One of the most controversial topics in file sharing via the world wide web, is indeed the use of torrenting system (using torrenting software such as Utorrent/BitTorrent). As a matter of fact, most school (including Kenyatta University) have banned the use of this protocol as it “promotes the illegal sharing of information – especially copyrighted material”. Indeed materials such as books which were previously unaccesible to students, coz lets be honest, not that many students are willing or able to buy an medical book that costs 10k +. And so as the story goes, such sites and protocols that support this system have been blocked. Moreover, reports from VPNs (virtual private networks) such as TOR (fun fact: the USA army was said to be using this open source network before it’s being compromised) say that, one of it’s largest data transfer protocols is actually torrents.
That being what the general public has been led to believe, I honestly think otherwise. Here’s a video explaining how torrenting system works:
BitTorrent, Explained. from BitTorrent, Inc. on Vimeo.
Are you new to the world of BitTorrent? Have you been using BitTorrent for awhile, but you’re curious about how it all works?
This video, produced by the team behind the popular BitTorrent and µTorrent software, includes an overview of the BitTorrent ecosystem and gives you great tips on how to leverage the products for your enjoyment.
To download BitTorrent, please visit: www.bittorrent.com
To download uTorrent, please visit: www.utorrent.com
Now, from the above we can tell that not only is this system faster, but it can be used for more than just sending files to one another. No, it can be expanded into sharing information among peers of a certain niche – such as web developers who create a huge amount of projects but do not have the chance to share their ideas and projects to other people simply because they do not have the funds to do so or may also not want to have their names branded onto the projects (I personally have projects that I do not want credits for – its not all about the money you know.) and this is where Project Maelstrom comes into play.
Here’s an excerpt from the project developers blog:
An invite-only Alpha to help build the distributed web.
It started with a simple question. 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.
If we are successful, we believe this project has the potential to help address some of the most vexing problems facing the Internet today. How can we keep the Internet open? How can we keep access to the Internet neutral? How can we better ensure our private data is not misused by large companies? How can we help the Internet scale efficiently for content?
The power of distributed technology that underpins BitTorrent and all of our products has long been an example in this regard and bringing more of this power to the web is only natural as these challenges loom.
Please join us in this project, become a fractional owner of this new Internet and help us shape the future of our network.
You can sign up to this project HERE >> http://bit.ly/1ytada4
Convinced yet? Well, here’s how to get started! Download the windows application using this link: Ge.tt
…then follow this tutorial to get started!
We’d love to hear what you think about this approach to sharing information among your peers and to the world as a whole in the comments below.
Similar, opensource project: http://zeronet.io (P2P websites using BitTorrent network and Bitcoin cryptography)
Just launched the project on my PC, quite the idea…yet to see if it supports cms such as wordpress and all – think the difference is that Maelstrom is still file sharing on another level. This is website based…a more organized way especially for a large community.