Updated 3rd June: better funding breakdown.

Support this as proposal 181 on PeakD
Support proposal 181 on Hivesigner

This is a call to fund:

an ongoing development (@podping),
an expansion of Hive into Podcasting Value 4 Value (@v4vapp) and
a strategic and promotional move for Hive.

With the help of this proposal I want to make Hive the essential backbone and core technology which keeps podcasting free and open, out of the hands of big tech.

I'm asking for funding to take the Podping Dapp I've already developed and deployed and is now the number 2 dapp on Hive in terms of transactions, and transition it to put Hive at the core of Podcasting 2.0 and the future of free and open podcasting.

I'm asking for $120 per day for 60 days. I've been working almost 50% of my time on this since the start of 2021 and almost 100% since late April when I proposed, designed and wrote code for a beta test of what has become the Podping system which is running right now. You can see onchain activity here: https://hiveblocks.com/@hivehydra.

This has the opportunity to show Hive is the ONLY truly decentralised blockchain with the characteristics of fast & free transactions which can do what is being done right now with @podping.

Podcasting, like Hive, is decentralised

Podcasting as we know it grew out of @adamcurry's suggestion to Dave Winer that the RSS specification grow to include links to files and particular mp3 files. An RSS feed, to which a player could subscribe, would become a podcast if it contained mp3 audio files.

Today podcasting has become an essential part of independent media with the usual suspects of big tech looking and wondering how to absorb and control it. Facebook, Apple, Spotify and Google have all made recent news within Podcasting, but none of them "own it" and I want to make sure they never do.

Podcasting, just like Hive, is inherently decentralised. Anyone can host an RSS feed and any real podcast playing app should be able to add any RSS feed and receive content direct from the content producer regardless of what anyone else does.

But censorship is creeping into podcasting: podcasts can be removed from Apple or Google's podcast indexes (which power far too many of today's apps). A show can still be heard, but discoverability is drastically reduced.

Podcast Index @podcastindex

It was to tackle this specific problem, and inject some much needed new development effort, that @adamcurry of the No Agenda show teamed up with @davejonespod to create the world's largest independent, open source index of podcasts. Right from the start I recognised the importance of this project, started watching their progress and taking part in ongoing development including setting up a presence for the project on Hive.

Value for Value

One of the key areas which has been developed is a system for rewarding podcasters with micropayments whilst listeners are listening: streaming sats as they call it. Right now they're using the Lightning Network built on top of Bitcoin but I have strong views that Hive can be used for this.

I even set up my own Lightning Node to better understand that system, feel free to open up a channel to me if you wish!

I was actively working on my own version of this when I spotted something which was a more urgent need and a perfect fit for Hive. Something no other blockchain I'm aware of could do. Value for Value is the area of work I want to get back to soon and for which I will need more development skills and resources than I can put in myself.

Podping

The big success so far is Podping. This is now deployed and in beta and being used by four major podcast hosting companies and by Podcast Index itself.

Podping logo idea 001.png

Dave Jones proposed a system, designed without blockchain in mind, but which I felt was far too complicated. I threw together a really simple proof of concept in a few hours. By the 25th April I had put together a simple Python script which put notifications into Hive as custom_json's and corresponding script to read them back. A few days later at the start of May I showed this to the open source devs working on various parts of Podcasting 2.0 and it was immediately agreed to give it a trial.

One week later, after Dave Jones at @podcastindex had built an authenticating API front end, we had a version ready to test and roughly another week later Buzzsprout, a large but agile and technology leading Podcasting Host, agreed to come on board to test.

It worked right out of the gate and it's been working non-stop ever since.

Podping and Decentralised Apps

Here on Hive we know Blockchain isn't just about Bitcoin financial transactions or ETH smart contracts and DeFi. But most of the world has no clue! We've already got the world's busiest blockchain game, @splinterlands, but @podping is a novel use of blockchain tech that very few people have ever imagined.

Podping on Hive is now the number two Hive Dapp by transaction volume.

Hivedapps.com

I've listed it on dapp.com where it is already the number 3 utility dapp by transaction volume.

We're just getting started and I'm deliberately managing the transaction volume for the best trade off between dapp performance (notification time in this case) and putting too many transactions on the chain. The current usage level is covered by a delegation of 1,500 HP I've given to the @hivehydra account which is making most of the posts.

Podcasting Hosts and Apps

The pitches for Podcasting Hosts and Apps are quite simple: both sides of the equation can save a great deal of computer resources and money by using Podping on Hive with no downside.

Apple, Spotify and Google

The end goal, of course, is to get the mighty Apple to use Hive as the engine driving their entire pod. Apple's Podcast app, installed by default on all iPhones, is probably the largest single podcast consumption app in the world, but Google and Spotify are both large rivals.

All three of these mega corporations would benefit from building Podping on Hive into their technology stack and the way we do this is by getting wide adoption across the rest of the Podcast world.

