Back to Articles
What is BitTorrent Token (BTT)?
Created by Bram Cohen in 2001, a peer-to-peer, BitTorrent is a P2P protocol for transferring large files over the Internet. Among file types, video games, TV shows, films, programs, documents and much more are transferable.
BitTorrent Token (BTT) is the token of the largest torrent tracker in the world. The startup’s ICO ended within 15 minutes, during which USD $7 million was raised. In this article, we will tell you a little about what kind of project it is, the reason for its success and how it is likely to develop further.
BitTorrent Token Price
BitTorrent – Bitcoin Chart (BTT/BTC)
What is BitTorrent?
Created by Bram Cohen in 2001, a peer-to-peer, BitTorrent is a P2P protocol for transferring large files over the Internet. Among file types, video games, TV shows, films, programs, documents and much more are transferable. The project client is called μTorrent or Torrent Classic. μTorrent is used by more than 150 million users worldwide (170 million at its peak).
What is Project Atlas?
During the summer of 2018, the Tron Foundation blockchain startup acquired BitTorrent for $140 million. According to Justin Sun, the Tron Foundation founder, this purchase was the first phase of their initiative called Project Atlas. As part of this initiative, the company intends to:
- Introduce a mechanism for encouraging users of the torrent tracker to stay in the BitTorrent system for as long as possible in order to increase the speed of downloading/uploading files. Service is being tested: BitTorrent Speed function in μTorrent client.
- Create a paid file storage service. For this purpose, permanent storage devices of user memory (HDD, SSD) will be used. As with file distribution, storage will occur using peer-to-peer protocols. The function is being tested, and the name of this system is BitTorrent File System (BTFS).
- Create a service for buying/selling content through a torrent tracker. It’s about standard purchases (movie purchase, renting, downloading), and subscription and pay-per-view streaming content. It was partially implemented in the BitTorrent Now application and the DLive TV streaming service.
What is a BTT token?
A cryptocurrency created to stimulate participants in the system to take useful actions and service transactions of a torrent tracker. The BTT coin is launched based on the TRC-10 cryptographic token on top of the Tron blockchain (like the ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain network).
TRON (TRX) is a blockchain system for sharing content. Content can range from ordinary files (films, programs) to items such as online games (swords, pets, in-game currency). A feature of TRON is that its blockchain allows you to exchange values instantly and with a meager commission, so even transactions with 10 cents will be profitable.
How does BitTorrent Token work?
Estimated increase in download / upload speed via BitTorrent Speed. Source
When you watch a video on YouTube, download a document from Google Drive, or download a web page (such as this one), your smartphone or computer connects to the webserver and downloads data directly from it. In this case, the connection speed is limited by the bandwidth of the server’s channel (channel capacity/by the number of devices connected for downloading content).
When using the BitTorrent protocol, the file is divided into tiny pieces, and each user downloads one such piece and then distributes it to other users. The exchange of file parts occurs in parallel between all users of the system without the server’s participation. In this case, the speed depends on the number of users who download/share the file. The more participants there are, and more extensive the channels they have, the higher the download speed for each participant.
The scheme of the system server-user (left) and user-user (right).
What does increase speed?
The main problem of the BitTorrent protocol is that after downloading the desired file, most users disconnect from the system (only 14% remain). This reduces speed and makes it unstable. Such problems do not exist on systems with servers.
To solve the problem, a ‘BitTorrent Speed’ promotion mechanism was invented:
- Users who want to prevent members of the system from disconnecting from their distribution can reward BTTs with coins. For example, you can allocate 10 million BTT for your file delivery. They will be distributed among everyone who shares the file, in proportion to their outgoing traffic on this file to the total outgoing traffic on this file.
- Users can earn a BitTorrent token by participating in other people’s distributions. In principle, this can be called BTT mining, not only due to the video card or processor but due to the HDD, SSD, and the Internet channel bandwidth.
How to use BitTorrent Speed?
First, you need to download and install the μTorrent client from the platform website. The client is small (5 MB); the installation does not require registration. Next, you need to start μTorrent and click on “BitTorrent Speed.”
