For those who missed it:
https://odysee.com/@Odysee:8/newmonetizationmodel:6
https://odysee.com/@Odysee:8/weredroppingstripe:e

Odysee is now dropping stripe and going full crypto. Now, I tried looking up information on how they are going to manage things, but this was really hard.

Before, I paid for a subscription, and that's fine and all. I can keep on paying a subscription, but where should I pay money to? This crypto is so hard to use, they only let you install a browser extension to use it. Do I really have to use Chrome/Firefox just to use a cripto? What about a CLI?

This is a thread for all the confused people, like me, who want to continue using Odysee but just can't wrap their head around this new payment model :D

Edit 1:

This is worse than I thought. Even Meta (Facebook) seems to be a supporter of the project https://www.arweave.org/use/ . Why? What is their incentive?

Edit 2:

Even Microsoft is working on this https://github.com/ArweaveTeam/arweave-standards/blob/master/ans/ANS-103.md . Nice! Surely they don't lack investments.

Edit 3:
This is a very good analysis of the people involved in the project https://medium.com/@c1s0r/scam-or-legit-arweave-95081ea7705b , maybe a bit old. Answers to the questions can be found here https://medium.com/@c1s0r/scam-or-legit-arweaves-answers-a40420393e07 . The overall verdict is "Questionable" here, with many missing points still unanswered. At the very least, many real people are involved and have spent money and invested publicity in this project.

Edit 4:
The stupidest question I can't find an answer for is: If I am a node and I receive tokens for maintaining the network, and users pay me those tokens to keep the network alive. Can't I just spend those tokens on myself? How do you prevent this infinite, circular investment?

Edit 5:
So they seem to also have investors in China as well.

Edit 6:

The mining docs also make sense, detailing the required hardware:

https://docs.arweave.org/developers/mining/mining-quickstart
https://docs.arweave.org/developers/mining/examples
https://docs.arweave.org/developers/mining/hardware

This project's premise looks in every way like a Ponzi scheme, yet they seem to be actually trying to solve the problem of persistent storage on the blockchain. But why are they ignoring basic market laws? It just doesnt' make sense, if electrical current costs money, you can't simply pay tokens upfront.

Edit 7:
Fuck it, I'm reading the damn paper from start to end https://www.arweave.org/yellow-paper.pdf

Edit 8: Whilst reading I found this post titled "How to Buy $AO" which was released just yesterday https://medium.com/@perma_dao/how-to-buy-ao-3e90c06fa4da

Edit 9:
As another user on another platform puts it:
What would be the difference with having a DAO get funds to pay for storage on Filecoin?

Edit 10 (final edit):

Here you have it:
3.2.6 Data Permanence, Not Network Permanence
All technologies come in cycles[10]. While the Arweave’s mechanism design
is generally engineered to promote adaptivity to new circumstances, the core
Arweave team does not expect that the network as it is currently formulated
will continue to produce blocks in true perpetuity. This does not, however,
mean that we expect that the information stored inside the weave will be lost
after the final block is mined. It is our expectation that when eventually
a permanent information storage system more suited to the challenges of
the time emerges, the Arweave’s data will be ‘subsumed’ into this network.
After the mining of the final block, the financial incentive mechanisms for
data preservation will subside and give way to social incentives for data
preservation. This effect will likely be compounded by the exceptionally low
cost of storing the data from the network, due to its decreasing relative cost
over time.

To be honest, I like this conclusion. This direct approach could actually work, ironically, as it worked many times in history. Fake it till you make it, you could say. I personally bought an Odysee sub in the past because I liked LBRY's ideals and technological challenges, and if they think this is the best bet possible as of today, I cannot disagree. We will see how this pans out in the future! You could say some people were already doing this for free, with trackers and stuff, and now they have a monetary incentive. What a time to be alive!