Ever since I was first introduced to Steemit, I've been actively following the development of D.Tube. Until now, I've mostly been watching from the sidelines, as the uploader seemed to struggle with long videos and certain high quality formats. I never really considered this a problem, as I could just re-render the video with slightly lower quality settings, but it has kept me from using it actively, as I'd rather wait until the platform has matured and its childhood issues have been sorted out.

D.Tube 0.7

A few days ago, the D.Tube 0.7 update was released. One of the features which was addressed, was improved encoding and HD support. I decided to give it a try and started uploading one of my YouTube videos. Previously, if the upload did not work, the site displayed an error message before I could finish the upload process, but this time the upload process went through without any problems. Or so I thought...

It turns out that the video had indeed been uploaded successfully, but when I tried to watch it, the screen displayed the following error message:

The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported.

I figured that I might try a more common format, as I had done before, but then I made a horrifying realization which really made me question the platform's potential.

Videos on D.Tube cannot be deleted!

There is no way to delete videos on D.Tube. From what I understand, the fact that D.Tube videos are written to the blockchain, means that my unplayable video will forever be stuck there. In my case, the only consequence of this is the mild OCD itch which comes from a useless upload just laying there. For a video sharing site in general, I see it as a major dealbreaker. Sure, people can be cautious about what they choose to upload, but accidents happen. I'm now seriously questioning myself whether a blockchain-based video sites is actually a good idea. The only solution I see to this, is to implement some kind of delete function. I'm not sure if this is even possible. If it is possible, I'm curious as to why no delete option currently exists. As a worst case solution, there should be a way to hide the video from D.Tube. After all, the video can be removed from the Steemit post it's posted in, within a certain timeframe.

As I was thinking of how YouTubers would perceive D.Tube, I realized that the fact that D.Tube is Steem-based brings about another dealbreaker.

Any uploaded video will only generate revenue for seven days!

I've heard people reason that former YouTubers switch over to D.Tube because of YouTube implementing stricter revenue policies. This had me thinking. D.Tube's seven day only revenue seems like a pretty strict revenue regulation. From what I can understanding, the only YouTubers benefiting from switching over to D.Tube, are those who upload very frequently, those who have not yet reached the stats required for monetization on YouTube, or those whose content does not comply with YouTube's guidelines.

Unless you're within the mentioned categories, I don't think D.Tube seems like an attractive alternative to YouTube. Personally, I would be very discouraged if YouTube only had revenue enabled for videos the first seven days after uploading. It often takes more than seven days before a video gets traction and gains a lot of views. After seven days on D.Tube, a video is pretty much forgotten.

One of the things I (and probably other content creators) find attractive with YouTube, is that if you spend your time and effort and make something amazing, it will continue to bring you passive income pretty much forever. You just can't say the same about D.Tube.

D.Tube still has a market

While the former paragraphs might seem discouraging, I still believe that D.Tube has its place. After all, people are using it and succeeding at it. Still, there are some architectural design decisions which might limit its usecases. Let me know in the comments section if you agree, or if you have alternative views. Maybe some of my assumptions are wrong (I hope so).