# Towards a New Business Model for Streaming Platforms Using Blockchain Technology
## 4 Proposed Solution
### Tool and Main Features  
As a proof of concept for the architecture proposed in this work, a software application was developed to support the new business model for video streaming platforms. In this context, we have developed a video-sharing web application in which content creators make digital media available for end-user consumption. In this scenario, we are interested in investigating the following research items: (i) the integration of streaming platforms' metadata with our solution, (ii) the transparency of streaming services' business rules through smart contracts, and (iii) the financial cost of processing transactions on the blockchain network. Functional requirements were identified and mapped from the interviews with content creators and business model understanding to meet the research objectives highlighted in this work. Thus, we aim to ensure that all rules related to monetization, audience, and stored content information are kept intact and auditable. Below, we describe the functional requirements and illustrate in Figure 2 the flow of operations from loading a video to data persistence in the blockchain network.  
* **FR1:** Updating video information based on content consumption. This feature updates audience metrics of content on a web application based on the end-user consumption. This means that while the media is being played, information such as time, number of interactions with the video, positive and negative ratings, number of ads watched, and other relevant data are collected and updated. This feature helps keep track of viewership and engagement with the content.
* **FR2:** Generation of a smart contract for each piece of content. This feature automatically generates a smart contract for each video containing information identifying the content creator and the public keys of the user account and the streaming platform.
* **FR3:** Visualization of media audience metrics. This feature allows access to content audience metrics in the web application by calling the methods specified in the smart contract.  
Figure 2: Sequence diagram of interactions to implement the blockchain-based software application.  
* **FR4**: Splitting payments between channel partners. The functionality allows content creators to establish partnerships with other platform users, defining rules in the smart contract to distribute the monetary value generated by the content.
* **FR5**: Making monetary transfers to content creators. Based on the business rules specified in the smart contracts between the parties involved, this functionality removes banking institutions from the streaming platform ecosystem. It makes the corresponding monetary transfer to the content creator's digital wallet.  
The operationalization of the functional requirements described earlier involves the interaction between the content creator and the web application that simulates the video streaming platform. As illustrated in Figure 2, the process begins when the content creator makes their multimedia material available. Then, the front-end of the application forwards the information provided by the content creator to the back-end of the streaming platform. The back-end stores the content supplied in its database. This prompts StreamingChain to identify that the request involves the creation of new content. As a result, it generates a smart contract that links the content made available with the content creator's account. The audience, referred to as end-users, engage with the web application by viewing content creators' content. The StreamingChain services then capture the consumption metrics generated by the audience and sends them for data validation and storage. The metrics related to the content watched are updated and stored on the blockchain network.