so I doubt it's even achieving that. Bitcoin is fully liquid and has no issue with having value today, it's all about utility. I think STEEM is worth what it's worth because some people want to have more voting power, the same holds true for DTC, the 'power-up' step is just skipped.
DTC can also be burnt to promote videos (just try to upload a video on d.tube), or reserving new usernames for accounts (once the steem-exclusivity period ends), we also have more long term plans for DTC burning around paid vod and advertising.
Do you expect to avoid DTC being seen as a security in the US? It seems to me that by tying the value to the work done by DTube the company directly will be interpreted as an unambiguous failure of the Howie Test
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Good question. We definitely believe our token won't fail the howey test because we are not offering "to invest" into an asset versus "money".
First about the "to invest" statement: DTC will be provided through first an Airdrop to EXISTING users, i.e we won't ask to join a telegram group, to create an account or require any other whatsoever marketing actions to boost DTube popularity in return for receiving DTC.
Second, about the "money" statement.
DTC is a utility token. Through the common run of the network, DTC works as a digital intangible asset as it can be UTILIZED to boost content popularity on the platform, to reward other users by voting and to access premium features or unlock specific in-app gaming features (exp. 2020). It basically follows the same principles of a free to play gaming model with in-app purchases (like candy crush for example).
The SEC considers most cryptocurrency tokens as being securities but why?
It used to be done via ICOs without many rules, and has now evolved to a more regulated version through Security Token Offerings (STO) under the Reg. A filing (the PROPS network has been granted of such this week -after a 2 year evaluation from the SEC...).
I actually like STOs, it is one of the rare use cases where the blockchain adds SIMPLICITY to an existing concept by easing investor onboarding through the sale of company shares held in a token and where shareholder's agreement is executed by a smart contract => this is much easier than having to go to a notary each time the company onboards a new investor. And it is dematerialised, no paperwork needed anymore.
DTube Coins are one of the first real utility tokens based on a sound economic cycle. Authorities and governments are going to understand this better in the future, DTube is leading the way.
Note that the SEC is one of the few regulators in the western world to consider by default all crypto tokens as securities (unlike in the EU, switzerland, singapore, etc.)