OpenParasite.co

Actually it’s a different domain name (I don’t want to do them a favor so I’ll omit it), and secondly such sites that come and go. The domain name is irrelevant.

The point is, while most of us here are thinking how to use crypto to monetize own (or some of you other people’s) content, the parasites are busy making money without crypto. Like this OpenParasite.

I’m not interested in the exact nature of their model, but it seems these sites are a new gen of torrenting portals which not only display torrent links, but (big innovation) pop up a client-side window that on the one end sucks in video data, and on the other shows it to the viewer.

So they aren’t copying, transmitting or storing other people’s content. Something like Popcorn without the hassle of installing your own app. A small downside is they insert ads and trackers. Okay, that bothers me personally, but most people don’t give a crap.

What’s not to like? It doesn’t require any effort on the lazy viewer’s side and it appears to work well (I just tried to sample a movie, full HD no problemo!). Yes, it can be censored, but most popular movies have like 50-100 sources and just like torrents were never censored, these don’t appear to be censored either.

In summary, I can kind of understand why Average Joe will prefer these sites (as long as they work) to MaidSafe. Open a new tab, search, hit Play, hit Full Screen, watch, close the tab. There is nothing to learn or understand. Just like they like it.

I’m not saying SAFE is too hard, It’s not, but it’s harder than this. Bitcoin is having the same problem.
My point is, sites like that, and cash/PayPal (for Bitcoin) have significant advantages over the theoretically better crypto-stuff. Just like Bitcoin adoption is slow, SAFE will struggle the same way. I don’t know how many people are using this OpenParasite types of sites, but it must be millions. They’ve no clue how it works, etc. They just go there and it works.

The most idiotic part is they make it “easy to earn” (i.e. you stream stuff in a country which can theoretically jail you or fine you $100K for copyright violations, and they pay you $20 for 10,000 streams). Fxxxing morons.

But, my anger aside, this “earning potential” is a big deal because with “fiat” advertisers (who pay and pay more vs. mostly non-existent Tor or SAFE advertisers) one can actually earn a lot more. First, you earn fiat and quickly, and second, and you don’t have to be online all the time and wait for GETs. For example you can stream over weekends and make $20 (I suppose) and then delete the file on Monday morning. Third, you can “put your bandwidth to work” with a decent 32 GB USB key.

Now, we don’t know how that’s going to pay on SAFE, but if the farmers get 1 SAFE for each MB, movies will be expensive (or MAID will have to be cheaper) to match these ludicrous prices ($0.002/stream). Plus with SAFE the famer needs to actively get involved and learn a thing or two.

Someone jokingly asked “isn’t SAFE just a more expensive version of the Internet”. Of course it isn’t, but as far as video content is concerned, I have to say these parasitic Web streamers and the likes of Popcorn address a huge percentage (user time spent, and network traffic wise)) of market needs for P2P data sharing.

The biggest advantage of SAFE is anonymity, and that will have to work well if the lazy majority is to pay attention.

2 Likes

This is fascinating. This to an extent looks like the sponsorship industry starting to eat itself. They become their own Hulus. Netflix doing original unsponsored content is a much better direction. SAFE even better. And as you point out even Popcorn time is better, not that Popcorn time isn’t great.

I was noticing Forbes new habit of telling people to turn off their ad blocker and going even further in telling people to use the Google chrome spyware browser. This is insulting. The proper response is ad blockers that falsely report the ads as being shown. That to me it is completely fair, because the completely necessary end result is the destructing of lying thieving society destroying sponsored media. If they’d get an honest model and not do stuff like native ads they would have a way forward but their scale and complicity won’t allow a transition to something like SAFE without a reboot first.

Yeah, I think it’s interesting how Popcorn (no ads) still can’t beat these parasitic ads-based sites.
I think that’s something to ponder about. Millions are too lazy to install the free Popcorn and avoid the ads.

How reasonable is it to expect they’ll go out of their way to get SAFE?
I think that problem is quite similar to the problem of the hassle of using cryptocurrencies (e.g. having to install or create a wallet, spend 30 mins to learn the basics of cryptocurrencies, and not lose the password).

Yes. But I keep hoping a critical mass is what will get us through. I also think about how I have the opposite problem and keep refusing to install facebook. Facebook gets around this with its modal strategy of walled garden enclosure. Only members can view content. Its a bit like this bit of blocking content unless ad blockers are disabled or even trying to force people to use spyware browsers. This is where we need browsers and tools that take back all the power, its really not a balance issue, the only stake holders are the end users, because we’re all end users. We need stuff that really right down to opt in defaults gives us back the power by default and by critical mass majority, But I know you probably agree.

1 Like

If safe network becomes increasingly popular, I suspect it will just get integrates into popular web browsers. That may take some time, but the barrier to entry should decrease over time.

Understand something: Large swaths of this generation and the next will pass without even so much as hearing about maidsafe. This is the way of things, even in an internet age, most people won’t have any incentive to care at all. Imagine trying to sell a decentralized internet to someone who doesn’t even have a smart phone or want one. No what is being done here is the creation of, hopefully, a masterpiece that will be recognized in a later time. Everyone know Beethoven now, nearly nobody knew of him in his time. If maidsafe is better than what we have, it will take new/fresh eyes to reach a mass appeal, but then it will be as common as using a wallet is today. There are two kinds of people, those who lead and those who follow. We’re trying to lead, but there are many leaders out there who will not easily give up their flocks. Only when it is apparent that they are charlatans (after a lot of positive buzz from users of our side) will there be a mass adoption. You don’t know what you’re missing until you see it…

Kind of hoping it could be bundled into IOT for that reason.

Took another look at this crap and it seems what I described above is exactly how it works. Additionally, they make money from getting a cut on advertised VPN services which SAFE hopefully wouldn’t require.

Code: GitHub - torrentsTime/embed: Embed Torrents Time in your site or project with a tiny piece of code (the key package isn’t open source)