PeerTube is a free and decentralized platform that is used to organize video hosting and streaming videos.
PeerTube offers an alternative to YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo, independent of individual providers, which uses a P2P-based content distribution network to link traffic and link visitors' browsers to each other.
Started in 2015 by a programmer known as Chocobozzz, the development of PeerTube is now supported by the French non-profit organization Framasoft. The goal is to provide an alternative to centralized platforms like YouTube, Vimeo or Dailymotion.
The developments of the project are distributed under the AGPLv3 license.
PeerTube is based on the use of the WebTorrent Client (BitTorrent) running in the browser and using WebRTC technology to establish a P2P communication channel direct between the browser and the ActivityPub protocol.
By doing this PeerTube lor that allows is to join disparate servers with the video in the general federated network in which the visitors are involved in the delivery of content and thus have the opportunity to subscribe to channels and receive notifications about new videos.
Each server with the video performs the function of a BitTorrent tracker that hosts the user accounts of this server and its video. The user ID is formed in the form "@ user_name @ server_domain".
The way PeerTube works is quite unique in that the transmission of data during viewing is done directly from the browsers of other visitors viewing content.
If no one is watching a video, the post is organized by the server the video was originally uploaded to (the WebSeed protocol is used).
PeerTube uses the ActivityPub protocol, a new W3C web standard, to enable decentralization and compatibility with other services such as Hubzilla, Mastodon or Diaspora.
PeerTube Features
What can be highlighted about this platform is video streaming, as it is enough to upload a video, a description and a set of tags on one of the servers and this video will be available throughout the network.
And not just from the main download server. To view videos using P2P communications, a special widget with a built-in web player can be added to the site.
To work with PeerTube and participate in content distribution, a regular browser is sufficient and no additional software is required.
There is ability to track activity on selected video channels.
A user can subscribe to the PeerTube channels of interest and, at the same time, not link the subscription to a centralized account, thanks to the monitoring of changes in the federated social networks (for example, in Mastodon and Pleroma) or by RSS.
Possible be able to provide an interface to customize the channel layout and manage the available functions (For example, you can change the appearance of the page or prohibit the display of the list of previously published videos, but you can subscribe to track the appearance of new videos).
In addition to distribute traffic among users who watch videos, PeerTube also allows nodes created by authors for primary video distribution to cache other authors' videos, forming a distributed network of not only clients, but also servers, and also providing fault tolerance.
Opposition to censorship. The PeerTube network is formed as a community of small interconnected video hosting servers, each of which has its own administrator and can adopt its own rules.
If a user is not satisfied with the rules of a particular server, he can connect to another server or start his own server, on which he is free to set any conditions. Currently around 250 servers, with the support of various volunteers and organizations, are running to host content.
Sorry, but don't give my head so much…. if I have not misunderstood, if I set up a Peertube server, will I also host videos that are not mine? I ask this more than anything for sizing issues, of course, it is not the same to have the security of my storage space needs than to have to calculate an additional unforeseen amount for video that I do not upload.
Thank you
here they tell you no
Well, I think so, if you want…. Your server hosts, maintains and creates your rules. You can open it to the general public or close it for yourself. You also decide how many networks you subscribe to for the federation or if you open it to the public, set a limit of megabytes x video, x videos per week or month, the theme of the channel (without NFSW content, for example)…. There is no censorship as a rule, but each server has its own rules within a few basics
And what can be found on Peertube?
For example, if I am interested in astronomy videos, how do I search for them?
Can you post a video for only a few people to see?
Where does a layman learn what can be done with Peertube and how to do it?