[2019-01-05] BitTorrent Is Launching Its Own Cryptocurrency on the Tron Network

[bL4nkcode]

BitTorrent, which pioneered peer-to-peer technology for sharing files on the internet, is creating its own cryptocurrency.

Issued by the Singapore-based BitTorrent Foundation, the new BitTorrent Token (BTT) will run on the tron protocol, developed by Tron, which acquired BitTorrent in June of last year. The file-sharing software company claims to have 100 million users.

Justin Sun, founder of Tron and CEO of BitTorrent, said in a press release:

“In one giant leap, we can introduce blockchain to hundreds of millions of users around the world and empower a new generation of content creators with the tools to distribute their content directly to others on the web.”

The plan to issue a token follows the announcement of Project Atlas, which BitTorrent revealed at the end of August. Project Atlas is a new iteration of the P2P software. It provides users with a way to spend and earn crypto while sharing files.

Under the existing system, users need to put a file on the system in order to download something. As Sun explains in a YouTube video, the user has no incentive to keep a file on the network once they have finished downloading.

With BTT, users can pay someone with the file to send it to them and they can pay for more bandwidth, so it downloads faster. With the prospect of payment, file hosts have an incentive to keep more files available to the network, making it more likely that a given user will be able to download something they want more quickly.

Read more: https://www.coindesk.com/bittorrent-is-launching-its-own-cryptocurrency-on-the-tron-network

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[Kakmakr]

In a way this is a good news for Bitcoin for two reasons. One - File sharing Copyrighted content for payment has been controversial  for years and we do not want that associated with Bitcoin. Two - Most of these tokens might be traded on exchanges where bitcoins are also traded and that money might end up being invested in other Crypto currencies like Bitcoin.

Let's see how this one is handled by the courts and how many people will be sued for this. 

[gentlemand]

So company expects people who have spent their entire lives doing anything not to pay anything - pay something.

I know there's the prospect of earning too but that depends on other freeloaders laying out.

This is also why I'm unsold on micro payments. If something has a micro price it's not going to be that vital to me. I already click away from places that hassle me over ad blocking. I'll click double speed if they want some money to read their three paragraph how-to article about removing the practice grenade I have stuck in my colon.

[stompix]

So company expects people who have spent their entire lives doing anything not to pay anything - pay something.

Brutal     

Back in 2011 one of my friends had a movie website that was hosting pirated content and he tried to monetize it by different means. From about 10 000 visitors a day he didn't manage to get a single sale, no matter what he tried to sell through affiliate links.

The only way to pay for the server and bandwidth was to force people through a gateway of links and pop-ups and splash pages.
Of course, Adblock took care of it in the end.

This will turn ugly pretty fast.
Before you had at least an excuse that you were not financially motivated for pirating content, with this one prepare to pay thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars if you're caught.

[gentlemand]

This will turn ugly pretty fast.
Before you had at least an excuse that you were not financially motivated for pirating content, with this one prepare to pay thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars if you're caught.

I hadn't thought of it like that. That is indeed a big old can of worms.

I presume Tron are going to push legit content on torrents as hard as they can. As it stands that must be a microscopic percentage of torrent traffic and it won't occur to mom and pop to fire up the family client.  

And if these coins are traceable to certain files expect lawsuits to fly at exchanges, and instantly turn off any torrenter considering the idea.

[Carlton Banks]

So company expects people who have spent their entire lives doing anything not to pay anything - pay something.

Back in 2011 one of my friends had a movie website that was hosting pirated content and he tried to monetize it by different means. From about 10 000 visitors a day he didn't manage to get a single sale, no matter what he tried to sell through affiliate links.

But content producers will get smart eventually, despite how dumb they are now.


The new model will be something like this: convince people your art/software is good by giving away something for free. Then crowdfund the release of the full product, which is copyright free once it's been funded. And why not distribute it through bittorrent when your profits are getting squeezed like that? It's easy to build bittorrent into webpages, no-one even knows they're using it.

The alternative is to pretend that it's still the 1900's. And complain about how it isn't, essentially. I'm surprised content producers aren't already bored of doing that

[hatshepsut93]

But content producers will get smart eventually, despite how dumb they are now.


The new model will be something like this: convince people your art/software is good by giving away something for free. Then crowdfund the release of the full product, which is copyright free once it's been funded. And why not distribute it through bittorrent when your profits are getting squeezed like that? It's easy to build bittorrent into webpages, no-one even knows they're using it.

The alternative is to pretend that it's still the 1900's. And complain about how it isn't, essentially. I'm surprised content producers aren't already bored of doing that

It's not exactly a new thing, platforms like Kickstarter were around for many years already. Sadly, they have their own problems, like scammers who blatantly scam their backers (just like in ICO's), or projects who fail to keep their promises (check out Star Citizen). Also, there's no precedent of successful crowdfunding of an AAA game or a Hollywood-quality movie yet. Crowdfunding is always the risk for consumers, because they are blindly buying something that doesn't exist.


