BitCoinTorrentz.com - Torrent Download Service

[cablepair]

its a cool service and very slick but I dont think I would use it again simply because although the download speed your service got while downloading the torrent for me was very very good (3.5mbps) the speed from you to me is not so good (250kbps) I have no problem downloading torrents but I was using your service to download this 10 gb torrent faster, and it simply is not. In any case I really like everything else about it and I wish you allowed faster download speeds from you to me! This would definitely have me coming back as a customer.

One last question ? Do you mind if I share this link with others?

thank you

[Ricochet]

To get the downloaded file from his server faster, try what I did and use a download accelerator that supports multiple streams at once.  I was able to get over 1 MB/s download that way.

[mjcmurfy]

@cablepair: the server does not limit the speed of downloads. It will upload as fast as is possible over your connection, up to a maximum of 100mbit. It is only limited by your broadband speed and your location (i.e. the route the traffic takes). You could try using a download manager such as FDM (free download manager) that opens multiple connections to the server. This often helps improve the download speed if your ISP throttles traffic over single connections or your connectivity to the server is not the best. I max out my download speed (30mbit) pulling files from this server.

Link sharing isn't something that I would be too keen to approve of, simply because of the fact that the links may end up anywhere. But I can't really stop you. All I can do is ask you not to share the links in a public forum where people will redistribute them ad-infinitum.

So basically, go ahead if you want, but don't abuse it.

[mjcmurfy]

While it does make sense to increase the price when the exchange drops, do your costs change at all? If the price you charge is not directly related to something you need to buy, you could just leave the prices where they are. I guess that would encourage more people to exchange into bitcoins so they could use your service? (Any yes, I know I avoided the question )

The only cost I have that can not be paid for in bitcoin is the server itself, which I am paying for anyway, so I think you are probably right. I will keep the prices as they are for the time being.

is there a way to automatically adapt your fees to the BTC/USD?
if so, figure a USD/GB number that breaks even, add x% and update accordingly on a daily basis.

if not: it might help me use the service a little less if you raised the fees :-D

Yeah, I could do that, but Peter Lambert has convinced me. I am doing this to earn bitcoin, not US dollars. As such, linking it to the exchange rate is just greedy. I will still be generating the same revenue as before. It's just worth less if exchanged, which I have no plans to do anyway.

[cablepair]

@cablepair: the server does not limit the speed of downloads. It will upload as fast as is possible over your connection, up to a maximum of 100mbit. It is only limited by your broadband speed and your location (i.e. the route the traffic takes). You could try using a download manager such as FDM (free download manager) that opens multiple connections to the server. This often helps improve the download speed if your ISP throttles traffic over single connections or your connectivity to the server is not the best. I max out my download speed (30mbit) pulling files from this server.

Link sharing isn't something that I would be too keen to approve of, simply because of the fact that the links may end up anywhere. But I can't really stop you. All I can do is ask you not to share the links in a public forum where people will redistribute them ad-infinitum.

So basically, go ahead - but don't abuse it.

Dude I have a 20/5 cable connection and I get 2.0+mbps download speeds all the time, this is crawling at 90-200kbps maybe I will try a download manager thanks

[mjcmurfy]

Dude I have a 20/5 cable connection and I get 2.0+mbps download speeds all the time, this is crawling at 90-200kbps maybe I will try a download manager thanks

I apologize if I might have came across as condescending, I meant no offence.

I understand your connection might be good for downloading torrents, but torrents involve lots of simultaneous connections to various peers. If your ISP throttles the speed of single HTTP connections to ~200kb/s, then a download manager will speed up the download for you.

Likewise, since the server is located in Luxembourg, it could be the route the traffic is taking to you (i.e the backbone connectivity) is poor, and if so a download manager should be able to help you out of that aswell.

Please let me know how it works out if you do try a download manager. I hope you are able to max out your connection.

[bitfoo]

Dude I have a 20/5 cable connection and I get 2.0+mbps download speeds all the time, this is crawling at 90-200kbps maybe I will try a download manager thanks

I get around 400KB/s on a single connection, and up to 8MB/s when I use 20 - 30 parallel connections. The single connection performance is the same whether I'm on cable at home, or a high-speed university connection (both in California), or even through the mullvad servers in Sweden. In all cases, using multiple connections improves performance.

[cablepair]

is there a download manager that anyone recommends?

[mjcmurfy]

FDM for windows is pretty goad, and it's open source:
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org

[k]

With the recent drop in the exchange rate for bitcoins and the comments in this thread about maybe raising the prices due to that it got me thinking that the share price of service businesses like this should be somewhat inversely correlated with bitcoin price.
i.e price of bitcoin goes down then the revenue should go up as either BitCoinTorrentz.com can charge more or get more customers as it is better value, therefore the share price (in BTC) should go up.

