The Offline Bay - a decentralized torrent website

[TheOfflineBayProject]

Hello everyone. I've spent the last few months building theofflinebay.org and would love some feedback on what you think of it so far.

It operates like a normal website, but instead of using a webserver for searches and results, it uses a 'database torrent' via WebTorrent. The decentralized technology uses more bandwidth than a webserver (5MB per search). All searches and results are saved in-browser and will not be downloaded again with future use (unless the database torrent is updated), making it much faster the more you use it.

I've made spotting fake torrents easy by including separate tracker info from 3 trackers and file lists.  Advanced search features are available for category, upload date range, size range, and trusted/caution(high seed variance) flags.

The Offline Bay contains over 5.3 million alive torrents sourced from The Pirate Bay, Magnetico (DHT), Torrent Paradise, and BTDB. Tracker info from Coppersurfer, Leechers Paradise, and Cyberia.
If there is demand from users or TPB admins, I can release a version which is sourced from TPB only (which was the original idea), or versions containing dead torrents also.

The main weakness right now is the serving of the homepage.  In the near future this will also be served via WebTorrent to prevent censorship. Use 'right-click, save as...' to save the website and you will have access to it as long as you or someone else is hosting the database torrent.  I plan to implement a domain-less page for updates via Bitcoin using a variation of Web2Web.

If you would like, I could do with some help with the following:
Improving the CSS to make it look pretty. https://github.com/OfflineBay/TheOfflineBay
Make it more readable and user friendly (HTML).
Hosting the database torrent in a WebTorrent supported client such as WebTorrent Desktop or BiglyBT(Vuze).

Any questions, fire away. https://theofflinebay.org is where you can find it.

[marathone]

Hosting the database torrent in a WebTorrent supported client.

Any questions, fire away.

Would Deluged on a server be considered 'WebTorrent' supported?
If so I'd be willing to seed.

[TheOfflineBayProject]

Would Deluged on a server be considered 'WebTorrent' supported?
If so I'd be willing to seed.

Unfortunately WebTorrent isn't yet supported in Deluge.  Thanks for the offer though.

Did you manage to make a search through my website?

[ill88eagle]

Did you manage to make a search through my website?

Maybe if you gave us a link to follow so we can try it out?

[TheOfflineBayProject]

Maybe if you gave us a link to follow so we can try it out?

Sorry, I can't post hyperlinks in my original post (spam filter).
https://theofflinebay.org

[ill88eagle]

Maybe if you gave us a link to follow so we can try it out?

Sorry, I can't post hyperlinks in my original post (spam filter).
https://theofflinebay.org

It is slow, but my torrents show up with green flags

I think this is a brilliant idea, but I have some questions.

When I load it in my browser I download the entire DB or its updates if I am using the same browser on the same machine without deleting my cookies and what not, correct?

What about TOR browsing with max OPSEC?

What are our options of "WebTorrent supported client"? Name a few -even better: post links

If the DB is stored locally, how do I access it from my machine with no internet access?

[TheOfflineBayProject]

I'm glad to hear it worked.  The slow part is because I'm the only one seeding it right now (and via a TURN server).  I'll hopefully have a proper server soon that will have plenty of upload.

In your browser, only the required files of the database torrent are downloaded (it's a 710MB, 6900 file torrent).  These downloaded files are saved in-browser with IndexedDB.  This database is 'Site Data' and will likely be deleted by Deleting Cookies.  The database is permanent (unless the browser needs free space and deletes it) and is only accessible to the browser that created it.

It does not work with TOR due to WebRTC (what WebTorrent uses) being disabled.

As for clients, WebTorrent Desktop (simple, I recommend) or BiglyBT (Vuze fork) support WebTorrent.

For offline use, all future database torrents will include an HTML file which will access the database directly without the need of a torrent client or internet.  This mean you can download the database torrent, put it on a usb stick, and then use it whenever on any device (Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android).
The database torrent can be downloaded from theofflinebay.org

[marathone]

Would Deluged on a server be considered 'WebTorrent' supported?
If so I'd be willing to seed.

Unfortunately WebTorrent isn't yet supported in Deluge.  Thanks for the offer though.

Did you manage to make a search through my website?

Yes I did — slow, but I like the promise of tech like this. Look forward to the book. BTW Here's another instance on the P2P web that been around for some time: https://torrent-paradise.ml/index.html

[TheOfflineBayProject]

Hi all, sorry for the radio silence. We've made lots of progress since last year.  The website now operates in 3 distinct ways.

1. Normal.  Just like a standard website.  Searches and results are processed by a webserver.  New torrents added in real time.
2. P2P (as originally designed).  Search is done locally in your browser via a P2P database torrent.  Results are retrieved by this same database.
3. Offline.  Works similar to P2P, but is completely standalone and uses no internet at all.  An .HTML file open using your browser, so no installation.

Our database contains 32 million torrents and automatically adds new torrents by crawling the DHT and several trackers.  The current and historic tracking information is provided for each tracker for every torrent, enabling tracking of popularity and making fake torrents very obvious.
The P2P version is 10x faster than before due to a new design.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

[marathone]

Thanks - What's the URL for your search engine?