When was p2p invented

March 11, Overview Issues Contributors Activity. Popular Peer-to-Peer Systems. Further reading. Documentaries, videos and podcasts. Most of the Internet is based on a client-server model. A website is hosted on a powerful server somewhere in the world best web hosting service , and provides information when your computer or phone requires it.

The server will send the file to you. When the user next requests, the process will repeat. This is suitable for the operation of websites, but not very suitable for distributing large files. Mostly due to speed, bandwidth, cost and legality issues. It is better to only transfer a small amount of text to display a web page and some web servers are optimized to serve only images. But for larger files, it will require a much faster speed in the long run and having to share the server with other users.

Bandwidth is also quite expensive. Only serving images for a website costs thousands of dollars a year. From a legal standpoint, locating a simple server is relatively easy: Turn off the server and then prosecute the owner. Therefore, P2P was born as a salvage measure. Those who want to distribute copyrighted files need a better way to do this. Peer-to-peer is a completely different model in which each person becomes a server.

There is no central server; All network users act as their own servers. Instead of simply taking files, peer-to-peer turns this process into a 'two-way'.

You can now respond to other users. In fact, this response now called "seeding" plays an important role in the success of peer-to-peer networks. If everyone just downloaded and didn't respond to anything called "leeching" , then this would be no benefit compared to the server-client model.

In the server-client model, performance drops if there are multiple users, because bandwidth will be shared for more users. In peer networks, the more users there are, the more efficient the network is. The more users create a specific file available from their hard drive, the easier it is for users to receive the file. In modern P2P networks, the speed will be really faster when many users download files.

Instead of taking all the files from one user, you're taking smaller parts from hundreds or thousands of other people. Even if they only have a bit of free bandwidth for you, combining multiple connections means you will get the fastest speed possible. Then it's your turn to contribute to distributing the files again. In previous forms of P2P networks, a central server is needed to organize the network, acting as a database containing information about the users and files that are connected to the system.

Ether is another popular P2P sharing platform based on blockchain technology. It is somewhat similar to Bitcoin; Ethereum is the name of the cryptocurrency used on Ether network.

Ether was launched in as an open-source platform. You can use it to anonymously make transactions and share data with other users. Similar to some other advanced Blockchain networks, Ether uses Smart Contracts. These are protocols designed to facilitate the execution of transactions by cutting out the middle man.

He envisioned the internet as a place where all users would and should be active content contributors and editors. Nowadays, thanks to advanced technology, P2P networks can offer much more than content and context-based file searches.

Some of the top reasons for using and improving P2P platforms today include:. The BitTorrent protocol remains popular even as almost two decades have passed since its introduction. It faced many adversities throughout the years in the form of more modern and advanced P2P platforms, poor business decisions on the part of its creator and his associates, and countless legal problems, even with the US government. Most importantly, the values of sharing and cooperation among BitTorrent users kept the flame burning through the dark times.

P2P is starting to gain traction in the outside world. More and more people are adopting and incorporating the rules and ideas that govern P2P file-sharing technologies into their lives. This is especially true of self-organizing communities that sprung up in recent years.