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I was watching this video where Milton Friedman (the late libertarian economist) supposedly predicted Bitcoin (he gets pretty close). The crux of his talk was based on the Internet, and the freedom it was potentially affording to everyone with access the ability to freely speak and trade.

But, as we look at the Internet landscape today, centralization has become the norm. From social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, to online storefronts, like Amazon and Shopify, large companies with control over information and access are almost ubiquitous. And, unfortunately, we have seen these large companies target and censor others without much cause.

This issue of centralization is pretty big, and one that blockchain purportedly can help solve. But today I want to take a look at an older tech that was invented early on as the Internet became more widely used, which actually solved the centralization problem pretty handily. So handily, that it's still relevant and used today.

That tech is called BitTorrent.

The Internet Today

Despite its evolution, the Internet today basically runs on the same client/server concept since its inception. It's a simple idea: creators or companies host content (i.e. websites, music, videos, etc.) on a server or set of server computers, while those who want to access the content download or stream that content to their 'client' computers.

There are lots of advantages for this approach. Most importantly, this gives the client more flexibility and freedom, while shouldering the burden of speed and storage mainly on the hosts. In other words, if I want to have a social media profile, I don't need to create, design, and then host that profile on my own computer, and then allow access for the public to that profile from the Internet. Instead, I allow a company (e.g. Facebook) to design a website, platform, and template on which I can put information that I want, and let that company share it to the world for me. After I put the information in, I don't need to really worry about anything else.

The client server model works for nearly everything we use the Internet for today. But even though our uses haven't changed much, there are still disadvantage to it.

If the servers shut down, then no one can access content hosted on it. Server companies are also responsible for making sure a multitude of clients can access hosted content speedily. And most importantly, because the server owners host all the content, they are able to curate what they do and don't want on their platform.

But once upon a time, there was a model invented that solved these disadvantages quite nicely.

What is BitTorrent?

BitTorrent, sometimes simply called torrents or torrent, is a decentralized peer-to-peer protocol that has actually existed for a long time. It gained infamy in 1999 through Napster, a client-side software that allowed people to share music with each other before broadband and wireless Internet really took off. And because of these piracy-related issues, it was dragged in the mud, and subsequently became a less preferred solution.

So how does it work?

Rather than relying on a single server (or set of servers) to deliver or stream content to clients, people who connect to torrent-enabled browsers or apps 'swarm' together to help transfer data to each other. Basically, when a file is uploaded by one, and then three others are downloading from that one, each of them download a small piece of the file, and then send those pieces to the others to complete the others' downloads.

By doing this, all who participate in this swarm are uploading the data at the same time they are downloading. Because each person contributes some bandwidth for uploading, as long as multiple people are in the same swarm, the speed of download never really slows down.

And by doing so, it solves every single problem mentioned above with centralized server/client systems.

There are weaknesses to this system, of course. Since it relies on a group of peers to maintain a torrent file, if there is no one uploading that file, then it no longer exists for anyone to access. If there are only a few people in the swarm, then the speed for download won't be as fast. And because there is no real way to censor anything that is being uploaded, piracy and all sorts of other problems arise with using the technology.

This knack for issues like piracy has always been the Achilles heel for the technology.

What Would a BitTorrent-Powered Web Look Like?

The good news is that this tech is already being used in a variety of ways. Even now, WebTorrent, a javascript torrent client that works inside a web browser, is becoming more and more popular. It is natively supported in Brave, and approved to work in Apple's Safari.

And so, from game companies like Blizzard, which uses torrent tech to update its games, to entire websites like BitChute and Dtube, which rely on WebTorrent, there are many places on the web that function primarily using BitTorrent's peer-to-peer protocols. There's even BitTorrent Now, an ad-supported streaming service created by the people behind BitTorrent.

All of these still rely on a centralized service which gives people access to this content through something like a website or an application. But could a fully decentralized web exist with torrent technology behind it?

Here's some speculation:

I think it would require a remaking of the web, in many ways. For example, right now, Amazon is a single company which actually controls a lot of content. From Netflix to even Facebook until recently, their AWS service provided the server space for a lot of other web service providers. And of course, Amazon has a massive storefront with which many online and local businesses sell their products.

But if BitTorrent protocols were used, then instead there would need to be companies which curate the vast amount of information and content being uploaded. This content could never be erased or censored completely, since the providers can't just simply take it off the Internet. Instead, there would be second layer on top of the content made of a plethora of companies that act almost like different channels on broadcast television. These channels would curate all the videos for their audience.

Why wouldn't these channels censor their content?

Actually, they would. But other channels would not. And that is the point. Because all human systems are made by or run by humans, it's almost inevitable that some form of censuring will happen, no matter what. But relying on the BitTorrent protocol allows all content to always exist in some accessible form. If there is too much or even too little censoring from a certain platform, those channels will be abandoned for others which do more of what a demographic or audience wants.

This would be the perfect way to break up the monopolies of Internet giants, which rely on audiences using their centralized services. And it doesn't require any governmental or political authorities to step in (which almost always ends up in disaster). All it requires is people who use the Internet to gradually shift away from these services and set up new companies online that offer specific audiences what they want, while relying on better technology (which already exists) built on top of BitTorrent.

Header Image credit to Wikimedia Commons.