BitTorrent was a topic for discussion in 2019. When Justin Sun bought the company for $140 million in 2018, it was obvious that the project aimed to enter the crypto industry.
In 2019, the BitTorrent token running on TRON was created. The token is used to service transactions on the BitTorrent network. In today’s article, we will describe the project and share what the future holds for it.
BitTorrent and Torrenting
Launched in 2001, BitTorrent protocol is a common peer-to-peer file sharing service that accounts for 3.35% of all daily Internet traffic in 2021.
The main idea of BitTorrent is file-sharing or torrenting. Users connect and download files from each other instead of using a single site. A torrent file is not the file itself. It just carries the information about the file and directs the user to other users and their computers worldwide. Torrenting is known as an easy way to share videos, music files, games, etc., through the internet.
BitTorrent Token
BTT token is a TRC-10 token used within the BitTorrent (BT) platform by users who sell their services for the tokens. The total emission is 990 billion, and some part of them is used to provide liquidity, while the rest is distributed the following way:
- 20% — the TRON Foundation
- 19% — the BT team
- 19.9% — the BT ecosystem
- 10% — BT airdrop
- 10.1% — TRON airdrop
- 9% — seed investors
- 6% — public sale
- 4% — partnerships
- 2% — private sale
It is considered to be a liquid coin, so users can easily perform a BTT to BTC exchange. The most convenient way to do this is the Godex decentralized exchange. To use this platform, you don’t need to register and share your data. To exchange cryptocurrencies, it is enough to use the handy converter on the main page of the website.
BitTorrent Speed
Speed is an μTorrent feature that allows users to get BTT by seeding files. Then, users can spend the tokens to streamline download speed by getting prioritized access to other seeds — or exchange them for other coins (if you want to exchange them for Bitcoin, check out this list of Best Bitcoin iPhone wallets you can use.)
To activate the feature, you need to download the latest version of uTorrent, click BitTorrent Speed on top of the navigation bar on the left part of the screen, and create a Wallet. Don’t forget to backup both your password and private key after registration — ideally, you should store it on paper or USB.
The company gives you 10 BTT as a starting bonus — but to start earning more, you’ll have to seed the files you’ve downloaded. The amount of BTT you’re going to receive depends on how many people will be downloading them and how strong your network connection is.
To withdraw BTT and exchange them to BTC or other cryptocurrencies, you need to have a Tronlink account from the TRON ecosystem. Download their Chrome extension, connect to your BitTorrent Wallet through a private key — you’ll see a dashboard you’ll need to use to manage your BTT.
Then, go on exchange platforms — Binance, Godex, or other platforms — enter your public wallet address (from BitTorrent Speed dashboard, not from Tronlink) and conduct the transaction. The info about transactions will not show in your BitTorrent Speed dashboard — but it’ll be visible in Tronlink (that’s basically why you need it). Note, that the system allows withdrawals of 1000 BTT and more.
It’s all a bit confusing for now — but TRON collaborates with more and more exchange platforms, so they’ll hopefully optimize the process for the sake of convenience soon.
A Work in Progress
Although μTorrent is a market leader, BTT cryptocurrency is still in the early development stages. Only a small percentage of regular BitTorrent users are aware of the existence of the BTT token. Moreover, even fewer people understand the principle of the reward mechanism and how to increase the distribution speed. Experts believe that the team should work on their marketing program and regularly inform users within μTorrent.
The project team aims to make new partnerships, but for now, there are still few of them. One is the cooperation with the streaming service DLive they’ve established in February 2020. Last year, TRON also entered into a partnership with Huawei, making the applications from the ecosystem available for the Chinese telecommunications giant.
Conclusion
BTT is a relatively young coin known to a small number of people. But the idea of this project is very promising: it can boost download speed, which is the main problem of torrents. The team should carry out a more active promotional campaign and continue working on the technical part. These combined actions will guarantee a bright future for the project. Justin Sun may have some ideas on how to develop BTT further, actually, ‘cause TRON already owns TRON (TRX) crypto that’s performing well right now and is focused — you guessed it — on content sharing and providing scalable blockchains for DApps development.
