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Show HN: Web3Torrent – Adding Ethereum Micropayments to WebTorrent

blog.statechannels.org

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Re: Show HN: Web3Torrent – Adding Ethereum Micropayments to WebTorrent

#21

Post by patrickaljord »

yoavm wrote: post #6

"Torrenting has an incentivization problem. There is sometimes a real lack of incentive to seed a file, especially for obscure files where you may only find a single digit number of people that have it. Adding monetary incentives to the existing torrenting structure should prove to be extremely interesting." In my opinion, if torrenting meant one needs to pay for download, we would never have heard about torrents. Th…

I beg to differ. I used to have a Netflix subscription here in France (not anymore), my wife is from Latin America and wanted to use English subtitles instead of French ones (and so did I), funny thing is, English subtitles were not available in France, the only way to get English subtitles was to use a proxy and a US Netflix account (not possible anymore as many proxies are blocked) or just use torrent.

There are many services that streaming companies refuse to offer even to paying customers. Now you may say "streaming companies depend on hollywood licensing per country", sure, but this case also happened on Netflix produced shows...

Re: Show HN: Web3Torrent – Adding Ethereum Micropayments to WebTorrent

#22

Post by gpm »

xiphias2 wrote: post #9
yoavm wrote: post #6

"Torrenting has an incentivization problem. There is sometimes a real lack of incentive to seed a file, especially for obscure files where you may only find a single digit number of people that have it. Adding monetary incentives to the existing torrenting structure should prove to be extremely interesting." In my opinion, if torrenting meant one needs to pay for download, we would never have heard about torrents. Th…

People are already paying for downloading seeded torrents, they are just hidden behind private trackers, as the public torrent selection is quite small. I'm also paying for youtube premium, at the same time the people I'm listening to have to be careful not to say ,,COVID-19'', because their revenue would drop to 0, even though it was the main meme of the last few months. I would happily pay them through lightning ne…

This doesn't seem to pay creators though, it pays people who have bandwidth to seed (redistribute) their streams instead.

Re: Show HN: Web3Torrent – Adding Ethereum Micropayments to WebTorrent

#23

Post by lihorne »

typingmonkey wrote: post #19

Can one state channel be used to pay multiple seeders? Or do I need to create a budget for each seeder I want to interact with?

The budget concept is a security measure between the app and the wallet, so that the app code only has control over a fixed amount of funds in the wallet.

Within the app context, an unlimited number of channels (up to the budget capacity) can be opened. The video at the top of the blog post is an example of a single user downloading from multiple other leechers & seeders while simultaneously uploading to other leechers.

Re: Show HN: Web3Torrent – Adding Ethereum Micropayments to WebTorrent

#24

Post by tmcls »

typingmonkey wrote: post #19

Can one state channel be used to pay multiple seeders? Or do I need to create a budget for each seeder I want to interact with?

The funds you deposit at the beginning can be used to pay multiple seeders. You have one "ledger channel", funded by that on-chain deposit, which is being used to open a "virtual channel" for each seeder you connect to.

There's a bit more about it in this post: https://blog.statechannels.org/channels-funding-channels/.

Re: Show HN: Web3Torrent – Adding Ethereum Micropayments to WebTorrent

#25

Post by heavyset_go »

xiphias2 wrote: post #9
yoavm wrote: post #6

"Torrenting has an incentivization problem. There is sometimes a real lack of incentive to seed a file, especially for obscure files where you may only find a single digit number of people that have it. Adding monetary incentives to the existing torrenting structure should prove to be extremely interesting." In my opinion, if torrenting meant one needs to pay for download, we would never have heard about torrents. Th…

People are already paying for downloading seeded torrents, they are just hidden behind private trackers, as the public torrent selection is quite small. I'm also paying for youtube premium, at the same time the people I'm listening to have to be careful not to say ,,COVID-19'', because their revenue would drop to 0, even though it was the main meme of the last few months. I would happily pay them through lightning ne…

Of the private trackers that I know of, only the ones that solicited donations were raided and taken down. I am unaware of any explicitly paid private trackers, and such a business model seems like a great way to conjure the ire of the FBI.

Re: Show HN: Web3Torrent – Adding Ethereum Micropayments to WebTorrent

#27

Post by ActsJuvenile »

yoavm wrote: post #6

"Torrenting has an incentivization problem. There is sometimes a real lack of incentive to seed a file, especially for obscure files where you may only find a single digit number of people that have it. Adding monetary incentives to the existing torrenting structure should prove to be extremely interesting." In my opinion, if torrenting meant one needs to pay for download, we would never have heard about torrents. Th…

Furthermore, downloading the Ethereum Blockchain, going through shady exchanges to buy ether coins, and maintaining a secure wallet is a much bigger headache than simply paying for Amazon Prime.

This is a nice tech demo but not of any practical significance.

Re: Show HN: Web3Torrent – Adding Ethereum Micropayments to WebTorrent

#28

Post by sudosysgen »

patrickaljord wrote: post #21
yoavm wrote: post #6

"Torrenting has an incentivization problem. There is sometimes a real lack of incentive to seed a file, especially for obscure files where you may only find a single digit number of people that have it. Adding monetary incentives to the existing torrenting structure should prove to be extremely interesting." In my opinion, if torrenting meant one needs to pay for download, we would never have heard about torrents. Th…

I beg to differ. I used to have a Netflix subscription here in France (not anymore), my wife is from Latin America and wanted to use English subtitles instead of French ones (and so did I), funny thing is, English subtitles were not available in France, the only way to get English subtitles was to use a proxy and a US Netflix account (not possible anymore as many proxies are blocked) or just use torrent. There are ma…

If you got paid for torrenting, a lot less people would torrent because of the much increased legal liability and massive increase in lawsuits.

Re: Show HN: Web3Torrent – Adding Ethereum Micropayments to WebTorrent

#29

Post by vageli »

sudosysgen wrote: post #28
patrickaljord wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I beg to differ. I used to have a Netflix subscription here in France (not anymore), my wife is from Latin America and wanted to use English subtitles instead of French ones (and so did I), funny thing is, English subtitles were not available in France, the only way to get English subtitles was to use a proxy and a US Netflix account (not possible anymore as many proxies are blocked) or just use torrent. There are ma…

If you got paid for torrenting, a lot less people would torrent because of the much increased legal liability and massive increase in lawsuits.

As someone with no knowledge on the subject, why would accepting payment increase liability? As in, the target of the lawsuit would also be liable for the money they received, or something else?

Re: Show HN: Web3Torrent – Adding Ethereum Micropayments to WebTorrent

#30

Post by boxingdog »

yoavm wrote: post #6

"Torrenting has an incentivization problem. There is sometimes a real lack of incentive to seed a file, especially for obscure files where you may only find a single digit number of people that have it. Adding monetary incentives to the existing torrenting structure should prove to be extremely interesting." In my opinion, if torrenting meant one needs to pay for download, we would never have heard about torrents. Th…

private trackers are thing FYI
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