Could Cryptocurrency Improve P2P File Sharing?
The Pirate Bay may never make it to its teenage years. The popular file sharing site, launched in 2003, was recently taken offline following a raid by Swedish police. It's a sad event for a site that is supposed to be all about unassailable file sharing and, although resurrected versions of The Pirate Bay may already be back up online, the latest interruption to its service raises a number of questions. What does this raid mean for decentralised P2P filesharing? And can the same technologies that underpin cryptocurrencies help sustain or even enhance decentralised P2P filesharing networks....
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File-sharing services have faced a ton of scrutiny in recent years, as public opinion on these platforms is generally positive; these services are perfect for sharing illegal content among Internet users. About a decade ago, warez sites were a pain in the neck for government officials around the world, but that period came to an abrupt end a few years ago. By the look of things, file sharing services won’t be around for much longer either. Gone are the days where platforms such as Napster, Bearshare, and Nucleus were the favorite file sharing applications on the Internet. More recently,....
A growing number of peer-to-peer file-sharing sites -- among them the notorious The Pirate Bay -- is starting to accept bitcoin donations from their users. The main page of The Pirate Bay's website now lists a bitcoin address, presumably for donations. OpenBitTorrent has also joined the party, as has PublicBitTorrent. Istole.it also features a bitcoin address. As of yet, though, there is no sign of bitcoin adoption at Isohunt or its sister sites. Bitcoin's perceived anonymity makes it the perfect donation mechanism for file-sharing operations, many of which track copyrighted content being....
Kim Dotcom has announced that his upcoming cloud based file sharing platform MegaUpload 2.0 will have Bitcoin support. Kim Dotcom’s famed MegaUpload file sharing service is set to make a comeback in a new avatar soon. This time, the new MegaUpload 2.0 will embrace the digital currency revolution by including Bitcoin payment option. Kim Dotcom, the tech entrepreneur and the founder of ‘Internet Party‘- a political party in New Zealand – has hinted the possibility of Bitcoin payments integration in his upcoming file sharing application earlier this weekend. The announcement was made on his....
Today, major banks are touting their mobile banking apps as the next best thing. But are these “innovations” or just renovations on the proverbial deck of the Titanic? And similar to how BitTorrent impacted the entertainment industry, would incumbent banks have remained complacent without a prod from Bitcoin? The BitTorrent Effect. BitTorrent is to....
Last week I spoke with Mr. Knuckle, the developer of the decentralized market "NXT FreeMarket." Now I'm pleased to interview Angel Leon and Brian Hoffman, developers of "OpenBazaar," another disruptive decentralized market. Ferdinand Reyes: First of all, can you explain to me which are the possibilities and how OpenBazaar works? Angel Leon: It wasn't until the birth of Bitcoin that electronic decentralized commerce was possible. In July 2001 the fall of Napster gave birth to a revolution in peer to peer file sharing, the technology sector learned the dangers of censorship and several peer....