How important are fiat currencies in Odysee?

Fiat currencies such as the dollar or euro have always been a source of controversy within crypto communities. Firstly, cryptocurrencies have decentralization as one of the central agendas, while state currencies are centralized in the hands of the State, thus enabling market manipulation, embargoes and confiscations. Secondly, there is a division in the community, where one party believes that the value of one crypto should only be quoted in another crypto (such as assessing the value of Hive in BTC, or the value of FOX in ETH). Ignoring this kind of community dualism and polemics to talk only about the reasons why it is important to offer monetization in the form of fiat currencies, let's try to understand what is the need to maintain support for a fiat currency within the Odysee.

Of course, it is a very superficial analysis, made only thinking about the context and the advantages of facilitating the use of dollars within the platform. That said, I found four points that apparently generate a great advantage for the platform. All of this is based on my personal perception, and it could be wrong, but these are the most relevant points I found.

That said, let's get to the analysis.

Understanding

I brought many of my friends to Odysee, and the vast majority had no idea what cryptocurrencies were, or even if they had any real value. At this point, being able to check the value of LBC online and knowing what the equivalence to everyday life is, helped them a lot to understand what they are doing.

Attractiveness

Systems where you can transact using fiat currencies will almost always be more attractive to the general public than blockchain systems of the same size. Imagine yourself as an ordinary content player on a streaming system, with the possibility to choose between a system that pays you in crypto and one that pays you in dollars. While you may be interested in blockchains and the like, in the end it's only your pocket that really matters, and honestly, if it's only your pocket that matters, you're going to look for what brings you the most return, and in that In this context, you will look not only for the one that brings the most money, but also the one that brings you the most convenience, and unless your earnings are very high, you are not going to make an effort to earn in crypto and then sell to get the dollar, since there is a possibility to earn the dollar directly.

In this scenario, it makes much more sense for LBRY and Odysee to offer the dollar payment service, as it brings to the platform a new option for payments and purchases, and greater versatility in the services that can be offered. As a centralized company with the aim of making a profit, it was a very assertive idea.

Hive, for example, does not need this device because its focus is not the average user, but people who are already inserted into the crypto universe, while Odysee focuses more on the common user, with little or no knowledge about cryptocurrencies, local where the presence of an element more familiar to the user's daily life helps him to become familiar.

Advertisements

The secret of any and all video streaming services is advertisements. At this point, Odysee is even lagging behind, as it doesn't have any form of ad-based monetization. However, monetization using fiat currencies opens a new door to this, allowing the creation of ad-based and dollar-payment monetization mechanisms in the future.

This brings to the platform new ways of interacting and monetizing content, making it more attractive to the average content writer. Of course, as, unlike YouTube, it's a service where anyone can create their own frontend, there's no point in placing infinite ads, as anyone could just create another frontend and continue with their videos without having any ads.

Direct exchange between LBC and dollar

One of the things people complain about the most at Odysee (and at LBRY in general) is the difficulty in obtaining liquidity from the resource. It is much harder to buy LBC than, say, ETH or another crypto (one of the reasons is the SEC vs LBRY case that I've mentioned a few times), which makes it difficult for many to if you buy content within the network.

One of the ways to circumvent this problem (and which has already been proposed as a possible implementation in a future version of the same) is for the platform itself to provide a way to exchange LBC for dollar, and vice versa. In this way, the platform facilitates the use and popularization of the token, which generates long-term benefits for the community.

Conclusion

Although it is a controversial topic that opens the door to platform instability and possible state control, at the present time the integration between Odysee and dollar payment systems is very beneficial, and can attract a significant share of content from other platforms, such as YouTube.

And you, what is your opinion? Leave it in the comments 😆😊