The controversial internet businessman is preparing to roll out a new platform to enable content creators earn bitcoins for sharing their files.
By Polina Chernykh
Updated
3 mins read
Kim Dotcom is planning to launch Bitcontent, a new bitcoin payments system that will let users to sell their content files and video streaming. The German-born entrepreneur introduced a preview of the platform in a video post on Twitter, in which he explained the process of selling an item online.
Bitcache & Megaupload 2:
A first look at encrypted anonymous content delivery with build-in Bitcoin payments. Private. Easy. Safe. Tidy. pic.twitter.com/QHjU5pisGe— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) April 3, 2017
Bitcontent users will be able to monetize their content by uploading it to a Bitcache container and charging a price for downloading it.
“You can create a payment for any content that you put on the internet…you can share that with your customers, with the interest community and, boom, you are basically in business and can sell your content,” Dotcom said in the video.
The goal of the platform, Dotcom added, is to enable businesses, like news organizations, earn money from their entire websites. The date of the release has not been announced.
The New Zealand-based entrepreneur is now wanted in the U.S. on charges of racketeering, money laundering, and copyright infringement. Dotcom is the founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload, which was shut down by the U.S. authorities in 2012 after an FBI-ordered police raid on his mansion west of Auckland. According to the government’s claims, the website had been used to illegally download songs and movies.
Dotcom, however, denied the accusations and has been fighting against extradition to the U.S., saying that Megaupload is just a file-sharing website and he and his business associates shouldn’t be blamed for what users were uploading.
In February, the High Court upheld an earlier decision that there was enough evidence to extradite Dotcom to the U.S. The businessman and his lawyers said they would appeal against the latest decision.
The U.S. government claimed that Dotcom and other Megaupload executives cost record companies and film studios over US$500 million and generated more than US$175 million in revenues by encouraging and paying the platform’s users to share copyrighted files, including songs, movies and TV shows.
Bitcontent is based on the Megaupload 2, which is planned to be launched in the upcoming months. Last year, Dotcom revealed Bitcache, a blockchain-powered instrument that lets users to attach a cryptocurrency transaction to files that they will upload on Megaupload 2.
Dotcom believes the price of digital currency will reach $2,000 in the next two years following the launch of Bitcache and Megaupload 2. In order to download files through the platform, users will have to acquire the virtual currency to activate downloads.
Polina is an undergraduate student at Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU) where she is studying at the faculty of International Business Communication for a degree specializing in Intercultural Communication. In her spare time she enjoys drawing, music and travelling.
