BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing network that has grown rapidly over the past 15 years and has seen billions of downloads worldwide in its lifetime. The broad, worldwide network will shortly implement a token economy that creates incentives and a market for bandwidth usage and seeding files.
The modified protocol is being developed by the Tron Foundation as part of their project atlas, which aims to create a fully decentralized Internet using the Tron blockchain.
Tron was one of the toughest altcoins during the current bear market, which began a little over a year ago. While many altcoins posted losses of 95 percent and more, Tron was down 88 percent from its all-time high and ranks eighth with a market cap of $ 232 million at the time of writing.
In July 2018, Tron acquired BitTorrent for its vast network of users in almost every country in the world. At the beginning of last week, Tron started its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for the BitTorrent token (BTT) on Binance. Almost 60 billion BTT had been sold in just 15 minutes, making the team a cool $ 7.1 million.
The torrent economy
Torrenting has been an integral part of the internet for the past two decades, evolving away from the malware-riddled P2P software like Napster, Kazaa, and Limewire that have evolved it. The success of torrenting wasn’t accidental either. The technology has greatly improved the security and anonymity of the users so that any user with a basic level of knowledge can access these torrents relatively safely.
However, torrent services have been somewhat disrupted in recent years by companies offering subscription-based streaming services for accessing television, movies, and music at home or on the go. The success of companies like Netflix and Spotify clearly shows that people are willing to pay a premium for these services for a simple and hassle-free experience.
Pay for extra steps
However, buying BTT is far from easy. This is doubly true for those who are unfamiliar with the concept of cryptocurrency or who have no knowledge of how to buy, transact and secure their money. This is a similar reason for the sluggish adoption of cryptocurrency in every popular form.
This tweet from @zeuszissou describes the steps a new user would have to take in order to purchase BTT for the BitTorrent client as the person does not yet have a cryptocurrency:
I can click on a free magnetic link
Or
1. Buy BTC
2. Register the Binance account
3. KYC
4. Transfer $ BTC to Binance
5. Wait for confirmations
6. Buy $ BTT tokens
7. Read a $ BTT tutorial
8. Transfer $ BTT to the bittorrent client and pay for the time saved on my download # GG $ BTT
– Zissou (@ZeusZissou) February 1, 2019
(@ZeusZissou) February 1, 2019Even ordinary cryptocurrency users who understand that the steps to buy BTT are fairly straightforward and straightforward also know how time consuming a process can be. For a first-time buyer, it may take a week or more to complete KYC verifications and funds verification. This can hardly be considered a sensible way to get higher priority download speed or token incentives before a value is even set.
[bctt tweet=”Cryptocurrency amateurs are going to find it hard to choose to spend a week buying BTT over continuing to torrent the same as they always had.” username=”beincrypto”]
While it is possible that the Tron protocol could optimize the BitTorrent network in new ways, the market for BTT in its current state is still largely speculative. A more accurate value should be expected later when the BTT tokens are actually used in the BitTorrent economy and their usefulness can be assessed.
Do you think Tron’s new BitTorrent economy will be welcomed by existing users? Would you recommend tweaks or changes? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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