Everyday Autonomous Transactional Media: A Platform Biography of the Decentralized Video Streaming Platform DTube

Abstract

This thesis tells the story of DTube, a blockchain-based social media (BSM) platform positioned as an alternative to YouTube. BSM platforms are situated at the intersection of the emergent Web3 discourse and the dominant platform paradigm. These novel initiatives attempt to develop community-led alternatives to mainstream commercial platforms by leveraging emergent Web3 technologies. Using the platform biography approach, the thesis traces DTube’s evolution between 2017-2022, locating these changes within the history of the web and digital media platforms. It contributes to a broader understanding of changing discourses, technologies, and practices of the web at a crucial historical juncture.