earning coins reminds me of the reward system various torrents use, better upload/download ratio = better speed.
a different aspect i've been considering is the anonymity that can be acheived with coins in conjunction with torrenting. i'm not really sure how you could use this to mine more coins though
the basic gist of where i've been pondering is -
the coin handles basic information using data attached to transactions, with the client making it useable.
the simple version.- you link a file to Client1, so the file has a unique identifier based on file properties.
- if you wants to download a file, Client2 adds a request with IP into the blockchain, all clients receive this request. Client1 and 2 then can connect and handle the data transfer as normal.
a more anonymous version could involve collecting IP's from numerous clients, and handling all data through an IP chain.
possibly encrypting the IP's such that any client can only read the top level address OR having other clients in the chain passing on data related to specific requests.
this would involve a few more coin transactions. - this is the tricky bit
- the request includes no originator IP.
Client2 puts out a first level request, Client3 adds a 2nd level request (with no obvious referral to Client2), then Client4 adds 3rd level etc.
(Client1 would only respond to a certain level request)
then Client1 responds to Client2 via Clients4,3 .. and vice versa using this chain for data transmission.
the blockchain could be quite small, as it only handles requests. and data could be dropped from it easily.
aggregators could function in two possible ways,
1. the send requests for specific files, and register their existence. regular requests could guage the availability of files.
- problem being knowing the name/identifier of file to request.
2. upon linking to the client, basic properties is broadcast into the chain. which can then be picked up by aggregators, or even the client.