PopChest is a new platform which is innovatively harnessing the power of Bitcoin to monetize content while offering a Bitcoin based pay-per-view model. Individual artists, indie content creators can make use of PopChest to share their work and earn few bitcoins in the process.
Created by Valerian Bennett and James Poole, PopChest will allow artists to receive micropayments directly from their audience. Until now, it has been very difficult to include micropayments into any business model, mainly due to the exorbitant processing fee and minimum transaction limit fixed by credit card companies. This has been made possible with Bitcoin, which is divisible up to one hundredth of a millionth part and very low transaction fee associated with it (Ideally transaction fee can be completely eliminated for Bitcoin to Bitcoin transactions).
Currently in beta stage, PopChest is inviting content creators to make use of the platform to monetize their content directly. Publishing content on PopChest is a very easy process. Once the content creator uploads a video, he has to fill in all the relevant details including the Bitcoin extended public key (xpub), which is basically the Bitcoin wallet address. Once these relevant details are entered, a payment address will be generated. The uploaded content can be embedded into any webpage, as a simple iframe code or the direct link to the hosted content for sharing. Up on completion of the process, the link can be shared on other social networks to engage with the audience. Higher the number of viewers, more bitcoins the content creator gets. The Bitcoin earned though content will be registered on the Blockchain and transferred instantly to the content creator’s Bitcoin address.
Content creators interested in using the platform can request for invites here. According to the founders, PopChest is exploring ways to run their platform on a peer-to-peer storage network, similar to Torrents. But they are waiting for the technology to evolve a bit further before they can implement it.