5 ms·

I think Bittorrent could be made usable for 1:1 transfers. The building blocks are there. But you'd have to streamline the process and build a client optimized

I think Bittorrent could be made usable for 1:1 transfers. The building blocks are there. But you'd have to streamline the process and build a client optimized for that case instead of the more common usage. The main missing piece would be a standardized encryption format. That doesn't really need protocol changes, just a storage-level convention how the data is encrypted before turning it into a torrent.

tomphoolery 5y ago
Agreed, but I don't think there's a lot of motivation to do so. At that point, BitTorrent is just DCC in a new fur coat. As stated earlier, BT is most appropriately used in a setting where you want to download a single file from multiple sources, distributing the workload between them and your network. This results in faster downloads, and does so in a way that is decentralized (for the most part) and scalable by design. So while it could be done, the question is really "should it be done"? I'd love to be able to send a file over the internet easily without using some centralized service, but if there's only 2 people that are meant to have the file, does the overhead of BitTorrent make any sense?
halikular 5y ago
We already have SFTP for this.
- the8472 5y ago
  sftp doesn't do nat hole punching, does it?
BlueTemplar 5y ago
Isn't this basically Resilio's Sync ? I've been using it for years on smartphone backups that otherwise wouldn't be able to hold a sustained transfer.
- Moru 5y ago
  Yes, me too. It also have 1:1 functions for sending a file easily or sync a folder between all your oomputers and phones.
ayyy 5y ago
What do you mean, could be? https://instant.io/ https://instant.io/ is just one of many webtorrent sites that do this. It's a wonderful use of bittorrent.
- the8472 5y ago
  Webtorrent is not fully decentralized since webrtc needs signalling servers for each session (you can't even store credentials in a cache and reuse them later) and it doesn't have a DHT since UDP isn't available in browsers. It's not the same as bittorrent proper.
samatman 5y ago
I'm not sure I see the point though? For 1-to-1 transfers, Magic Wormhole is the system to beat, and I struggle to imagine how it could be improved. https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole
- bccdee 5y ago
  I really wish magic wormhole worked conveniently on windows without obliging me to install python and pip and such. It's my go-to when sftp isn't an option, but for sftp not to be an option almost always means that one of the computers I'm trying to transfer between is a windows box.
  - samatman 5y ago
    That's reasonable, it's a great candidate for a rewrite in Go.
    - throwaway2556 5y ago
      It's already a thing: https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william
      - synctext 5y ago
        Wormhole requirement: "the URL of a publicly-available Rendezvous Server" This means its not a self-sovereign system, like Bittorrent, GIT, and Bitcoin. Its no different then a central Napster server, the one that got dragged into court on November 1999. Scientists are still working on creating self-sovereign peer-to-peer systems. Its hard, but we're going to solve it in coming years. Scientific community: "International Workshop series on Distributed Infrastructure for Common Good", https://dicg2020.github.io/ https://dicg2020.github.io/ (disclaimer: involved scientist)
  - throwaway2556 5y ago
    Magic Wormhole has a good implementation in Go. It has windows binary. https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william Windows binary: https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william/releases/download/v1.0.5/wormhole-william-windows-386.exe https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william/releases/downlo... There's GUI: https://github.com/Jacalz/wormhole-gui https://github.com/Jacalz/wormhole-gui Android app too: https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william-mobile https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william-mobile The author is on HN as psanford

tomphoolery 5y ago

Agreed, but I don't think there's a lot of motivation to do so. At that point, BitTorrent is just DCC in a new fur coat. As stated earlier, BT is most appropriately used in a setting where you want to download a single file from multiple sources, distributing the workload between them and your network. This results in faster downloads, and does so in a way that is decentralized (for the most part) and scalable by design. So while it could be done, the question is really "should it be done"? I'd love to be able to send a file over the internet easily without using some centralized service, but if there's only 2 people that are meant to have the file, does the overhead of BitTorrent make any sense?

halikular 5y ago

We already have SFTP for this.

the8472 5y ago
sftp doesn't do nat hole punching, does it?

BlueTemplar 5y ago

Isn't this basically Resilio's Sync ? I've been using it for years on smartphone backups that otherwise wouldn't be able to hold a sustained transfer.

Moru 5y ago
Yes, me too. It also have 1:1 functions for sending a file easily or sync a folder between all your oomputers and phones.

ayyy 5y ago

What do you mean, could be? https://instant.io/ https://instant.io/ is just one of many webtorrent sites that do this. It's a wonderful use of bittorrent.

the8472 5y ago
Webtorrent is not fully decentralized since webrtc needs signalling servers for each session (you can't even store credentials in a cache and reuse them later) and it doesn't have a DHT since UDP isn't available in browsers. It's not the same as bittorrent proper.

samatman 5y ago

I'm not sure I see the point though? For 1-to-1 transfers, Magic Wormhole is the system to beat, and I struggle to imagine how it could be improved. https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole

bccdee 5y ago
I really wish magic wormhole worked conveniently on windows without obliging me to install python and pip and such. It's my go-to when sftp isn't an option, but for sftp not to be an option almost always means that one of the computers I'm trying to transfer between is a windows box.
- samatman 5y ago
  That's reasonable, it's a great candidate for a rewrite in Go.
  - throwaway2556 5y ago
    It's already a thing: https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william
    - synctext 5y ago
      Wormhole requirement: "the URL of a publicly-available Rendezvous Server" This means its not a self-sovereign system, like Bittorrent, GIT, and Bitcoin. Its no different then a central Napster server, the one that got dragged into court on November 1999. Scientists are still working on creating self-sovereign peer-to-peer systems. Its hard, but we're going to solve it in coming years. Scientific community: "International Workshop series on Distributed Infrastructure for Common Good", https://dicg2020.github.io/ https://dicg2020.github.io/ (disclaimer: involved scientist)
- throwaway2556 5y ago
  Magic Wormhole has a good implementation in Go. It has windows binary. https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william Windows binary: https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william/releases/download/v1.0.5/wormhole-william-windows-386.exe https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william/releases/downlo... There's GUI: https://github.com/Jacalz/wormhole-gui https://github.com/Jacalz/wormhole-gui Android app too: https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william-mobile https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william-mobile The author is on HN as psanford