this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
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it would be cool if i (or any user) could just contribute a part of their storage space / network connection to the video platform. something like "i store this video (that i just watched) for a month sothat others can see it too".
unfortunately, as i understand it, there's both technical and legal hurdles.
It wouldn't be worth it anyway. Assuming we're trying to compete with YouTube you'd want fairly long fairly high quality videos, 25 minute video at 4k (reasonable length and resolution for 2026) would take between 12 and 13 gigabytes of storage, assuming some videos are slightly shorter or slightly low quality maybe 1080p you could personally contribute about four to five videos on your storage plan. At which point you wonder whether or not it's even worth the effort.
Even one terabyte storage drive wouldn't store enough videos to really make a competitive product.
The only reason that YouTube can make it work is because they get their storage in bulk and therefore get massive discounts.
This means that even if Google was broken up I can't see YouTube being a viable standalone product.