Here at AYO.NEWS we like to talk with interesting people, and few people in the world are more interesting than Halsey Minor.

The visionary behind some of the greatest successes in enterprise computing like CNET, Uphold, Salesforce, Google Voice, and OpenDNS. Today he leads Live Planet, the leading VR video platform, and the VideoCoin Network, video infrastructure for the blockchain-enabled internet.

Recently we caught up with Halsey to find out what’s going on with his latest ventures.

Can you briefly explain what VideoCoin is, and what advantages is has over Amazon Web Services?

The VideoCoin Network is a blockchain-powered video encoding, storage, and content distribution system. Just as Uber did for cars and Airbnb did for hotels, VideoCoin will do for video processing and delivery over the internet, processing power from otherwise idle servers in computer centers from all over the globe, for significantly less than AWS.

In 2019, video accounts for close to 82% of internet traffic and is growing at 20% per year. As video quality has increased, so has the file size — virtual reality and augmented reality traffic alone will increase 20-fold between 2016 and 2021. As people cut the cable cord and stream all content, the market to provide these data cloud services has exploded to a $30B industry, which are controlled by a few large firms; namely Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Moving that much data efficiently is where centralized servers have started to struggle.

The VideoCoin Network ecosystem will lower costs by deploying unused computing resources, enable a new generation of applications via open APIs and open source-based development, enable P2P video distribution, and increase privacy with decentralized, end-to-end encryption. This Network offers everyone from Hollywood studios to amateur videographers a way to process their video content just as easily as AWS but for far less. Current estimates show VideoCoin reduces costs by 60 percent to 80 percent, dramatically undercutting the competition.

Why did you opt to use tokenized fiat currency for VideoCoin?

We recently made some fundamental changes to the way the market works. Bitcoin has token inflation, so that model was carried over to all token projects, including ours initially. But just as bitcoin has not yet proven practical for consumer use, say to buy a cup of coffee, volatile tokens have not proven practical for business use. Businesses do not like volatility, where new tokens are minted faster than the value of the services they’re providing. Realizing this at VideoCoin, we created a new model that removes volatility completely by eliminating ongoing token generation, instead providing customers and content publishers with fiat payments via a third-party payment processor. That’s a big change.

You almost went into business with Jeff Bezos many years ago. How does it feel to be launching a service that could topple Amazon’s dominance?

I don’t think Jeff will be too worried 🙂 It’s a huge market with plenty of growth for everyone. One of the macro trends I’m watching is the outright explosion of video transforming the web, it’s traffic and the media business in general. We don’t need to put AWS out of business to succeed. Cloud services is just one of a large number of businesses where Amazon makes a lot of money — there’s also retail, digital advertising, Prime, etc. In 2018, AWS generated nearly $7.3 billion in operating income, more than half of Amazon’s total. It’s a rare opportunity to go after a business with a lot of profit.

What persuaded you to get into cryptocurrency with Bitreserve/Uphold?

I first learned about blockchain when I launched Bitreserve (now Uphold) in 2013, a digital currency service that allows you to buy crypto and to make payments connected to the US, EU and UK banking systems. This allowed people to buy crypto, which had historically been hard to do from a bank account. Today Uphold is thriving and profitable, serving 184+ countries across 30+ currencies (traditional and crypto), but the regulatory aspect was a headache. I thought there were others who were better suited to run the company so I left and started Live Planet.

I firmly believe in the power of blockchain tech as a game-changing disruptor, both against tech giants and in favor of civilians with much to gain. With the blockchain, we have a completely decentralized version of the internet, all powered by a simple idea. There was an internet of information, but now there is an internet of value and information. These two things compound each other. The new internet will be bigger than the first — I truly believe that. What’s interesting is you can combine the transparency of information with the liquidity of money, transforming the internet into what it was always meant to be — a decentralized communication network.

What makes Live Planet’s VR system so innovative?

Unlike television, there are no standards in virtual reality, so current market offerings do not work together. We struggled with that and decided to take out all the duct tape and bubble gum you would have to know before. We built all of the necessary pieces — a compact 3D VR camera, a cloud-based publishing platform and mobile apps — into one end-to-end system that makes producing content 10x easier, while dramatically improving the quality of streaming VR. Now, you simply order the system, get the box, open it up, turn it on, and start streaming in VR in less than 15 minutes.

The VR System uses NVIDIA’s Jetson TX2 to instantly stitch together 16 different image sensors to output 4K video at 30 frames per second, all inside the camera. This saves content creators days in time and expense in video post-production.

You’ve said that VR is the “Engine to Drive Empathy Worldwide.” What is your biggest hope for the technology?

VR is truly special in the way it viscerally allows you to experience another’s reality. You literally transport yourself and your senses instantly to new worlds. Just as airplane travel and the internet have created the ability to experience other cultures and events, so too does VR in a profound and lasting way. TV, while powerful, is really very artificial in a way that VR is not. In VR, you see everything around you. There is nothing hidden and the experience is the same as being there. VR has the ability to let one better experience another’s true reality. There will always be those who resist but the medium affords anyone an easy path to understanding. World events like protests and destructive weather events are experienced much more deeply in VR, giving us a better understanding of the world and each other.

How will 5G change things?

Just as no one knew the iPhone would become ubiquitous, which transformed and tested the limits of 4G, we don’t yet know the best applications for 5G today. We do know the increased bandwidth, reliability and lower latency will make VR far more pervasive. Within a short time, everyone will have a VR headset, much as everyone now has a smartphone and wonders what they ever did without it.

Do you feel the US is moving too slow in terms of regulating cryptocurrencies, digital assets, blockchain and AI?

I think the US is being cautious and it’s frustrating. But this is a big change and we shouldn’t be surprised the US is not green lighting the crypto industry. I think it’s up to the industry to prove that it does not pose a risk to consumers and that value in incontrovertible. I don’t think we’ve done that yet. As services like the VideoCoin Network launch, they provide a record that businesses are better off with crypto than without it. We need to transform from a trading based system to a service delivery based system. I think the VideoCoin Network will be one of the very first applications to really move the dial and demonstrate the value crypto can play in society.

After many years of success, you went through a very dark period beset by personal tragedies and business difficulties, but you’re clearly back on top. Do you have any advice for others going through difficult times?

The only way I could move forward in my life was to put everything behind me. Sometimes things go wrong and you just carry on. When you look back over the long arc of my life, it’s clear that period was a very unique time. Today, I’m back doing what I love with Live Planet and the VideoCoin Network. For readers, I’ll impart the advice of Winston Churchill: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

AYO.NEWS says:

We’re sure you’ll agree Halsey and his teams at VideoCoin and Live Planet are making some pretty cool things happen, and we’ll be watching developments closely and hopefully catching up again soon. In the meantime, it’s a massive ‘thanks’ to Halsey for taking the time to share his thoughts, insights and vision.

Keep up with our Live Planet coverage:

Advanced media and tech co. Live Planet appoints Per Borgklint and Marcus Bergström as advisors to its Decentralized Media Solutions division (read more).

Hanno Basse, former Chief Technology Officer at 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, has been appointed president of Live Planet’s Decentralized Media Solutions division (read more).