ZeroNet, a serverless P2P network that uses Bitcoin cryptography and BitTorrent technology, may be the first real, usable prototype of a decentralized web.
BitTorrent users can download files directly from other users, without needing a central server. The BitTorrent technology for distributed file storage and peer-to-peer transfers, one of the biggest developments in Internet technology since the Web itself, opens the way to a distributed, fully decentralized Internet.
A decentralized Internet would be much more resilient than today’s framework of central servers, in spite of the associated piracy often in the news headlines. There isn’t much the authorities can do to prevent BitTorrent users from exchanging files. But users need to know that downloadable files are available, and then search torrents on centralized torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay. The centralized torrent sites are vulnerable to copyright enforcement countermeasures, ranging from domain seizure to actual server seizure.
“An interesting torrent site has just debuted which has the honor of being almost shutdown-proof,” TorrentFreak reports . “’Play’ has just appeared on ZeroNet, a serverless P2P network that uses Bitcoin cryptography and BitTorrent technology. As a result, Play might well be the first torrent site that offers magnet links while being hosted by its users.”
The door was opened in 2015, when BitTorrent announced Project Maelstrom, a P2P browser based on BitTorrent technology for a new decentralized web.
“It started with a simple question,” said BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker. “What if more of the web worked the way BitTorrent does? Project Maelstrom begins to answer that question with our first public release of a web browser that can power a new way for web content to be published, accessed and consumed. Truly an Internet powered by people, one that lowers barriers and denies gatekeepers their grip on our future.”
Project Maelstrom started public beta testing […]
