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.

• technical hurdle: this doesn't work for mobile, where network traffic is often limited. e.g. if i pay $10 for 50 GB upload/download capacity per month, then i don't want 49 GB of those to be sucked up by other people's video watching behavior.
• legal hurdle: what if some of the content is accidentally illegal? then i would be distributing illegal material, which can quickly become a problem for myself ... (seeing how it is illegal in many countries to distribute copyrighted material, but not to watch it oneself).