> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://parad0xlabs.gitbook.io/parad0xlabs-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://parad0xlabs.gitbook.io/parad0xlabs-docs/nebula-media-proof-carrying-media/nebula-media.md). # What It Is ### Make video smaller without making it look worse — and prove it. *** ## The Problem Video and media are the biggest, most expensive thing most platforms move. Storage fills up, and every view is bandwidth you pay for. The obvious fix is to compress harder — but that's a gamble: you re-encode, *hope* it still looks good, and have no real proof it does. Push too far and your users see mush; play it safe and you're burning money on bloated files. And there's a trust problem underneath it: when a file has been re-encoded, how does anyone downstream know it wasn't quietly degraded, swapped, or tampered with? *** ## What Nebula Is **In plain words:** Nebula is a media compression pipeline tuned for **quality-per-bit** — small files where the output quality is *measured*, not guessed. It scores every encode with VMAF (the industry-standard perceptual metric) and attaches a **cryptographic receipt** of that quality — computed locally, and anchored on Solana when you want it on-chain — so the result isn't "trust us, it looks fine," it's *checkable*. It's **scene-aware** and spans **four codecs** — `x265` (HEVC, widest device support), `SVT-AV1` (modern, smaller), `VVC`/H.266 (newest, smallest), and Apple `VideoToolbox` (hardware, real-time) — so it picks the right tool for your content and your machine. And it's **open**: Nebula is **MIT-licensed**, the pipeline is published, and there's a free public web tool on parad0xlabs.com. Like the rest of the stack, it's open-core — the code is MIT; a managed service exists only for teams that need scale and operational guarantees. *** ## Why "and prove it" is the whole point Anyone can compress a video. Nebula gives you, alongside the smaller file, a **quality proof and a fingerprint anchored on-chain**: the encoder used, the measured VMAF (including the *worst-frame* score, not just the average), and a hash that ties the output to the source. That means: * A platform can **prove it met a quality bar** to a client. * A creator can **prove their media is the authentic derivative**, not a tampered re-upload. * An archive can **prove a master restored correctly.** It's proof-carrying media: the compression and the receipt travel together. *** ## Who Needs This * **Video platforms and streamers** — every percent smaller at equal quality is a direct cut in storage and bandwidth bills, at massive scale. * **Creators and media teams** — ship smaller files without visibly losing quality, and prove provenance. * **Archives / rights holders** — provably intact masters with a verifiable trail. * **The Web0 stack** — Nebula is the media counterpart to Liquefy, emitting the same kind of on-chain proof receipts the rest of the stack anchors. *** ## What's Real Today * An open, **MIT-licensed** pipeline with four codecs, scene-aware encoding, VMAF-measured output, and Solana-anchored proof hashes. * A free public web tool; benchmarks and verification tooling you can run yourself. **Status:** Nebula is **alpha**. The performance figures (e.g. a repo example landing \~80% smaller at VMAF \~95) are **content-dependent** — measured on specific media, not a universal guarantee. It's open-core: MIT code, with a managed/enterprise tier for scale, not a closed product. *** **Next:** [**How It Works**](/parad0xlabs-docs/nebula-media-proof-carrying-media/how-it-works.md) **— scene-aware encoding, four codecs, VMAF proofs, and the on-chain receipt.** --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://parad0xlabs.gitbook.io/parad0xlabs-docs/nebula-media-proof-carrying-media/nebula-media.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.