BitTorrent - Largest File Sharing Protocol with BTT

TRON Foundation and BitTorrent Foundation are introducing a new cryptographic token called BTT along with an extended version of the BitTorrent protocol in order to create a token-based economy around the usage of networking, bandwidth and storage on hundreds of millions of computers on the internet. Our initial entry point is to introduce token-based optimizations to the existing BitTorrent protocol providing a way for the value of sharing bandwidth and storage to be captured by network participants beyond the point at which the current protocol no longer values it. Our longer-term vision is to broaden the usage of BitTorrent far beyond current use cases to provide a distributed infrastructure platform to third-party app developers and to enable consumers to continuously distill small amounts of value from their devices by allowing others to make use of their spare resources. The first step in our project will create a market-driven mechanism to enable consumers to collaborate to optimize and prolong the lifespan of existing BitTorrent swarms. Using additional extensions to BitTorrent we will subsequently open up opportunities for distributed app developers to launch new apps making use of infrastructure provided by existing BitTorrent clients which already constitute a distributed networked storage platform of unprecedented scale.

These new apps will be able to offer incentives (BTT) to users in return for access to cost-effective platform resources comprised of an incredibly broad collection of already-deployed network endpoints. The position of these endpoints at the very edge of the Internet will have the additional appeal to developers of being extremely difficult for net-neutrality adversaries to interdict. Finally, the ability of consumers to capture the value of their contributed computing resources within a cryptographic token will give rise to a completely new transactional mechanism for internet consumers that is distinct from either their attention or their credit card. With over 100 million monthly active users and millions of additional new installs every week, BitTorrent already manages one of the largest distributed computing ecosystems on the Internet. By integrating BTT tokens and transaction processing we will both address existing limitations of BitTorrent and open up a whole new borderless economy exchanging value for computing resources on a global scale. This will be a realization and extension of the vision expressed by Satoshi Nakamoto in the original Bitcoin white paper on its tenth anniversary.

The TRON Foundation and BitTorrent Foundation are legal entities incorporated in the Republic of Singapore.

The BitTorrent Protocol

BitTorrent is a pioneering distributed communication protocol invented by Bram Cohen in 2001. As a peer-to-peer protocol, it facilitates the transfer of large, highly demanded files, eliminating the need for a trusted central server. The BitTorrent protocol enables client software endpoints (“clients”) to collaborate with each other to enable reliable simultaneous distribution of large files to multiple clients, reducing reliance on any single weak point (such as a server connection). It does this by attempting to make efficient use of every client’s upload and download bandwidth to balance peer-to-peer content delivery across all clients.

The BitTorrent Ecosystem

BitTorrent Inc., which maintains the BitTorrent protocol, also created two of the most popular BitTorrent clients : BitTorrent and µTorrent (“uTorrent”). The open protocol has also been used to create dozens of independent clients, and there is healthy competition among the companies and volunteers that maintain those clients.

Independent BitTorrent infrastructure providers offer additional services, such as trackers that introduce peers, and torrent sites that index file metadata and provide access to their associated torrents.

BitTorrent and Distributed Applications

For more than a decade, BitTorrent Inc. has been exploring distributed applications. We have investigated both adaptations of the BitTorrent protocol as well as the creation of entirely novel protocols with the aim of providing services including distributed messaging, BitTorrent-based CDN, peer-to-peer live video streaming and file synchronization, and distributed website hosting.

The recent emergence of blockchain technologies has shifted the paradigm of what is achievable. While many new decentralized protocol proposals suggest ambitious technical paths forward, almost all are silent on how to confront the enormous challenge of building critical mass, which is the technical crux of distributed systems. Some projects are addressing this challenge by introducing a cryptographic token to existing user bases. However, these projects lack the experience BitTorrent has in designing a protocol which balances diverse economic interests effectively and at scale.

The BitTorrent ecosystem has the critical mass and BitTorrent Inc. has the protocol engineering expertise necessary to take advantage of the possibilities introduced by the blockchain. By integrating blockchain technologies into the BitTorrent ecosystem, we can enable developers to create new, decentralized applications on top of our existing ecosystem. Therefore, we believe that BitTorrent is the best-equipped entity to create the infrastructure of the imminent decentralized web.

Project Overview

In order to implement a distributed infrastructure services economy, we will extend the BitTorrent protocol and introduce a new token, BTT. Within the BTT economy, end users may offer infrastructure services in small increments in return for tokens. A blockchain solution will provide a store of value and medium of exchange that will scale to meet expected demand.

We will accelerate the introduction of the platform by eliminating current BitTorrent protocol inefficiencies with the launch of BitTorrent Speed. This will provide a strong attraction for the foundational technology as well as broad familiarity of the existence, user experience and economics of the token. The introduction of Speed will also prove the effectiveness of using blockchain-based rewards for the provision of infrastructure services in small increments across a large installed base.

In parallel, we will work with third-party developers to create and promote APIs and a marketplace for distributed infrastructure services based broadly on networking and storage primitives, which are underpinnings of the existing BitTorrent technology. We will also work with third-party publishers and app developers beyond the existing BitTorrent ecosystem on services which consumers may spend their tokens on.

Ultimately, hundreds of millions of end users will be equipped with a robust means of deriving small amounts of value from their technical resources and will be able to spend that value on goods and services.

BitTorrent Tokens (BTT) and the Blockchain

BitTorrent Inc. is introducing a TRON TRC-10 cryptographic token called BitTorrent Token (BTT). BTT will act as a general purpose mechanism for transacting in computing resources shared between BitTorrent clients and a liquid market of service requesters and service providers. BTT will be the unit which denominates transactions for the provision of services in the BTT-enabled BitTorrent ecosystem. It will be made available as a divisible token, allowing for granular pricing.

Due to expected volume, direct use of the public TRON blockchain for all transactions is unfeasible. Therefore, BitTorrent Inc. will deploy an “on-chain/off-chain exchange.” The exchange will enable the transfer of tokens between a high-performance private ledger and the public TRON blockchain.

Introduction to BitTorrent Speed TM

We are developing a new BitTorrent feature called BitTorrent Speed. This feature is will enable peers to offer each other cryptographic token incentives to continue to seed files after the full download has completed.

To be clear, BitTorrent currently functions well. Nothing proposed in this optimization will alter the protocol’s functionality and users of the protocol will not experience an interruption in their usage. The addition is simply an overlay on top of the current protocol which will allow existing BitTorrent swarm participants to exchange tokens in return for ensuring the continued availability of a file for download.