Tron has decided to dip its toes into the social media game by launching its new live streaming video app, BitTorrent Live. The new social media platform will allow users to connect live with friends and other strangers from the internet and share live video content, as well as playing back old clips from users. The platform is likely to take advantage of the new BTT token and use it as a gas fee to promote videos to larger audiences. The app has been described by Justin Sun – Tron CEO – as the “Snapchat killer” and will be launched in the second quarter of 2019.
Just Another Hype Train?
If there is one thing Justin Sun is known for, it’s creating hype over nothing. To celebrate the launch of Tether on the Tron network with its new TRC-20 stablecoin, Sun decided to give away a Tesla – or at least that was the plan. Sun announced a winner, which then turned out to be a Twitter bot – so he drew yet another name, but this time on a live stream. However, the video lagged out and the winner popped up 30 seconds before sun announced the winner – not a good omen for BitTorrent Live. To top it off, Sun then took back the Tesla from the winner and drew yet another name as the “real winner”. None of the winners has received their Tesla, and if this promotion is anything to go by, BitTorrent Live could be just another marketing stunt.
Reinvigorating an Old BitTorrent Idea
BitTorrent Live isn’t a new plan – no surprises there – but it was in fact conceptualized back in 2012 by BitTorrent founder, Bram Cohen. His goal back then was to kill off television through live streaming content – a bit like Netflix. Sun has taken this vision and goal and brought it back to life in a knockoff Frankenstein version of Snapchat. Whether it will have live streaming of movies and TV shows is yet to be seen, but if it does then Sun could be on to a winner.
The details of BitTorrent Live are still sketchy at best, but what we know so far is that BitTorrent Live will function in the same way as other video-based social media sites such as Snapchat and TikTok. Sun will likely power the platform using the BTT token, which sold out in record time and use it to give users premium features – possibly no ads or extra exposure. However BitTorrent Live works out, we’re pretty sure it won’t kill off Snapchat – at least not anytime soon anyway.
