Adoption comes in many shapes and forms. Fidelity Investments is actively exposing thousands of institutional investors to crypto assets through its offering. Technology giant IBM is allowing Fortune 500 corporations to get their hands on blockchain technologies. Rakuten, in Japan, is pushing local consumers to use Bitcoin in their stores through discounts — you get the point.
While the list of adopters of this newfangled innovation is as diverse as ever, this changes with a recent addition. Felix Kjellberg, a Swedish Youtuber that is best known as “PewDiePie,” seems poised to delve into the blockchain space with a recently announced sponsor. Kjellberg, by many measures, is the most diverse entity to have made a play in the blockchain space.
PewDiePie Pushes Blockchain- And Crypto-Friendly Streaming Platform
In Kjellberg’s latest edition of “Meme Review,” a segment in which the content creator breaks down the latest (and greatest) memes, PewDiePie opened his segment by touting a platform by DLive, an up-and-coming streaming platform.
While this is normal, as the so-called “King of Youtube” with 93 million subscribers often takes up sponsorships with technology companies, what was cool (to us anyway) was that DLive is a platform centered around blockchain. Kjellberg, in fact, mentioned the word twenty seconds into his sponsorship spiel. As PewDiePie explains:
“DLive is built on the modern blockchain, providing a disruptive solution for the industry… DLive’s mission to empower creators… through their revolutionary reward system.”
As you likely have guessed, this startup’s ploy is to provide creators and users with a crypto asset. DLive’s digital asset is based on the lesser-known Lino blockchain, built using Cosmos technology, and is paid out to creators and can be obtained by consumers of content. What makes DLive better over, let’s say, the Amazon-owned Twitch is that the company doesn’t take any earnings from its users.
It isn’t clear how far PewDiePie intends to take this business relationship, other than the fact that he will be live streaming on the platform next week. However, as of the time of writing this, 2.5 million viewers have been subject to 80 seconds of pro-blockchain content, and that’s arguably a good thing.
This is actually the second time that the popular video gamer has publicly delved into the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. Last year, as the initial coin offering boom was still ongoing, PewDiePie took part in a promotional video for a cryptocurrency project, providing something known as “SgamePro” with one-minute of footage. This video never made it to the PewDiePie channel, but it was uploaded by the SgamePro team likely in a bid to draw traffic to its product.
Not The Best Face For Blockchain?
It is important to note that, whether warranted or not, controversy has been an integral part of Kjellberg’s long-lived career. In years past, the world-renowned Youtuber has been accused by mainstream media outlets on multiple occasions for fostering racism and bigotry through his videos.
In fact, many deemed PewDiePie a closeted racist, as some of his videos were purportedly misinterpreted as promoting anti-Semitic beliefs and he once overtly used an unprintable slur in a “Player Unknown: Battlegrounds” Youtube livestream.
Whether the full extent of the accusations is true is up for debate. The Youtuber has debunked some claims on many occasions, remarking that not only are some accusations decidedly false but that he has also taken major strides to bolster his image and the soundness of his beliefs in the past 24 months.
His dozens of millions of fans would agree. Regardless, some in the blockchain space and in the general public may take issue with PewDiePie’s reportedly spotty past, and try to paint his shortcomings into a false narrative about this innovation.
No matter what you think of PewDiePie’s ideology and the related dilemmas he has found himself in, it is likely that his recent move to team up with DLive will end up benefiting blockchain, rather than harming it outright.
1 Comment
Are only content providers rewarded with Bitcoins ?
If so, Why would any viewer jump from well known YouTube to the new platform ?