Aureal

As a small aside: we already have a funded project on Hive building a Podcasting Host with Hive's social features. This is fantastic and I want to liaise with them to widen their horizons so they include some of the key features of Podcasting 2.0.

Marketing and Adoption

This isn't an end user product. This needs to be marketed directly to a range of important players in Podcasting, all the way up to the biggest. Along with Adam Curry and Dave Jones, I've already put considerable effort into driving Podping forward and I want to up this with Press Releases and marketing in conjunction with the other ongoing efforts around Hive.

Podcast Index mission screen shot

What is in it for Hive?

Podcast Index and Podcasting 2.0 is a project completely aligned with Hive's core mission.

There are so many more aspects of Hive which we can bring to bear on Podcasting and I want to drive these together.

This small funding proposal will be a jumping off board enabling me to devote further time to this project and pull in outside dev and marketing experience as needed to drive this forward.

Hive suffers from being amazing but poorly understood or known. This project has the capacity to break out of the crypto world completely and show what a permissionless, fast, blockchain based system like Hive can do in a completely non-financial and non gaming application.

Adam and Dave Hive quote 2.jpg

I've already had startled reactions from the other Devs contributing to Podcasting 2.0 including the following from Adam Curry, the Podfather himself:

Very elegant and I'm very happy that Brian of London pushed and pushed and pushed on Hive, it makes so much sense this is a great, great use of it.

Hive's decentralisation and resistance to censorship is absolutely vital and not something found anywhere else!

Open Source

The plan is for Podping to be completely open source. Future integrations of Hive and Podcasting 2.0 including building out some form of Value for Value based on Hive in addition to their Lightning system, should be open source as well.

Weekly Reporting

I'll commit to reporting at least weekly on progress and plans (though I may well report more often).

About Me - Brian of London - @brianoflondon

Hive Experience

I was brought onto Hive by @apshamilton in July 2018 following my deletion from Facebook along with a 1.2million follower political Facebook Group I had helped build up.

I've worked with @theycallmedan @starkerz and the rest of the gang at @threespeak since they began. I've also been key to helping @apshamilton bring the #CryptoClassAction lawsuit with @jpbliberty against Facebook and Google in Australia. That's still running as we make it through the Australian Courts.

@apshamilton and I fought in the Tron wars and worked behind the scenes on legal posts and options as we all went through the Steem Hive fork.

I've built up a following, helped out wherever I can often using my remaining Twitter account to drive traffic. I have a personally significant financial position in Hive, @leofinance and other parts of the ecosystem. I've never withdrawn significant funds: almost everything I've earned here has been plowed back in and staked.

Before Hive I have been a management consultant, an entrepreneur and way back in the mists of time I was a coder. I received a PhD in computational fluid dynamics writing a huge simulation in C++. I've barely coded since early 2000 but I started learning Python to make graphs for our Australian court case, and that led to my new found dev skills on Podcasting 2.0.

I thank you for your votes on this proposal and I'm happy to answer all questions and take suggestions on board!

DHF Ask

I'm requesting 7,200 HBD in this funding round and proposal and sending it to @podping for transparency. I'm only asking for 60 days and will review after that. The first $1500 Hive's worth received will be powered up and used as the main stake powering Podping.

Specifics of the funding request

At least $1500 worth of Hive to be powered up and staked on @podping account and to use for delegations to active Podping senders
$2500 to be used to set up and run an Hive API Node, at first private and expanding to public facing. I'm told that ongoing costs for servers would be around $50 to $100 so this sum would cover up to a year and include proper compensation for the technical help to set this up. I believe this will be paid for by Podcast Index in the longer term but I want to show that Hive collectively values this and will contribute to the set up.
$2000 to enable me to hire extra dev help to continue my work on @v4vapp and the value for value micropayments system currently exclusively working with Bitcoin Lightning but for which Hive is probably a better solution.
A maximum of $1200 as possible direct compensation for me though I don't have any particular intention to pull these funds out of Hive in the foreseeable future and they'll just end up as more staked Hive. That's $20 per day over the period of this request and I've been working almost full time for more than a month already.

Revenue Generation options

Podping will put in place a system which will reduce costs for a number profitable businesses Even Apple will be able to reduce its costs! Arguably this service could be a paid for service however that's not the business model of the Podcast Index and I don't believe it would be a correct business model for Podping.

Instead this should be, like most open source projects, a "Value for Value" project. I fully anticipate Podcast Index will receive value donations specifically linked to the Podping service and Podcast Index will invest back into Hive.

Dave Jones specifically registered @podcastindexorg as a new account (I've been managing all accounts up to now) and Podcast Index sent $200 via @blocktrades to power up that account yesterday.

This is just a start and a recognition that the only way Podping remains sustainable is if it contributes as much or more value back to the Hive ecosystem as it takes out.

This is my public commitment to follow these principles and should anything material change to affect this, I will keep everyone updated and use any remaining funds to benefit Hive.