Is this thinking correct in general? Could this give some level of hedging against bitcoin price decreases? (Maybe not yet because market size is so small on GLBSE but maybe in the future if it develops further).

[BitcoinMint.US]

With the recent drop in the exchange rate for bitcoins and the comments in this thread about maybe raising the prices due to that it got me thinking that the share price of service businesses like this should be somewhat inversely correlated with bitcoin price.
i.e price of bitcoin goes down then the revenue should go up as either BitCoinTorrentz.com can charge more or get more customers as it is better value, therefore the share price (in BTC) should go up.

Is this thinking correct in general? Could this give some level of hedging against bitcoin price decreases? (Maybe not yet because market size is so small on GLBSE but maybe in the future if it develops further).

I think that is true.  Your prices should probably be variable in BTC and tied to the value of dollars.  I use bit-pay.com so that the prices of my silver are adjusted to the current BTC/USD rate.

[Vandroiy]

Just now, I was asked "why isn't there someone who offers to remotely download torrents for me? That would be the occasion to use Bitcoins, too!" and I answered, "actually, there is."

So you'll have another user sometime soon. And I think this is an implication that you are nowhere near having addressed even a fraction of a percent of your target market if a frequent BitTorrent and Bitcoin user did not even know the site yet. It probably takes a while to spread the word, keep it up!

[mjcmurfy]

With the recent drop in the exchange rate for bitcoins and the comments in this thread about maybe raising the prices due to that it got me thinking that the share price of service businesses like this should be somewhat inversely correlated with bitcoin price.
i.e price of bitcoin goes down then the revenue should go up as either BitCoinTorrentz.com can charge more or get more customers as it is better value, therefore the share price (in BTC) should go up.

Is this thinking correct in general? Could this give some level of hedging against bitcoin price decreases? (Maybe not yet because market size is so small on GLBSE but maybe in the future if it develops further).

I have thought about this myself, and came to similar conclusions. This might be reflected by the fact that the share price has risen recently to 1.4 btc/share, an increase of 700%, which on the surface looks too good to be true. But on 16th September, when I first listed this company on GLBSE, the bitcoin exchange rate to USD was roughly $5-6. It is currently standing at about $3, which is almost a 50% drop - so it might be rational to assume that half of this 700% increase might be explained by the reduced purchasing power of bitcoin.

However, the price of the service has not been altered to reflect the exchange rate. In fact, it has actually been reduced by 50% from the original price I had set in my growth estimates. I really try to ignore the btc:usd exchange rate as best I can. Deciding not to link to the exchange rate was more of an ideological decision than a profit-seeking one, I know shareholders will shudder to hear me say that, but several users have commented positively on the pricing structure, so I think it is bang on target to encourage use and growth of the service.

Shareholders will also be happy to know that BitCoinTorrentz is currently turning over a profit 480% greater than my original growth estimates which where admittedly quite conservative, despite the price being 50% more than what I am charging now. So it is rational to assume that 480% of the 700% increase can be attributed to my undervaluation of the share price at the IPO. The other 220% might be due to the 50% drop in value of bitcoin as you suggested.

It's difficult to come to any sort of meaningful conclusion however, as interpreting all the variables is challenging - especially when you try to factor in the volatility of the bitcoin price.

Just now, I was asked "why isn't there someone who offers to remotely download torrents for me? That would be the occasion to use Bitcoins, too!" and I answered, "actually, there is."

So you'll have another user sometime soon. And I think this is an implication that you are nowhere near having addressed even a fraction of a percent of your target market if a frequent BitTorrent and Bitcoin user did not even know the site yet. It probably takes a while to spread the word, keep it up!

Haha. Thats awesome, and thanks for the referral!

I do think that there is still huge potential out there for this service, even considering the very impressive current growth figures. It's only been 5 weeks since launch. It took 3 years after it's inception for me to discover bitcoin. I could go out and spam every forum I can find, but I would rather grow this business slowly and organically, so that I can adequately cope with increasing demand.

[2weiX]

i noticed the following:

i have open one status window.
i open another window, send a torrent, pay, get the status link, click it.

then:  BOTH status windows go to display the info of the LAST status window.
so now i have two different torrents i paid for, but two times the one status window that i opened last!

this happens on firefox 4.


also: too bad that i didnt jump on the stock last week, eh?
how often do you pay dividends?

[Vandroiy]

I think the site lacks a statement concerning share ratio. I didn't use it yet, but there is nothing on the introduction page.

People who want fast torrents do not necessarily want to leech. I suggest that you ascertain that your service holds an average share ratio larger than 1 whenever possible. You can charge extra if people want to actively seed to high ratios, but a paid service should really set a good example.

It would be really unsatisfying to damage the BitTorrent networks even though paying extra for the traffic.

[molecular]

I think the site lacks a statement concerning share ratio. I didn't use it yet, but there is nothing on the introduction page.

