Flote: Bitcoin-enabled alternative to Youtube and Patreon?

What is Flote? It’s hard to say at this stage. It used to be Bitbacker, where a central feature is the power to reward anyone on the platform with monthly, Patreon-style support in Bitcoin. This means crypto-lovers can support crypto-influencers… with crypto.

And the updated Flote is a nice, clear home for this feature, coming with familiar social media app design, posting features and elements.

NOTE: However, it doesn’t provide a real Bitcoin wallet so it’s not you holding any Bitcoin that resides there in your ‘wallet’, but Flote. This is important to realise.

Besides the Twitter-style posting, it plans to allow for video live-streaming, which will interest many looking for Youtube alternatives.

The design: You won’t be lost here as the design is a straight-forward Facebook-Twitter wall alternative.

More about the Monetization features etc:

On the Patreon-style front, you can create your own ‘tiers’, to allow only those who pay you monthly to have access to special content and posts. This is under the ‘Support’ tab on every user’s profile page.

For example, you can still support Ade’s Press art and posts on $2 a month tier, but I’m not offering any additional content at time of writing. But it’s a pretty cool, strong feature.

Naomi Brockwell (one of the smartest crypto influencers around) is among one of the users to follow, for starters. You can also create lists just like Friends and Family. You can also link all your social media accounts easily, but not import.

I can’t see that any other part of the site is directly monetized, although you can easily send BTC to any user on the platform using their @handle.

You can add BTC funds either by transferring in from any other Bitcoin wallet, or by WYRE fiat-crypto gateway.

On mobile too? I can see there’s a mobile app in development just now, however the existing site is straight-forward enough to provide a decent experience already, also allowing for notifications.

The concerns with Flote are competition and security, since there are more secure, decentralised blockchain-based platforms that only need to include Flote’s existing features to make them superior. BitTube could be one of those.

However, Flote does have simplicity and might be what the more basic users go for. But Flote needs to work hard to show off how secure it is, and partner with some properly-insured wallet custodians or something.

Hopefully this post helps if you’re looking to start over your social media, for a Facebook or Youtube, crypto-enabled alternative.