The problem with todays content-creators is that they are too greedy, they all try to create their own platform, which makes it very inconvenient for consumers. Disney and many other producers have pulled their content out of Netflix, for example. So, in many cases people pirate not because they can't afford the price, but because they don't want to deal with all the obstacles.

[squatter]

So company expects people who have spent their entire lives doing anything not to pay anything - pay something.

I know there's the prospect of earning too but that depends on other freeloaders laying out.

I've been using torrents for years but I would be willing to pay in some cases. If it meant 1) getting obscure, hard-to-find media and 2) incentivizing uploaders to seed faster so I'm not waiting days for downloads to finish, I would definitely pay something. I'm not sure how much I'd be willing to pay, but I'm be open to it.

People pay for Usenet and private torrent trackers, so it doesn't seem that crazy.

[gentlemand]

I've been using torrents for years but I would be willing to pay in some cases. If it meant 1) getting obscure, hard-to-find media and 2) incentivizing uploaders to seed faster so I'm not waiting days for downloads to finish, I would definitely pay something. I'm not sure how much I'd be willing to pay, but I'm be open to it.

People pay for Usenet and private torrent trackers, so it doesn't seem that crazy.

The rarest torrents will attract so little custom there'd have to be a way of putting payer and receiver together via some sort of bidding or publicising process. Even then the people with the data may forget they have it.

That view makes sense in principle. I guess we'll need to see how it works.

[vit05]

So company expects people who have spent their entire lives doing anything not to pay anything - pay something.

Imagine how many people said that to Steve Jobs when he decided to charge for mp3. Or to the founders of Netflix, Spotify etc ...

[Carlton Banks]

Also, there's no precedent of successful crowdfunding of an AAA game or a Hollywood-quality movie yet.

Citizen Kane?

It's not exactly a new thing, platforms like Kickstarter were around for many years already.

It would be new if someone talented had the first ever 100% independent hit film/track/album. It'll happen, I've been saying this for years. Someone who's smart enough to know how good they are, and knowledgeable enough to know they can do everything them self. You don't need an industry when all the modern equipment is household grade.

[hatshepsut93]

It's not exactly a new thing, platforms like Kickstarter were around for many years already.

It would be new if someone talented had the first ever 100% independent hit film/track/album. It'll happen, I've been saying this for years. Someone who's smart enough to know how good they are, and knowledgeable enough to know they can do everything them self. You don't need an industry when all the modern equipment is household grade.

It happened already, the movie Paranormal Activity had a $15,000 budget  and a $193.4 million box office. The authors sold the movie to Paramount Pictures for $300,000. If they had access to a decentralized content distribution system like the one described in the OP, they would net much more money, but probably less than those 193 millions (because Paramount Pictures dropped $10 millions on advertisement).

There are probably more cases like that, but they are rather exceptions than the rule. You can produce world-class music at home these days, but digital content like movies and games still costs millions of dollars to produce, and I don't see how those amounts can be achieved via crowdfunding in the near future.

[Carlton Banks]

It would be new if someone talented had the first ever 100% independent hit film/track/album.

It happened already, the movie Paranormal Activity had a $15,000 budget  and a $193.4 million box office. The authors sold the movie to Paramount Pictures for $300,000.

Not what I'd call 100% independent, but interesting nevertheless

If they had access to a decentralized content distribution system like the one described in the OP, they would net much more money, but probably less than those 193 millions (because Paramount Pictures dropped $10 millions on advertisement).

There are probably more cases like that, but they are rather exceptions than the rule. You can produce world-class music at home these days, but digital content like movies and games still costs millions of dollars to produce, and I don't see how those amounts can be achieved via crowdfunding in the near future.

I think music is most likely for such a thing to happen, it has the lowest barriers to entry as you mention. A music hit can be done with a much smaller team of people, literally one person could do everything if they have the right range of skills.

[Betwrong]

It's not exactly a new thing, platforms like Kickstarter were around for many years already.

It would be new if someone talented had the first ever 100% independent hit film/track/album. It'll happen, I've been saying this for years. Someone who's smart enough to know how good they are, and knowledgeable enough to know they can do everything them self. You don't need an industry when all the modern equipment is household grade.

It happened already, the movie Paranormal Activity had a $15,000 budget  and a $193.4 million box office. The authors sold the movie to Paramount Pictures for $300,000. If they had access to a decentralized content distribution system like the one described in the OP, they would net much more money, but probably less than those 193 millions (because Paramount Pictures dropped $10 millions on advertisement).
~

It's hard to even imagine how much less they would earn if the movie wasn't acquired by Paramount Pictures. Actually we will never know how much did they really spend on advertisement because it's a normal practice for distribution companies to understate their advertisement expenses in such cases to make it look like people decided by their own that the film is worth watching. As stated in one article:

The success of the film was widely attributed to the unique promotional strategies adopted by California-based film production and distribution company, Paramount Pictures Corporation (Paramount Pictures).