A browser opens the personal BitTorrent Speed web page for your client torrent tracker. Here you need to navigate to the Wallet section.
In a new window, an option to create a new Tron cryptocurrency wallet or link an existing Tron wallet to your account will be presented.
To create a wallet, you first need to create a password.
Then, you need to create a seed phrase of 12 randomly selected words. Make sure that you make a note of this and store it somewhere safe. A seed phrase is required in order to regain access to the wallet.
Next, your recorded seed phrase will be verified, and, if everything is fine, the wallet will be created.
There are two types of balances in the wallet: In-app Balance – tokens inside the application that can be used to increase the download/distribution speed, BTT Balance – coins that are not tied to the app, which can be used as you like. On the In-app Balance, immediately after creating the wallet, you will be credited with a small number of coins for free to use the application.
The wallet balance can be replenished using the public wallet address. You can also withdraw coins by clicking on the In-app Balance.
After creating the wallet, the torrent tracker can be used as usual. The system will distribute and charge tokens. You can track statistics in the Dashboard section.
How much can you earn by distributing files?
It depends on how many people download the file you are sharing, and how many of them use BitTorrent Speed (and whether there are tokens on their wallets). As of July 2020, there are very few users (and almost all of them are located in the English-speaking countries), so there is no way to make a lot of money. Of course, over time, the return will increase, but even then, it will be relatively little money – ranging between just USD $1-10 a month.
Just as only data centers and cryptocurrency farms can now earn a lot on mining, only large players are likely to make money with BitTorrent Speed. For example, online storage or hosting companies, using the free capacity to distribute files via torrent.
Nevertheless, even if ordinary users earn only USD $10 per month, the function should be activated, since this is passive earnings, which only requires registering a wallet. Besides, using BitTorrent Speed, you can increase the speed of downloading files (in exchange for BTT), which is also good.
BitTorrent Token Outlook (BTT)
BitTorrent Token Charts. Source
As for the torrent tracker, the service is already among the market leaders, and they’re pretty good at keeping an audience captive. If we talk about the project cryptocurrency component, then it is at an early stage of development: informing potential users and involving them in the project’s ecosystem, integration with third-party services.
The project team does a poor job in terms of communication and informing others: only a small number of regular μTorrent users know about the BTT token, the promotion mechanism, and the possibility of increasing download speeds. Improving the situation requires aggressive marketing and periodically informing users about new opportunities inside the μTorrent application using pop-up messages or changing the application’s design.
As for the integrations with third-party services, there have been only several significant partnerships. For one — with the DLive streaming service, which occurred in February 2020. In November 2020, the public became aware that Huawei has entered into a partnership with TRON and listed 4 μTorrent applications: BitTorrent, BitTorrent Pro, uTorrent, and uTorrent Pro. Chinese communications leader Huawei has over 3 billion users in 170 countries.
BTT coin rate forecast
2021 turned out to be successful for the project. On April 5, 2021, BTT renewed its price record — the exchange rate reached $0.014. The reason behind the price growth is the upcoming product updates. For example, the company will increase the decentralization of the BitTorrent file system. As of April 2021, BTT is traded in the $0.007-0.009 range. The coin is ranked 23rd with a market capitalization of $ 6billion.
According to CoinPedia estimates, the value of BitTorrent (BTT) cryptocurrency may reach $1 by the end of 2021.
Buying/selling BTT coins
You can easily buy and sell BTT tokens on the EXMO exchange in the BTT/BTC pair. You can also buy BTT coins on the Tron payment system’s website and through crypto-wallets that support this token. The procedure is no different from buying other coins. Tokens cannot be purchased inside the BitTorrent application. The BTT coin sale and transfer algorithms are also not separate in relation to selling and exchanging different currencies.
Conclusion
According to analysts, BitTorrent (BTT) is a promising project. Its price could reach $7 over the next 5 years. This is due to the fact that μTorrent has 100 million active users and it will be convenient for them to use the new options of the system. In addition, the BitTorrent team is improving the functionality of the product, which could also drive up the price of BTT.