BitTorrent (BIT) is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing system on the torrent platform. It has implemented decentralization in recent years.
BitTorrent is currently the largest decentralized P2P communications protocol in the world, as stated in the whitepaper. This platform was originally established in July 2001, but later in 2018, it was purchased by the TRON blockchain platform. Bran Cohen is the brain behind the development of BTT. He himself is a developer and an entrepreneur.
The main objective of BitTorrent was to develop the entertainment industry. It made obtaining entertainment material slow and expensive as there is no content available from free sources and rather works through a subscription model.
After the acquisition, TRON has added several tools to BitTorrent with a dedicated native cryptocurrency token, BTT. The BTT coin was launched in February 2019 on TRON's own blockchain, using its TRC-10 standard.
Acquisition process
The BitTorrent platform has been part of several legal battles under Cohen's control. Cohen maintained that he did not violate copyright laws by allowing users to share files such as music and movies with each other.
With the acquisition, control passes to Justin Sun. Sun made efforts to connect both TRON as a cryptocurrency and its blockchain technology. To do this, he offered $4.5 million in a charity auction to have lunch with Warren Buffet and discuss with him his views on cryptocurrencies.
After completing the acquisition, TRON worked on adding cryptocurrencies to BitTorrent, as the BTT token was also launched on the TRON blockchain. They also made additional efforts to add and improve decentralized features to the platform.
How BitTorrent works
In a P2P network, peers transfer necessary files instead of servers. In contrast to the conventional client-server model of content delivery. However, it is not certain that online users will have the same software application on their computers to deliver the content that others want to download.
Some users leave the P2P network after the download is complete to prevent other users from downloading files from their machines. These users are known as leeches.
The BitTorrent protocol uses peers, seeds, a central tracker, swarms, and tit-for-tat ranges to avoid takeover issues. Seeds are the files that have finished downloading to the user's system.
Seeders are users who download seeds to share them with other users. To start downloading your preferred content, at least one seed must be on the BitTorrent network.
BitTorrent requires peers to be organized into an overlay network for each file that is distributed. This network is known as a torrent with links between other peers. According to the protocol, users must create a unique torrent for each distributed file.
Some file tracking tasks are transferred to a central tracker or server. It serves as a meeting place for all torrent clients. However, it is not involved in the actual distribution of the file. Rather, it stores metadata about active peers.
The client attempts to maintain connections with 20 to 40 peers, while the tracker serves 50 peers randomly selected from the active peers. Whenever a client has less than 20 connections, it contacts the crawler to find more peers from the set of peers.
Swarms are groups of BTT users, including peers, seeders and leeches, connected by a tracker. Participate in torrent price exchanges. The file is divided into chunks of identical size, and clients in a set of peers exchange these chunks with each other.
The process of sharing and receiving files on the BitTorrent network is called torrenting. BTT uses a tit-for-tat principle, whereby a central tracker is required to download a file from the BitTorrent network to share a portion of its files.
When a user tries to obtain content from other users on the same network, BTT transfers the file content to the main crawler. The main tracker receives the user's content and then uses it to serve other BitTorrent users.
The image above shows the file transfer process in the BitTorrent protocol.
BitTorrent Features
BitTorrent is an efficient and free file sharing system from the users' point of view. There are three versions of torrent downloaders, including BitTorrent Web for Windows and Mac users. BitTorrent Classic for Windows users and BitTorrent Remote for Android users.
Other unique features of BitTorrent are:
BitTorrent Speed
Initially, a torrent downloader was not rewarded for sending content to a larger number of downloaders once the download was complete. So, BitTorrent launched BTT Speed โโto incentivize seeders with BTT tokens to seed torrents.
BitTorrent Speed โโusers can pay BTT coin to speed up their download speed. It also allows users to create a BTT Speed โโWallet to store BTT and other cryptocurrencies. It also enables torrent clients such as BitTorrent Web, Torrent Classic (a desktop client), and Torrent Web.
DLive protocol
It is a decentralized live streaming platform that connects content producers with their audiences. In addition to low-cost streaming, users can also earn BTT tokens by watching the streams, which can then be staked to earn more tokens. During the live broadcast, streamers can also receive suggestions from their viewers.
Users do not need to use passwords or accounts to start streaming. They just need to configure their client. Servers or data stores also do not need to connect to the network.
BitTorrent File System (BTFS)
It is a decentralized file storage system where hosts offer storage to earn BTT rewards and tenants consume that storage by paying BTT. By using BTFS Gateway, any user can access existing files on the BTFS network.
Conclusion: How users can earn a BTT token
Users of the BitToken protocol can earn tokens in many ways, including downloading torrents and streaming content and staking their tokens. For example, the BitTorrent client can automatically earn BTT by seeding when a torrent file finishes downloading. BitTorrent file system hosts can earn BTT rewards by offering storage to tenants.
DLive Protocol streamers can earn BTT tokens by watching streams. Additionally, users can stake BTT with validators to earn passive income. Platforms like Binance offer BTT staking services.
Frequent questions
Where can a user buy BitTorrent?
BTT tokens can be traded on centralized crypto exchanges. The most popular exchange is DigiFinex. Other exchanges include Gate.io and OKX.
What is the most active trading pair?
The most active trading pair on the exchanges is BTT/USDT.
What is the market sentiment regarding BitTorrent currently?
The community is quite optimistic, as more than 95% of users are positive about the growth of BitTorrent.
Joseph Alalade is a journalist and editor who is an expert in Web3, crypto and blockchain content. His persistent dedication to learning and understanding these complex topics has given him the ability to simplify them for any audience. Joseph's experience and passion for the industry make him a valuable asset to organizations looking for informative and engaging cryptocurrency-related content that drives results.
