Are you a BitTorrent user? It’s not a rare thing, we’re talking about the world’s largest decentralized network (as we keep writing in many articles you’ll find in this website). So are you the Linux kind of guy? Then you probably use Transmission or Deluge as your BitTorrent clients of choice. If you’re on Windows or Mac then the list of available clients is just endless and each one has its advantages and challenges.
But they all have one thing in common: it doesn’t matter the operating system you use, every client connects you into the BitTorrent network so you can participate in the information exchange that takes place there all the time in industrial proportions. It’s free, it’s quick, it’s reliable. Movies, music, books, software, online courses. All kinds of content are available as torrents. Yes, it’s been controversial at times, but it’s grown and prospered despite huge efforts from several authorities to stop it, at the least, and suppress it for good, at the worst.
The thing is that this is a decentralized network, so it’s like the mythical Hydra. Yes, you can cut one of the monster’s heads. And for each head you cut, three more will grow. Which is why the BitTorrent network has been around for almost a decade and it’s survived every attempt to stop it. It’s shown an amazing resilience because there are just too many users scattered all over the world who enjoy and share the content they get (and provide) from the network.
But if you thought that BitTorrent was too good, hold on. It’s about to get even better.
You may know this already (or not, but if you don’t, that’s why we’re here). The Tron Foundation bought the BitTorrent corporation a few months ago. Why? Because Tron wants to decentralize the web and the content distribution on the internet, and BitTorrent has already been doing that for years.
Tron has a milestone called “Project Atlas” in which the very same torrent network that you already know and love will become a blockchain network that will run over Tron’s Main Net. And that will change the game for everybody.
How will the game change for you? Well, for starters, the BitTorrent corporation will issue a new BitTorrent client called BitTorrent Speed. It will available for you to download and install in the next financial quarter (you can find all about it here: https://www.bittorrent.com/speed/).
This will be the app that will bring BitTorrent into the blockchain world. It will mean further decentralization, higher bandwidths. And even more than that, it will also mean that just by being a BitTorrent user you’ll be able to earn a bit of money. No, really!
If you are a seasoned torrent user you know how it goes. You load the torrent file into your client (or a magnet link) and then you sit back and continue with your day’s activities as your client does the work for you and completes the download. And once the download is completed you become a seeder instead of a leecher (standard BitTorrent vocabulary).
And you would also know that there is not much of an incentive to keep seeding the content once you have it. Why? It takes some of your bandwidth and resources to share it so the cheapest thing to do is just to remove your finished torrent from the network once you have it. Well, now you’ll have a good reason to keep it online for other users to download.
Once Tron completes the BitTorrent integration with its blockchain, users will get rewarded for seeding with a new cryptocurrency called BitTorrent Token. It’s a Tron-based token that you can take to any of the Tron decentralized exchanges and turn it into TRX to use in Tron’s decentralized applications, or even just save it and exchange it for Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency you can fancy. And yes, you’ll even be able to turn it into your local fiat currency if you so wish.
And that will all start with the BitTorrent speed new client. So keep an eye out to see how this story develops, if you like your torrents it will only be great news for you!
Image courtesy of PixaBay.