And I absolutely agree with this statement. No one would pay a dollar for watching this movie if there was no high-priced promotion, and not because the movie in question was bad, but because people usually don't pay for something they weren't told worth paying for.

[Naida_BR]

A BitTorrent airdrop is announced for all the TRON hodlers.
The airdrop is going to take place in many portions starting from 11 February 2019 and continue untill 2025.
All TRX hodlers are going to receive BTT tokens in a ratio of 1:1.

It doesn't matter if your balance is frozen or not.

https://medium.com/bittorrent/bittorrent-foundation-unveils-more-details-regarding-bittorrent-btt-airdrops-for-tron-trx-8bbd194f8a87

[Theb]

So they have taken piracy to the next level? I would suspect if they did that they would have some problems with the government and of course the Tron network would also be part of it. I won't care if their project only involved sharing files of their original work but if they are only sharing pirated copies of movies, music, and even programs then it would be an abuse and clearly a violation of piracy laws, their uploaders would earning money from the works of others.

But this project if done legally will be a great one. One thing I would like to see with the system is that seeders of files would also be earning the token, this would be beneficial either way as they are making the fast download possible.

[Carlton Banks]

I won't care if their project only involved sharing files of their original work but if they are only sharing pirated copies of movies, music, and even programs then it would be an abuse and clearly a violation of piracy laws, their uploaders would earning money from the works of others.

It's frustrating, because the way you're thinking about it, you're almost there. What's the difference between people using bittorrent and cryptocurrencies to distribute their own work (with other people doing the same to help keep the distribution going), and getting paid for copyright piracy? Not much, when you think about it

[Theb]

~snip~

It's frustrating, because the way you're thinking about it, you're almost there. What's the difference between people using bittorrent and cryptocurrencies to distribute their own work (with other people doing the same to help keep the distribution going), and getting paid for copyright piracy? Not much, when you think about it

For one thing they are actually encouraging people to do piracy (if it is their intent to pay pirated media, files) people who upload files in torrent websites don't even get money except from their donations but if they do this they are actually guaranteeing them to be earning something from the files they are sharing whether or not it is illegal. At some point if things got worst we might even see the the film and music industry to stop producing new work or even increase in prices just to battle the piracy happening.

Just like what I have mentioned above the backlash from the government that they will have will be big and maybe we will see torrent downloaders being shut down as well not only torrent P2P websites.

[Carlton Banks]

Remember when you said this:

I won't care if their project only involved sharing files of their original work

What's wrong with content producers charging people to download their stuff directly from a file sharing network?


I'll tell you what's right with it:

• No more distributors to pay (i.e. itunes or spotify)
• No more labels (so no more exploitative contracts)
• No more publishing fees (because no more copyright)
• No more lawyers to pay (because no labels or publishing)
• Keep 100% of the profits (instead of between 5% and 0%)

File sharing networks are never going to get shut down, it's not possible, it's been tried and it's failed. The secret is stop trying to pretend there are multiple copies to sell, because there is only one copy. Once you've sold just 1 copy, then everyone in effect has it. Or people could try to continue to fight reality.

[Theb]

Remember when you said this:

I won't care if their project only involved sharing files of their original work

What's wrong with content producers charging people to download their stuff directly from a file sharing network?

Hey as long as they are selling their original work in the file sharing website I don't care about it, but if you are starting out do you really want to go on a paid only file sharing website? As a content producer will you limit your viewers to people who are willing to pay you even if they don't know you? Of course not, some artists right now are discovered in soundcloud or youtube as these websites don't restrict their viewers/listeners to only the ones paying them.

I'll tell you what's right with it:

• No more distributors to pay (i.e. itunes or spotify)
• No more labels (so no more exploitative contracts)
• No more publishing fees (because no more copyright)
• No more lawyers to pay (because no labels or publishing)
• Keep 100% of the profits (instead of between 5% and 0%)

File sharing networks are never going to get shut down, it's not possible, it's been tried and it's failed. The secret is stop trying to pretend there are multiple copies to sell, because there is only one copy. Once you've sold just 1 copy, then everyone in effect has it. Or people could try to continue to fight reality.

I know file sharing networks won't shutdown that is why the industry is trying to battle it we won't even have services like Itunes or Spotify on Music and Netflix or Hulu in Movies if we don't have piracy. Itunes selling newly release albums for 1$ for the whole album, Netflix offering their movie range for around 11$-16$ a month, they even release movies who have been shown recently in cinemas just a month a part. Just so you know being in the entertainment industry is hard and the artist itself cannot do it independently that is why we have producers, publishers, labels and studios to help them for a fee.