computer science

LBRY

LBRY is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand LBRY rather than just read about it. In short: LBRY (pronounced "library") is a blockchain-based file-sharing and payment network that is primarily used for social networks and video platforms. The blockchain was managed by LBRY, Inc. from 2015 until 2023, when the company closed after losing a lawsuit from the U.S.

LBRY — illustration

Key takeaways

LBRY belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect LBRY to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of LBRY from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

LBRY (pronounced "library") is a blockchain-based file-sharing and payment network that is primarily used for social networks and video platforms. The blockchain was managed by LBRY, Inc. from 2015 until 2023, when the company closed after losing a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which found that LBRY had sold unregistered securities. In September 2020, the video hosting platform Odysee was created as part of the LBRY project. It was split into a separate company on October 1, 2021. LBRY, Inc.'s CEO was American libertarian political activist Jeremy Kauffman.

History The LBRY protocol is a decentralized file-sharing and payment network built using blockchain and BitTorrent technology. It allows anyone to create an account and register content that cannot be deleted by the company. LBRY uses BitTorrent technology to serve content without relying on their own servers by using peer-to-peer file-sharing. Creators can record video content to the LBRY blockchain, as well as other digital content including music, images, podcasts, and e-books. The LBRY projects are open source. In October 2017, LBRY, Inc. released a media hosting site built atop the protocol called spee.ch. It stopped being supported in December 2019, in favor of LBRY, Inc.'s LBRY.tv website. Odysee, another video website, using their LBRY protocol, entered beta in September 2020 and officially launched that December. Odysee was split into a separate corporate entity with its own CEO on October 1, 2021 as LBRY faced a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Company

LBRY, Inc., which built the LBRY protocol and the platform based upon it, was founded in May 2015 by Jeremy Kauffman and Jimmy Kiselak. The company was based in Manchester, New Hampshire. Through 2015 and 2016, Kauffman and Kiselak were joined by Mike Vine, Josh Finer, and Alex Grintsvayg, who they also described as co-founders. Kauffman, Kiselak, and Grintsvayg all attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where they played ultimate frisbee together. Kauffman was LBRY's chief executive officer, Grintsvayg was chief technology officer, and Finer was the director of operations and analytics. Julian Chandra was the company's chief marketing officer. LBRY, Inc. maintained their own cryptocurrency, "LBRY credits" (LBC), which they used as a part of a digital store they built on the LBRY blockchain. Using this currency, creators could charge viewers to stream their content or earn tips. Users of the platform earned LBC by using the platform and inviting others to it. On March 29, 2021, the SEC charged LBRY, Inc. with selling unregistered digital asset securities. The SEC alleged that LBRY, Inc. had sold LBRY credits (LBC) to fund their work without registering them with the SEC as a security, a violation of securities laws. In response, LBRY's CEO began a public relations campaign to gather support among blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and to argue that the SEC had mislabeled LBC as a security. On November 7, 2022, the SEC won the lawsuit when Judge Paul Barbadoro of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire granted the SEC's motion for summary judgment. Although the SEC initially sought a $22 million fine, they later revised the request to $111,614, citing LBRY's "lack of funds and near-defunct status". In July 2023, the judge imposed the fine, and LBRY announced they would be closing.

Content and users The LBRY platform's video sharing websites have been described as an alternative to YouTube. In 2017, LBRY, Inc. publicly archived 20,000 deleted UC Berkeley lectures from the university's YouTube channel after the US Department of Justice ruled that the videos violated the Americans with Disabilities Act due to a lack of transcription. spee.ch, a media hosting site built atop the LBRY protocol, was used by groups such as Deterrence Dispensed to upload 3D printed firearm blueprints. When LBRY, Inc. stopped supporting spee.ch in 2019 in favor of their new site, LBRY.tv, Deterrence Dispensed moved to LBRY.tv. The LBRY platform experienced a surge in popularity in late 2020 and early 2021, and LBRY, Inc. said in January 2021 that their new user sign-ups had increased to 250% from the previous month. Writing for The New York Times, Nathaniel Popper reported that many of the new users appeared to be supporters of former United States president Donald Trump and gun rights advocates who were suspended from YouTube. Robert Hackett and David Z. Morris writing for Fortune attributed the increased interest in LBRY and other blockchain-based platforms to the choice by Twitter and other popular social networks to ban Trump and many others after the 2021 United States Capitol attack. As of April 2021, Odysee hosted 10 million videos, the most-viewed of which was a video challenging the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. A May 2021 report by The Guardian found "scores of extremist videos" on the Odysee platform that promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories, glorified Adolf Hitler and other Nazis, shared COVID-19 misinformation, and depicted meetings and rallies by extremist groups including the white nationalist and antisemitic National Justice party and the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement. Megan Squire, a computer scientist and researcher of right-wing political extremism, described challenges faced by blockchains such as LBRY and the social networks built atop them: "As a technology it is very cool, but you can't just sit there and be a Pollyanna and think that all information will be free ... There will be racists, and people will shoot each other. It's going to be the total package." Extremism researcher Eviane Leidig, writing for the Global Network on Extremism & Technology (GNET) at The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, described Odysee as "the new YouTube for the far-right", and wrote that although Odysee was "not inherently a platform for far-right or extremist content creators", it had become popular among them.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with LBRY

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what LBRY claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to LBRY before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about LBRY ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of LBRY

In research: LBRY appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses LBRY in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: LBRY is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2015 establishments in New Hampshire, 2023 disestablishments in New Hampshire, Alt-tech, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for LBRY outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study LBRY in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what LBRY means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain LBRY out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is LBRY in simple terms?

Why does LBRY matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study LBRY?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on LBRY.