People who want fast torrents do not necessarily want to leech. I suggest that you ascertain that your service holds an average share ratio larger than 1 whenever possible. You can charge extra if people want to actively seed to high ratios, but a paid service should really set a good example.

It would be really unsatisfying to damage the BitTorrent networks even though paying extra for the traffic.

I agree. This has been talked about, but I don't remember the status...

[mjcmurfy]

i noticed the following:

i have open one status window.
i open another window, send a torrent, pay, get the status link, click it.

then:  BOTH status windows go to display the info of the LAST status window.
so now i have two different torrents i paid for, but two times the one status window that i opened last!

this happens on firefox 4.


also: too bad that i didnt jump on the stock last week, eh?
how often do you pay dividends?

I'm aware of this bug, and I will have a fix for it in the next update to the site. It has got to do with an error with session variables. Try closing your browser, or logging out of the site, and then checking back into the status page. Does that help?

Dividends are paid on the 16th of each month.

I think the site lacks a statement concerning share ratio. I didn't use it yet, but there is nothing on the introduction page.

People who want fast torrents do not necessarily want to leech. I suggest that you ascertain that your service holds an average share ratio larger than 1 whenever possible. You can charge extra if people want to actively seed to high ratios, but a paid service should really set a good example.

It would be really unsatisfying to damage the BitTorrent networks even though paying extra for the traffic.

This is very true, and a small oversight on my part not to mention it on the FAQ.

The server currently stops the torrent several minutes after the download is complete, however as it uploads at full speed throughout the duration of the download, most torrents are quite well seeded. Some that have few peers though will not be seeded adequately however. The reason I decided to do this is to mitigate the risks associated with prolonged seeding to public trackers. It has nothing to do with saving bandwidth.

I have discussed the possibility of including an option to seed to a specified ratio if you are using a private tracker, but unfortunately, this will not be implemented until the next site update at some stage after november 8th as I am extremely busy with other work-related duties until then.

Do you think it is wise for me to change it to a 1:1 ratio?
I want to do this, but I'm slightly worried about the risks involved.

[2weiX]

i noticed the following:

i have open one status window.
i open another window, send a torrent, pay, get the status link, click it.

then:  BOTH status windows go to display the info of the LAST status window.
so now i have two different torrents i paid for, but two times the one status window that i opened last!

this happens on firefox 4.


also: too bad that i didnt jump on the stock last week, eh?
how often do you pay dividends?

I'm aware of this bug, and I will have a fix for it in the next update to the site. It has got to do with an error with session variables. Try closing your browser, or logging out of the site, and then checking back into the status page. Does that help?

Dividends are paid on the 16th of each month.

yes, it helps - but since the first torrent is "lost" I have to download (and pay) it again. I would much rather have a page in the members section with links to my status pages and downloads.

[mjcmurfy]

The torrent should not have been lost. If you uploaded it, then paid, and the site redirected you to the status page, that means that the torrent was downloaded and loaded into the client. All you have to do is go to the status page and get the download links. If you mean that you sent payment, but the payment was not verified and remained stuck on the verification popup, please PM me with the links to the torrent files you wanted to download, and details of the corresponding payments, and I will load them manually for you. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Also, I just tried to replicate the error you received, and when you have two status pages open simultaneously, because the information about the torrent is stored and read from session variables, it doesn't like dealing with simultaneous requests. But I have found that if you refresh the status page (instead of logging out) it will reload that torrent into the session, and you will get the correct information.

This can be easily fixed with a small rewrite, but I don't have the time to do it until after november 8th, due to work related obligations. So until then, my advice is to load and pay for one torrent at a time instead of opening multiple windows and loading/paying for them simultaneously. I.e. load - pay - wait for verification and status link - repeat, instead of, load-load-load-pay-pay-pay. Sorry if that is confusing. If you are not sure what I mean, please let me know and I will try to clarify.

@peter lambert: the risks I am referring to is the uploading of data to public trackers, and snooping of the seeder list. Some users may download files that it would not be wise to upload lots of data from back into the swarm. Do you understand what I mean? I am being deliberately vague.

[mjcmurfy]

I have noticed a delay earlier today in the verification of payments, with a small number of people having paid for downloads that were not started due them closing the verification popup before the payment was received. This is being caused by factors not under my control, and I cannot explain how it happened. Does anyone know if one of the mining pools were getting DDoS'ed?

If you have sent payment for a download that was not verified, please contact me for a refund.

Just to reiterate, please leave the payment verification window OPEN until the payment has been received, no matter how long it takes. As is stated on the website, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Today it might take longer. If you close the window, the torrent you paid for will not be started and I cannot refund your payment unless you contact me as I have no way of knowing who the payment came from. So leave the window open as long as is necessary if you don't want to lose your money.

The website checks the status of payments every 5 seconds until they have been received.