Another month, another update for our uploader.
Skynet mirrors
For most of you who do not know what this is, Skynet is another decentralized file-sharing protocol built on the Sia network, that was announced just 2 months ago. It was then added to DTube as an additional mirror as part of an update to the upload system. If you want to learn more about it, feel free to read the blog post here.
Today, I'm pleased to announce that videos uploaded to our service will be pinned on Skynet alongside IPFS. This adds another way in which your viewers can watch your videos on DTube, as well as having more redundancy so that your video remains playable even though there's an issue with IPFS gateways or Skynet webportals. For those viewers out there, you may switch between decentralized protocols by clicking on the respective logo on the top-right corner of the player on DTube watch page.
The first video uploaded to our service that is pinned on both IPFS and Skynet, by our long-time customer @mvd can be watched here.
If Skynet mirror is slow for you, try loading it from another webportal using the gateway switcher in the player settings.
Shawp
Due to many complaints that I have received regarding the existing ordering system and its tiered pricing model, I decided to write my own payment system within the uploader, which is easier to use than the existing systems. It will be called Shawp, which stands for Steem, Hive, Avalon and WooCommerce payments.
With Shawp, users can easily sign up for our hosting service by sending STEEM/SBD/HIVE/HBD of any amount to our receiver account (@onelovedtube) to purchase some hosting credits, called GBdays, which allows users to store 1GB of files on our service for 24 hours. Transfer memos may be empty if sending from the same wallet as the username to receive hosting credits, or in this format if sending from a different wallet: to: @username. You may also use the tool on the uploader homepage by clicking on the "Sign Up" button.
Similarly, you may refill your hosting credits with a simple transfer (same as first sign up process), or using the "Refill Credits" tool which can be found in the menu once logged in.
It is important that you have sufficient hosting credits in order to upload or store videos on our service. A warning will show up when logged into the uploader if you are running low on balance (enough credits for less than 7 days). Your account will be disabled for uploading if you do not have sufficient credits for the day.
For example, if a user's total usage is 50 GB and has 45 GBdays remaining, he/she will not be allowed to upload until enough credits have been refilled.
The grace period for our service is 3 days (instead of 5 days for the old tiered pricing). If your account runs out of credits for more than 3 days consecutively, your file contracts on Skynet will not be renewed, and files pinned on IPFS may be removed. Note that your balance can be negative during the grace period, so make sure to refill enough credits to re-enable uploading.
New pricing
Thanks to further cost reductions, I'm glad to announce that the new pricing for our hosting service is $0.087/GB/month (over a 30 day period), or exactly $0.0029 for each GBdays.
Instead of a tiered monthly pricing, this is a PPU (pay per use) pricing model, which means there will be no sudden jump in price over a certain quota, which is one of the complaints that we have received over the months. Pay only for the storage that you use.
Existing customers
For current active OneLoveIPFS subscribers, you will receive your hosting credits depending on your current subscription plan on a pro-rated basis. If your monthly fee is $3/month and your billing date is 3rd of April 2020, you will receive 586 GBdays on 16th of April 2020 (the day v0.9.4 went live).
(16 - billing_date) / 30 * monthly_fee / $0.0029 per GBday
For long-time customers that have been hosting videos with us for more than 1 year, our special rate of $0.072/GB/month, or exactly $0.0024 per GBday will be applied to your account as long as your account remains active.
As always, thank you for your support for the last few years of development of the uploader. If you have any issues regarding payments or uploading, let us know in our Discord server.
