Creator monetization platform Joystream raised $5.85 million in its bid to create a decentralized online video site.

Digital Currency Group, Hypersphere, Defi Alliance, and D1 Ventures led the round at a $60 million valuation, according to a press release. (DCG is the parent company of CoinDesk).

Joystream seeks to act as a decentralized YouTube, according to CMO Robert Nemelickus. Creators can mint their videos as NFTs on the Joystream blockchain, and each channel has its own native token. Consumers can invest in their favorite creator's success, as well as take profits from their NFT sales on the platform.

It's part of a broader crypto movement that aims to empower individual creators over corporations. While content stalwarts such as YouTube tightly govern how their creators make money (and grant them limited say in how the platform evolves) Joystream’s planned DAO would hand over the keys.

“Giving the stakeholders the tools required to decide, fund and direct the operation and evolution of the system is a much more durable approach, and one which is going to make it much more attractive for developers to build applications on top of Joystream,” said Bedeho Mender, CEO of the primary company building Joystream, called Jsgenesis.

According to Mender, the startup, which has been around since 2015, was originally building atop the  BitTorrent protocol. It pivoted to creating a video platform in 2018 and has been preparing for mainnet launch ever since.

Right now it’s preparing to launch a mainnet in Q2 or Q3 of this year that will allow for a custom DAO, a NFT marketplace for creator’s videos, and a platform for creator’s to monetize their videos with their own tokens. Currently on the testnet, there are 3,434 memberships and creators have been paid out $132,301 thus far.

Other decentralized video platforms such as LBRY and DTube are more limited in scope, hosting crypto tipping.

In a phone interview, CMO Robert Neckelius told CoinDesk that the funding will helpJoystream recruit creators; its setting aside $12 million in $JOY tokens as an incentive.. They’re “committed to attracting high talent to control the DAO.”