The innovative solutions technology and finance have given birth to in recent years primarily work to upend the old ways of doing things. Two of the most direct challengers to the status quo-the way we traditionally engage with television and money-are Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and Bitcoin, a decentralized form of digital currency. IPTV is a direct competitor to cable and satellite television and has many advantages over those more established forms of content delivery. On the other hand, Bitcoin’s edge over traditional financial transaction methods is more pronounced and direct; it exists in clear defiance of the banking system. Both developments give us the opportunity to understand the currents of innovation powering their respective industries, but together, IPTV and Bitcoin also pose intriguing questions to anyone still mostly interested in the “good old days.”
IPTV stands for Internet Protocol Television. This means that television content can be delivered over the internet. And it can be delivered live, or as video-on-demand, or even in the form of interactive multimedia content. That’s what makes IPTV something we really need to talk about as a contemporary vehicle for television distribution. It’s not just another internet-based alternative to cable. It’s a precarious balance of content delivered via one’s internet connection, at a cost that can, in many cases, be lower than that of conventional cable packages, with a service offering that can be enjoyed across a multitude of devices.
Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency, introduced in 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. It allows people to make direct electronic payments over the Internet without the intermediaries of banks. Peer-to-peer payment systems are not new. What makes Bitcoin different—and potentially revolutionary—is its underlying technology. Bitcoin is not only a currency; it is an idea with disruptive potential. It promises a more convenient, secure, and private way to pay. Its appeal for those tired of the ‘trust us’ culture of banks and the ‘surveillance capitalism’ of free online services is that it could make payment systems that are powered by something other than trust.There are unique opportunities that the services in IPTV and Bitcoin could utilize on unique customer bases. To be specific, there are some expansion on the customer base, of course, in favor of using cryptocurrency service providers employing IPTV. Formerly an under-serviced sector of the market, users of digital asset transacting have become a fast-growing demographic. On the other hand, IPTV providers can capitalize on the adoption of Bitcoin as a means of doing business securely by accepting a payment method that offers greater safety and privacy than the credit card-sized payment pathway their customers are limited to today.
For instance, accessing popular streaming services is very difficult for people residing in countries where censorship is very rampant. These people can use Bitcoins to purchase the service of IPTV. For one, they need not consider all the red tape and private details they’d have to go through if they wanted to settle such purchases via traditional payments. Bitcoin provides IPTV consumers with an enhanced option to freedom from the limits imposed by different payment channels; besides, both Bitcoin and IPTV present the same ethos-an ethos in consuming content with no limit to it. Still, there are a few challenges that this setup has to contend with.
The first big worry is that Bitcoin’s price is too volatile and so unpredictable to use as any basis for setting subscription prices. On the other side of the equation, what if IPTV providers and their subscribers just can’t use the cryptocurrency to reliably and legally buy services? Navigating the regulatory morass that cryptocurrencies present is a major job for IPTV providers. Even if IPTV goes fully legit and doesn’t present opportunities for rental or illicit download payoffs, can it afford, in terms of ethically earned Bitcoin, to operate on the level of business that earns it enough, well, legit Bitcoin to cover its own costs?
We see a collision in profound and interesting ways between how we watch television and how we use money. Two emergent technologies—internet protocol television and Bitcoin—are coming together in a kind of perfect storm. Both are in their infancy but promise to transform the industries they touch: IPTV the media-consumption sector and Bitcoin the financial world. If we consider these two promises together, we can see something that looks like a real opportunity for the companies that are providing these services and the viewers and virtual money spenders themselves.