What Is BitTorrent?
BitTorrent is a decentralized application built to enable peer-to-peer file-sharing between people whose computers function as nodes on the network. BitTorrent was created by Bram Cohen in 2001, and in 2008 he formed BitTorrent Inc. with his friend and co-founder Ashwin Navin.
BitTorrent Inc. was purchased by the TRON blockchain in 2018. After being acquired by TRON, the BitTorrent token (BTT) was introduced into the BitTorrent network. The BTT token is the network's native token and it is used to reward the uploaders who share files on the network.
Bram Cohen started BitTorrent due to his frustration with the file-sharing services that were available at the time, like FTP (File-transfer protocol). BitTorrent changed file-sharing by using a peer-to-peer network for sharing files. So how does BitTorrent work to enable that? On the peer-to-peer network, files can be downloaded from other computers on the network by downloading small pieces of the file from different computers and putting the pieces together to form the complete file. Due to this method, BitTorrent used much less bandwidth than other file-sharing services at the time it was created.
In 2021, BitTorrent launched its own blockchain known as BitTorrent Chain (BTTC) to become a fully functional blockchain project. The BitTorrent Chain is compatible with some other blockchains like Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and TRON. This makes asset transfer between these chains easy.
What Is BitTorrent: Quick Facts
- BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file-sharing system. It was invented to provide a better and quicker way for people to share files than what was available at the time.
- Although it was launched in 2001, eight years before the launch of the Bitcoin blockchain, BitTorrent was one of the earliest services to build a truly decentralized application.
- In its early days, BitTorrent accounted for as much as 20-35% of all the traffic on the internet according to certain estimates.
How Does BitTorrent Work?
Now, how does BitTorrent work exactly?
BitTorrent works by using a decentralized peer-to-peer system to facilitate the transfer of files between people. Every computer configured with the BitTorrent network is a node on the network, and the files stored on that computer are available to any other computer on the BitTorrent network. Once connected to a BitTorrent network, a computer can share files with and receive files from any other computer on the network.
A central server (known as a tracker) is used to keep track of all the files on all the computers on a BitTorrent network. When a person wants to download a file from a BitTorrent network, they have to use "client" software to get access to a tracker. Once connected to the network via the tracker, you can search for the file you want to download and request to download it.
When a download request is put in, the tracker identifies all the computers connected to the network at that time that contain either all of the file or parts of it. This consists of all the computers on the network that are in the process of sending or receiving the file at that point in time. This collection of all the computers that have a required file is known as a "swarm."
Once the swarm is identified, the client software sends multiple pieces of the file from different computers to your computer at once. Because the software is only downloading small parts of the file from each computer, the bandwidth used to download the file is smaller when compared to a file being downloaded from one source.
Once you are done downloading a file, your computer can become a "seed," that is, a computer from which other computers in the network can download files. BitTorrent works in such a way that the more you share files with others on the network, the faster your downloads go through. This incentivizes people to share files on the network instead of just downloading them.
Where Is BTT Used?
What is BTT and why is it important to BitTorrent? The BTT token is the native token of the BitTorrent platform. It was introduced to the platform in 2018 after it was purchased by the TRON blockchain. The BTT token was built on the TRON blockchain according to TRON's TRC-10 token standard.
Rewarding Uploaders
The token was introduced as a way to incentivize and reward users of the BitTorrent network for providing their bandwidth and storage space to the network. Downloaders on the BitTorrent network can choose to pay uploaders who provide files for download in BTT tokens so that they can download files at faster speeds than normal. In order to pay for faster downloads, you need to use the BitTorrent Speed decentralized application (dApp), which was built by the BitTorrent network on the TRON blockchain.
BitTorrent Speed users can also earn BTT tokens by seeding files on the BitTorrent network. Seeding is the process of providing the complete version of a file to the network for other users to download. The longer you seed files on the network, the more BTT tokens you can earn.
