Monetising bittorrent.

[Stuum]

So. Kim Dotcom is going to launch a MegaUpload2.0 where you make micro payments for file pieces. This clicked with me because just the other day someone posted on bitcointalk.org a link to the spec for IPFS where it talked about Bitswap. This Bitswap, was described as a market place for blocks (torrent hashes/chunks) and I think that is what K.C is probably talking about with his Bitcache.

I'm not a Golang expert so it'll take a while to investigate but what it seems to do is enable a content provider (or copyright holder) to no longer have to charge for an entire product (a whole DVD) but can charge for a small part/chunk of the product. Whereas before you would pay $20 for a DVD, you will now pay 10,000 x 0.2 cents every-time you download it. Furthermore. If you get a corrupt block or it is rejected for whatever reason, then you may have to buy it again. They would also be able to change pricing by just increasing or decreasing the number of blocks you get for you 0.2c. Your DVD would still be 0.2c per block but now you need 20,000 but still the price is advertised as "0.2c per block"

I'm ambivalent about this. As an incentive system to share blocks it has merit. As a content distribution model for profit it has huge potential for scamming.

Has anyone else looked at this tech?

[Sid]

Not in any more detail than that.

I also have mixed feelings.

I've no problem if (for example) a musician records themselves playing and wants to use such a distribution method to sell direct to consumers.

But I don't believe non-commercial sharing should have any financial component to it at all.

[Stuum]

It isn't quite what I thought it would be, unfortunately.

Bitswap is a brand new protocol with its own messages and transport. The ledger they talk about is their own concoction so everything in here is wheel reinventing and they are going to have to resolve all the distributed ledger issues and vulnerabilities that have already been solved by other systems, IMO. The decision making as to who to send a block to or not maybe useful but it's not a good starting point for me.

I was hoping they had taken the torrent protocol and replaced the logic (the bit that decides on snubbed, choked, not interested etc) with one that relied on bitcoin-like tokens in the same way as Maidsafe uses SafeCoin. Sadly not.

The hunt continues.........

[joew771]

ummm....

Why bother with any of that when you can get it all for free on TPB or other sites. I'm not going to pay for blocks of data when I won't even pay for a blu-ray or mp3. Same as always. I'm a cheap poor bastard.

[Stuum]

ummm....

Why bother with any of that when you can get it all for free on TPB or other sites. I'm not going to pay for blocks of data when I won't even pay for a blu-ray or mp3. Same as always. I'm a cheap poor bastard.

You can only get the torrent files from TPB. You still need a client to get the blocks. While the technology can be used by corporations (like Netflix and Dotcom) to charge for blocks  it can also be used to enforce ratios and make trusted uploaders blocks more valuable (insofar as preference to download) than untrusted. So you could use it as a way of fake filtering or reputation system.

It's only brainstorming. I could just sit on my butt and wait for torrenting to become history because I'm a cheap, lazy bastard 

[joew771]

ummm....

Why bother with any of that when you can get it all for free on TPB or other sites. I'm not going to pay for blocks of data when I won't even pay for a blu-ray or mp3. Same as always. I'm a cheap poor bastard.

You can only get the torrent files from TPB. You still need a client to get the blocks. While the technology can be used by corporations (like Netflix and Dotcom) to charge for blocks  it can also be used to enforce ratios and make trusted uploaders blocks more valuable (insofar as preference to download) than untrusted. So you could use it as a way of fake filtering or reputation system.

It's only brainstorming. I could just sit on my butt and wait for torrenting to become history because I'm a cheap, lazy bastard 

You could always use a client like utorrent or a million other clients to download things. Not sure what you are complaining about. And Netflix doesn't charge for blocks. What are you saying exactly? I don't think you know what you are talking about.

[Picklock]

it's a new concepts of P2P file sharing in P2P protocols implemented on Bittorent joew with "money" as "incentive" so peoples stop uploading low res porn and starts uploading 4D porn's...it's an example...the porn things I mean