The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2 • Hacker News Board

Re: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2

#71

Post by Klathmon » Tue, Aug 08, 2017, 1:00 PM UTC

I have to admit, BitTorrent is one of the things I took for granted.

I never really thought about the details of how it works, or the really really impressive feats that were accomplished to get it to work. I knew it was a really good technology, but reading this and the comments here puts it on a whole other level.

Why isn't this technology talked about more? Why are blockchains the big "thing" right now with people trying to use them everywhere to see where they fit best, but torrent networks are kind of just... ignored?

The decentralized nature of it seems to open so many possibilities at first glance, is there a reason they aren't being taken advantage of? Is there some kind of "great filter" kind of thing that is preventing widespread usage of something like a torrent network?

Re: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2

#72

Post by boyce » Tue, Aug 08, 2017, 1:01 PM UTC

johnwaynedoe wrote: post #70

fps_doug wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked how the old Opera included a bittorrent client. It was the only browser that did, and felt like it was actually the way it was meant to be used. But nobody got it. You had warez kiddies left and right complaining how it sucked compared to Azureus and later µTorrent which had bazillions of features to tweak and max out their connection, or saying it was useless because their favorite ALT did not whitelist Oper…

The Brave browser has a bittorrent add-on pre-installed. I've been toying with it as my daily driver for a couple weeks and have been really enjoying it. The project still needs work but I love what they're doing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser) https://brave.com/

What's your job there

Re: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2

#73

Post by tantalor » Tue, Aug 08, 2017, 1:01 PM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #71

I have to admit, BitTorrent is one of the things I took for granted. I never really thought about the details of how it works, or the really really impressive feats that were accomplished to get it to work. I knew it was a really good technology, but reading this and the comments here puts it on a whole other level. Why isn't this technology talked about more? Why are blockchains the big "thing" right now with people…

What is this "great filter"?

Re: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2

#74

Post by Klathmon » Tue, Aug 08, 2017, 1:04 PM UTC

boyce wrote: post #46

jzelinskie wrote: post #6

This update to the spec is a modest change that's largely a preemptive reaction to SHA1 being broken; large portions of BitTorrent are designed around the 20-byte length of a SHA1 checksum. They've decided to move forward with SHA256 truncated to 20 bytes to avoid incompatibilities with existing infrastructure such as the Mainline DHT. Beyond the hashing algorithm, some important additions that were previously propos…

I'd love to see a p2p wikipedia and a p2p twitter alternative Moving bittorrent away from it's present image could be achieved by making p2p useful beyond bluray rips

Personally I really truly believe that once you can make a torrent client in javascript that runs directly in the browser without any plugins or gateways/tunnels that you will see it explode.

Developers will code it into their download pages, decentralized systems like a p2p wikipedia will be possible and always accessible by anyone with a browser.

Re: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2

#75

Post by nailer » Tue, Aug 08, 2017, 1:05 PM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #71

I have to admit, BitTorrent is one of the things I took for granted. I never really thought about the details of how it works, or the really really impressive feats that were accomplished to get it to work. I knew it was a really good technology, but reading this and the comments here puts it on a whole other level. Why isn't this technology talked about more? Why are blockchains the big "thing" right now with people…

Perhaps because a lot of content is streamed live?

Streaming wants us to download A, B, C, D just in time.

Bottorrent (simplified) wants me to download piece P, you to download piece G, then I get P from you and you get G from me.

There are Bottorrent streaming apps but they kind of mess with the nature of BT.

OTOH things like RPM/Deb/WindowsUpdate etc it would make great sense.

Re: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2

#76

Post by Klathmon » Tue, Aug 08, 2017, 1:07 PM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #73

Klathmon wrote: post #71

I have to admit, BitTorrent is one of the things I took for granted. I never really thought about the details of how it works, or the really really impressive feats that were accomplished to get it to work. I knew it was a really good technology, but reading this and the comments here puts it on a whole other level. Why isn't this technology talked about more? Why are blockchains the big "thing" right now with people…

What is this "great filter"?

Its from the "fermi paradox"[0]. Basically it says that there might not be any other life out there because there is some kind of "event" or "limitation" of life that makes it so that it can only exist for so long, or it is just extremely difficult for life to get past this "filter" (and then there is the question of whether or not that filter is ahead of us, or behind us).

In this case, I was trying to use it to ask if there is some kind of "unsolved problem", inherent limitation or issue/problem with torrent networks that prevents their widespread usage.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

Re: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2

#77

Post by ue_ » Tue, Aug 08, 2017, 1:07 PM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #71

I have to admit, BitTorrent is one of the things I took for granted. I never really thought about the details of how it works, or the really really impressive feats that were accomplished to get it to work. I knew it was a really good technology, but reading this and the comments here puts it on a whole other level. Why isn't this technology talked about more? Why are blockchains the big "thing" right now with people…

I wanted to implement a distribured imageboard over bittorrent but I quickly realised it's hard to add data after the initial publication, and further to verify it, and the nature of trackers may make it prone to censorship. So I gave up.

Re: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2

#78

Post by znfi » Tue, Aug 08, 2017, 1:34 PM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #71

I have to admit, BitTorrent is one of the things I took for granted. I never really thought about the details of how it works, or the really really impressive feats that were accomplished to get it to work. I knew it was a really good technology, but reading this and the comments here puts it on a whole other level. Why isn't this technology talked about more? Why are blockchains the big "thing" right now with people…

Firstly I think that Bittorrent-style techniques are or have been used in some places even though it may not have been advertised very clearly. For example until a few years ago Spotify used to use something like Bittorrent to reduce the load on their servers. It's just that they didn't really tell anyone who used their product about this, which I honestly felt was kinda bad style.

Similarly I heard that Skype used to do something similar, I'm not sure exactly how it worked and apparently it was a pain to maintain so I think it has been scraped as well by now. I think some software updaters do use Bittorrent still, though.

If I were to guess, the really big reason for the lack of interest from big corporations is that collecting as much data as possible for use in machine learning is very much in vogue, while at the same time bandwidth seems to be very much a no-issue. Thus there is not much to gain and possible something to lose from employing bittorrent.

Re: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2

#79

Post by freeone3000 » Tue, Aug 08, 2017, 1:37 PM UTC

nailer wrote: post #75

Klathmon wrote: post #71

I have to admit, BitTorrent is one of the things I took for granted. I never really thought about the details of how it works, or the really really impressive feats that were accomplished to get it to work. I knew it was a really good technology, but reading this and the comments here puts it on a whole other level. Why isn't this technology talked about more? Why are blockchains the big "thing" right now with people…

Perhaps because a lot of content is streamed live? Streaming wants us to download A, B, C, D just in time. Bottorrent (simplified) wants me to download piece P, you to download piece G, then I get P from you and you get G from me. There are Bottorrent streaming apps but they kind of mess with the nature of BT. OTOH things like RPM/Deb/WindowsUpdate etc it would make great sense.

World of Warcraft (used to?) patch with Bittorrent.

Re: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification v2

#80

Post by lqdc13 » Tue, Aug 08, 2017, 1:37 PM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #74

boyce wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to see a p2p wikipedia and a p2p twitter alternative Moving bittorrent away from it's present image could be achieved by making p2p useful beyond bluray rips

Personally I really truly believe that once you can make a torrent client in javascript that runs directly in the browser without any plugins or gateways/tunnels that you will see it explode. Developers will code it into their download pages, decentralized systems like a p2p wikipedia will be possible and always accessible by anyone with a browser.

https://webtorrent.io/