Transacting on the Bittorent Network
So what is BTT used for other than paying for faster download speeds? Another important thing about BTT is that it is also used to pay for transactions on other decentralized applications created by the BitTorrent network. The dApps include the BitTorrent File System (BTFS), a decentralized cloud storage service provider on which people pay others in BTT tokens to store their files for a period of time.
Governance
Following the launch of the BitTorrent Chain in 2021, a new BTT token based on the TRC-20 token standard on TRON was released. The old BTT token was renamed BTTOLD, and BTTOLD holders can easily swap their old BTT for the new BTT tokens. The new BTT token will be the native token of the BitTorrent Chain, and it will be used for everything from paying for transactions (gas fees) on the blockchain to participating in future governance by voting on proposals.
Earning Interest
Some centralized exchanges like OKX have investment programs that allow BTT token holders to earn a passive income on their tokens without losing ownership or access to them. One such program is OKX Earn, which provides a variety of services that allow users to earn interest on their crypto assets.
BitTorrent Founders & History
The very first beta version of BitTorrent was released in April 2001 by Bram Cohen. Part of the idea for BitTorrent came from Cohen's time working at MojoNation. MojoNation was a service that allowed people to store files by breaking them into several encrypted pieces and storing the pieces on different computers running the MojoNation software. Inspired by this idea, Bram Cohen built a protocol he called BitTorrent to enable people to download files, but instead of downloading a file from one computer, they would download pieces of it from different computers until they had the complete file.
Although BitTorrent was launched in 2001, it did not receive much attention immediately. There was no way to search for files on the BitTorrent network yet. It wasn't until 2004, when a search engine was built for the BitTorrent protocol to enable users to search for files, that the project began to gain widespread adoption.
However, as the project gained widespread adoption and recognition, it ran into trouble. Associations from the media, music, and entertainment industries began taking websites that hosted BitTorrent trackers to court over copyright infringement. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in particular, were furious at the fact that BitTorrent enabled the easy distribution of pirated songs and movies. One of the tracker websites known as The Pirate Bay had its founders taken to court on charges of helping other people infringe on copyright laws. The Pirate Bay's founders were found guilty and fined $3.5 million each.
However, despite the legal troubles, other legitimate businesses were adopting BitTorrent usage. Video game distributors like Valve and Blizzard chose to use BitTorrent technology to distribute files within their games. The adoption of BitTorrent by legitimate businesses saved it from being destroyed by lawsuits and kept it going.
In 2018, BitTorrent was acquired by the Tron Foundation, the organization behind the TRON blockchain, for $140 million. The acquisition put BitTorrent firmly within the TRON ecosystem with the launch of the BTT token. The Tron Foundation continues to oversee the development of BitTorrent and its suite of products. In 2021, BitTorrent launched its own blockchain known as the BitTorrent Chain, and plans to continue developing as a blockchain.
BTT Tokenomics
What is BTT tokenomics? What makes the BTT token valuable?
The BTT token is the native token of the BitTorrent protocol and all the other dApps in its suite of products. The BTT token was created in 2019 and has a maximum supply of 990 billion BTT tokens. The BitTorrent Foundation was in charge of distributing the BTT tokens, and they were distributed as follows:
- Token sale - 17%
- Tron airdrop tokens - 10.1%
- BitTorrent protocol airdrop tokens - 10%
- BitTorrent Team and the BitTorrent Foundation - 19%
- TRON Foundation - 20%
- BitTorrent ecosystem - 19.9%
- Partnership tokens - 4%
Following the launch of the BitTorrent Chain, the supply of BTT tokens will increase to 990 trillion. People who hold BTTOLD tokens can exchange them for the new BTT tokens at a ratio of 1:1000, making 1 BTTOLD token worth 1000 BTT tokens.
There are questions about BTT and how the new BTT token will relate to the old BTTOLD token. The new BTT tokens can be used for all the same purposes as the old BTTOLD tokens, such as paying uploaders to let you download files quicker.
