Web3Torrent: When Micro Payment encounters Torrent peer-to-peer file download

Original title: "Three Minutes to Read Web3Torrent: When Micro-Payment Encounters Torrent peer-to-peer File Download"
The original author: LeftOfCenter
Article source: Chain smell

Believe that today's Internet users didn't know BT download, BT invention of peer-to-peer file sharing technology is a great technology, it USES efficient software distribution system and P2P technology sharing large file size, millions of Internet users benefit, once has a high user activity and network traffic, but has been unable to turn technology into profitable businesses, has finally been Sun Yuchen, founder of the wave field acquisition, into the wave field ecology, hopes to use scrip economy released its commercial value, but still in a state of groping.

And the recently emerging a file sharing client called Web3Torrent, is expected to pass as peer-to-peer file transfer protocol is introduced into "micropayments" function, so the introduction of effective incentive mechanism for the torrent network: downloaders per download operation on a file, need to do the etheric fang tokens, as a kind of person be paid, hoping to build a kind of organic and sustainable business model.

Web3Torrent, as the name suggests, is a Web3 application that currently has all the code in it & NBSP;Open source. Web3Torrent is created based on WebTorrent and status channel -- here we need to do some basic knowledge popularization: "Web3Torrent" is a Torrent library on the Web end, which can execute the BitTorrent protocol through WebRTC, so that the Web browser becomes a node in the peer-to-peer sharing network; State of "channel" is a quite potential expansion plan, not only in the etheric, the currency of the lightning network also is a kind of state of channel, in addition, as a kind of Layer 2 solutions, state channel is also a male Nervos chain project, one of the main support technology solutions in addition to the state of channel, specially designed for underlying Layer 1 and Layer 2 design chain solution Nervos also support payment channels and technology solutions such as side chain.

As an effective implementation of capacity expansion, there are not many actual use cases of state channel at present. Products based on state channel construction mainly include Celer (who has successfully implemented game development by using state channel technology) and SpankChain, an adult entertainment platform whose life and death are unknown.

Web3Torrent, implemented by open source group State Channels, claims to be a "natural use case for status-channel technology". Why do you say that?

Today's link 3 minute series will answer this question: Why is state channel technology a natural fit for point-to-point file transfer protocol?

Why is the state channel suitable for point-to-point file transfer protocol?

The main reasons behind Torrenting a status channel as a popular peer-to-peer (P2P) method of file sharing are summarized in three main reasons:

Torrent file transfer is essentially a point-to-point structure

File sharing requires high frequency communication

At present, there is no incentive mechanism to promote the key role of the system

Specifically, the point-to-point file transfer network is based on the point-to-point structure. The network consists of two main roles, namely the provider and the requester of the file data block. Such a network architecture is a natural fit for the same point-to-point state channel technology on which micropayments can be extended.

Second, file sharing requires high-frequency communication. When users share a file fragment with each other, there is constant communication. A number of p2p transfer protocols exist for various Torrent clients, including uTorrent, BitTorrent, and so on.

Thirdly, there is no financial incentive for p2p file transfer network, which sometimes leads to the lack of incentive for nodes to upload files for planting. Especially for those obscure files, few people own files in the first place. Without financial incentive, it is difficult to find the seed producers.

The state channel is an Ethereum two-tier expansion technology that enables truth-free, real-time, and fee-free transactions between fixed user groups.

So far, the use of existing tools to build based on pay channel to achieve a simple application is possible, such as in Rock - Paper - Scissors, each state transition corresponds to the user a single click, click on the operation of the weapons, for example), it shows the state of the channel potential use cases, the user without waiting for chain trade just point-to-point status updates.

It would be an interesting practice to introduce a cryptocurrency-based micropayment incentive layer for the point-to-point file transfer protocol, which would not only improve the quality of the point-to-point network, but also improve the degree of network decentralization. Imagine, when a user by paying the etheric fang download files at the same time, but also by keeping the client continues to run, will be paid before to earn back the cost of, and may even more than before, which allow others by paying for their own download file, as a result, it is easy to produce the network effect.

End-to-end file transfer technology

The Torrent network is specifically designed to solve the peer-to-peer file-sharing problem and allows users to download Torrent files (.torrent) from a variety of websites, including movies, games, applications, and other media.

There are two important roles in the Torrent network: Seeders and Leechers. The seed producer provides the entire file for download, and the downloader looks for a Piece of the file in a peer-to-peer network. Seed producers use webcasts to tell them that they have the entire file available for download by other nodes, and the downloaders constantly search the network for all other nodes (either seed producers or downloaders) that have the file to download.

The file is split into several pieces (called fragments) and exchanged between the nodes

When a downloader is downloading a fragment of a file, it is possible to also upload the newly downloaded fragment for other nodes that need it. As shown in the figure below, if two users have different fragments of the same file, they can upload and download at the same time.

As more and more users join file-sharing networks, they will start getting files from each other.

How to integrate micropayments?

The state channel solution applies to point-to-point file sharing protocols, which makes it very easy to design applications based on state channels. Since the nodes themselves are communicating at high speed, during this process, the nodes encode file data and send it to each other. To add an incentive layer, status updates can be encoded to enable simultaneous transmission of a small amount of cryptocurrency during communication, i.e., simultaneous micropayments.

The downloader sends a small amount of ETH as payment for each piece of content downloaded from a node

This involves extending the Torrent file-sharing functionality, communicating with each other to confirm who has opened whose channel, and then attaching the cryptocurrency to each piece of content and sending it to the other, including a signed status channel update that constitutes an encrypted payment.

The Web3Torrent client is created based on WebTorrent, WebTorrent is created by NBSP; Feross Aboukhadije was the developer of The Standard and Funding library and also developed the next generation PeerCDN backed by WebRTC before being acquired by Yahoo. Developed a Torrent repository on the Web side that allows BitTorrent protocol execution through WebRTC, making web browsers nodes in a peer-to-peer sharing network. WebTorrent provides a convenient API implementation that extends the protocol in the above manner, extending the protocol to support micropayments for Shared files in batches.

Therefore, in general, the point-to-point file transfer between the seed producer and the downloader that occurs after the state channel is integrated would have the following steps:

The intention of a seed producer to broadcast a document that produces a seed and is willing to receive income from it

Downloaders interested in this file will establish a WebRTC connection with the seed producer

The downloader requests the first data of the file from the seed producer

The seed producer creates a channel for his wallet and prompts the file downloader to join the channel (the payment channel is now open)

The downloader USES a wallet to join the channel and sends a confirmation signature (the payment channel is running)

The downloader sends a status update command to his wallet to send a small amount of ETH to the seed producer

Upon receipt of the payment, the data is sent to the counterparty and a status update is signed

Repeat this process until the downloader file is downloaded. After completion, a series of processes will occur:

The downloader will close the payment channel in the wallet (the payment channel will be closed)

The seed producer responds and closes the channel (the channel is now complete)

In practice, all of the above steps can be completed in a matter of seconds, as shown in the figure below:

Following the completion of Web3Torrent by The open source project State Channels with donations from the Ethereum Foundation and Talsys, the team will develop server wallets and Hub infrastructure software that is currently actively pursuing primary network integration. Web3Torrent is currently running on Goerli's beta. Please invite NBSP;Here,& have spent To try.

Text link:https://blog.statechannels.org

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