However, the new BTT tokens also have new use cases like participating in the chain's governance, becoming a validator on the BitTorrent Chain, paying gas fees on the chain for transactions, and staking BTT tokens to earn rewards on the chain.
How Is BTT Mined/Created?
As of now, there is no mining process for BTT tokens. All the BTT tokens that will ever exist were created when the BTT token was launched after the acquisition of BitTorrent by the Tron Foundation.
BitTorrent Competitors
BitTorrent is by far the dominant peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol. Other peer-to-peer file-sharing services, for instance, Napster, died due to legal action by associations fighting piracy, or never gained as much traction as BitTorrent, like Gnutella or Freenet.
According to Sandvine's 2022 Global Phenomena Report, BitTorrent accounts for 2.91% of the total internet traffic in the world, ranking as the ninth highest destination for internet traffic.
BitTorrent's major competition is the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), which is a peer-to-peer file-sharing system similar to BitTorrent. IPFS was launched in 2015 by Juan Benet and operates on the same principle of decentralized file-sharing as BitTorrent. The major difference between IPFS and BitTorrent is that instead of having different swarms for different files, IPFS aims to create one global network of files that anyone can access at any time.
IPFS and BitTorrent are very similar and work in almost the same way. However, BitTorrent has been around much longer than IPFS and is much more widely recognized and used, as the Global Phenomena Report showed. BitTorrent has also made faster progress than IPFS in adopting blockchain technology and has launched its own BitTorrent Chain before IPFS.
BitTorrent Partnerships & Investors
Prior to being purchased by the Tron Foundation, BitTorrent had received funding from investors and venture capital firms such as Accel Ventures, DCM Ventures, and DAG Ventures. As BitTorrent transitions fully to a blockchain-based technology after its acquisition by TRON, it has also received funding from investors in the crypto space like Binance Labs.
BitTorrent has also partnered with other technology companies as it seeks to expand and improve its product offerings. The partnerships are usually with other technology companies and provide a way for both companies to share each other's technology and grow together. BitTorrent partners include Travis CI, Accrualify, and Cleverbridge.
BitTorrent SWOT Analysis
BitTorrent Strengths
As the dominant player in the peer-to-peer file-sharing niche for years, BitTorrent's greatest strength is its large community of users. At the time it was purchased by the Tron Foundation, BitTorrent had 170 million users across its suite of products. Most blockchains have to grow a user base from scratch, but the BitTorrent Chain had a ready user base to tap into from the beginning.
BitTorrent Weaknesses
Even though the legal battles have reduced over the years, BitTorrent continues to struggle with a bad reputation as a service used by copyright pirates. Going forward, one of the biggest challenges for BitTorrent will be cleaning up its reputation and showing that it has more important use cases than sharing pirated files illegally.
BitTorrent Opportunities
The BitTorrent Chain is focused on being interoperable with other blockchains. Right now, the BitTorrent Chain is interoperable with TRON, Ethereum, and the Binance Smart Chain. This presents an opportunity for BitTorrent to acquire users on other blockchains by letting those users move their assets to the BitTorrent Chain easily.
BitTorrent Threats
Developing a vibrant blockchain ecosystem requires a few different types of applications to work. Ethereum, for example, has decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, games, NFTs, and more in its ecosystem. BitTorrent's reputation as an illegal file-sharing service could make it difficult to attract developers who are interested in building great projects to the ecosystem.
BitTorrent Roadmap
Following the launch of the BitTorrent chain, the ecosystem is focused on evolving and adding more functionality to the features of the chain. The redenomination of the BTT token continues as holders of the old BTT token (BTTOLD) are still changing their BTTOLD tokens to the new BTT tokens which are used to run the BitTorrent chain. As BitTorrent users move over to the new BitTorrent chain, plans are underway to further decentralize the project by creating a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to oversee the governance of the project. BTT token holders will be members of the DAO and will vote to decide how the project develops.
BitTorrent News, Updates, & Highlights
BTTOLD Burn Continues Apace
Following the launch of the BitTorrent Chain, a new BTT token was launched, and the old BTT token was renamed BTTOLD. So what is BTT burning and why is it important? To use the new BitTorrent Chain, owners of BTTOLD have to swap their BTTOLD tokens for BTT tokens in a process known as "burning." According to data from BitTorrent, 60.1% of all the BTTOLD tokens in existence have been burnt and converted to the new BTT tokens. Information about BTT swapping can be found on BitTorrent's website.
Kraken Listing
The launch of the new BTT token has created a bit of a dilemma for the BitTorrent Chain. Although the old BTTOLD token has been listed on several exchanges, both centralized and decentralized, BitTorrent has to go through the process of listing the new BTT tokens on exchanges to make it easy for people to get BTT and use the BitTorrent Chain. The new BTT token has now been listed for trading on the centralized exchange, Kraken. The listing will increase the visibility of the new BTT token and the BitTorrent Chain overall.
Decentralized Browser Access
The Coin98 decentralized browser now lets users access the BitTorrent Chain ecosystem directly from its browser. The news means that users of the Coin98 browser don't need to download any other app to use any BitTorrent Chain service, whether it's the BitTorrent speed service or the BitTorrent File System (BTFS).
The BitTorrent File System (BTFS)
When the Tron Foundation acquired BitTorrent in 2018, TRON's founder Justin Sun said that one of the reasons for the acquisition was to make the TRON blockchain ecosystem the biggest and most robust decentralized internet ecosystem. BitTorrent would provide the means for sharing files easily and quickly in that ecosystem. However, in order to have a decentralized internet ecosystem, there also needed to be a decentralized cloud storage solution for people to store their files easily on the blockchain. This led to the launch of the BitTorrent File System (BTFS).
On BTFS, there are two types of users, those who want to store files and those who provide the storage space in which files are stored. Anyone with free storage space on their computer can join the BTFS network as a storage space provider and store files in return for payments in BTT tokens.
Those who want to store files on BTFS can search the database of storage providers on the BTFS network and select a storage provider whose rates are favorable to them. They then negotiate with the storage provider depending on the file size and how long they intend to store it. When they agree on the details, a smart contract is executed containing the details of their agreement, and the file is encrypted and stored on the storage provider's computer for the specified period of time.
By providing native decentralized storage solutions for TRON, BTFS brings the TRON blockchain one step closer to being a truly decentralized internet ecosystem. And in keeping with the ethos of interoperability, BTFS has begun to add support for other blockchains on its platform. So far, smart contracts on the BTFS platform support the TRON blockchain as well as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BitTorrent Chain. More expansions are expected to follow in the future.
Where To Buy BTT
You can purchase BTT tokens on centralized exchanges like OKX. OKX allows you to purchase BTT tokens using a variety of payment methods, including debit cards, credit cards, and bank transfers. OKX also allows you to pay for your cryptocurrency purchases in your own local currency. You may even swap other cryptocurrencies for BTT for free using the convert feature. Other information about BTT, like how to purchase it and the things you can do with it, can be found on OKX too.
FAQs
What Is BTT?
The BTT token is the native token of the BitTorrent platform and blockchain. It is used to pay for transactions on the blockchain as well as for its governance, and validation transactions.
What Is BitTorrent Used For?
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer decentralized file-sharing protocol. It is used to share files between several different people and devices without the need for the file to be stored on a central server.
Can BTT Be Mined?
No, it cannot be mined. All BTT tokens were created when the Tron Foundation bought BitTorrent, and new tokens cannot be created.
Can I Buy BTT With My Local Currency?
Yes. You can buy BTT tokens directly with a credit or debit card in your local currency on centralized exchanges that support them, like OKX.
Can I Swap Other Tokens for BTT?
Yes, you can. If you want to swap or trade other tokens for BTT instead of buying it with fiat, you can do that on any centralized or decentralized exchange that supports swapping or trading another cryptocurrency for BTT, such as OKX.
