
How the death of BitTorrent helped take the edge off broadband growth - Libertatea
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/11/13/how-the-death-of-bittorrent-helped-make-the-internet-faster/
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patrickk
"Death of Bittorrent"? What a terrible linkbait title.

Somehow, "File-sharing through sites such as BitTorrent has plummeted _in
North America_ " = Bittorrent dead.

Meanwhile in Europe and elsewhere, Bittorrent usage continues to grow[1].

Not to mention the likes of Bittorrent Sync, aka Dropbox like service, synced
using Bittorrent technology[2].

I believe growth in Bittorrent-derived technologies has huge potential,
analogous to how Bitcoin-esque technologies have huge potential[3]. (even
though Bitcoin has many flaws and Bitcoin itself may fail like Napster, it
will spark creativity, based on ideas that Bitcoin brings together - Digital
Signatures, Peer-to-Peer networks, Proof-of-Work meaning no central authority,
and a Distributed Ledger).

[1] [http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-traffic-drops-in-
america-...](http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-traffic-drops-in-america-
grows-in-europe-131111/)

[2] [http://www.bittorrent.com/sync](http://www.bittorrent.com/sync)

[3] [http://startupboy.com/2013/11/07/bitcoin-the-internet-of-
mon...](http://startupboy.com/2013/11/07/bitcoin-the-internet-of-money/)

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rb2k_
> File-sharing through sites such as BitTorrent

Yeah, I don't think the know what BitTorrent is...

> Streaming video tends to take up less bandwidth, since people only download
> as much as they watch rather than downloading the whole thing only to stop
> in the middle.

How large is the percentage of people stopping in the middle? Also: How do the
video bitrates from netflix/hulu compare to the pirated content?

~~~
tedunangst
Rephrase middle as middle of season and it may make more sense. How many
people downloaded every episode of a tv show then decided they didn't like it
after watching only one episode? More generally, you can only stream as much
as there are hours in a day. You can download a lot more.

~~~
patrickk
> You can download a lot more.

Not to mention seedboxes running 24/7 at blazing speeds.

------
aaronharnly
Has per capita BitTorrent use declined, or just its relative share as
streaming services have grown?

~~~
nullymcnull
A good question that neither this crap article, nor the BBC article it links
to on the specific BitTorrent claim, makes any attempt the answer. One would
have to go to the single source of the claims - Sandvine - to figure it out.
The closest the BBC article comes is this:

    
    
      The latest figures suggest that, as well as its share falling,
      there could be less overall BitTorrent traffic on the network.
    

_Could_ be. How helpful!

Obviously an article proclaiming the "death of BitTorrent" in describing a
protocol that continues to represent at least 7% of all traffic is pointless
linkbait. If that's "dead", I wonder how we should characterize marketplaces
(3.95%) and gaming (3.41%)? The web is clearly on its deathbed at a mere 10%,
as well.

The BBC article suggests that BitTorrent's decline may be because "The use of
'dark nets' such as Tor and encrypted digital lockers is growing in
popularity." I think that pretty much tells us all we need to know about how
useful and accurate these articles are.

------
lmm
Streaming may mean less bandwidth than overnight torrenting, but it means more
peak-time bandwidth, and as the article mentions, that's the real killer. I
wonder if we'll see Netflix etc. offering to predownload overnight for people
whose connections can't keep up with primetime streaming.

~~~
glomph
Is this why netflix releases their original series all at once?

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wpietri
Years ago, when the media industry was losing its shit over BitTorrent, half
of the tech industry said, "This is only happening because you idiots are
making your content hard to get to."

Now that they are finally making (some of) their content (somewhat) available
at (more or less) reasonable prices and with a (mostly) convenient interface,
we get "ZOMG BITTORRENT DYING STOP SEND EXCLAMATION POINTS STOP". By which
they mean "BitTorrent traffic has leveled off." Rather than the more
reasonable article, which is "Media conglomerates pull heads part-way from
asses: 'Air a little better', say execs."

Sad. Journalism is necessary to a functioning democracy, so I look forward to
having some again one day.

------
webjunkie
How is something dead when you just compare percentages?

I guess 60% 10 years ago was in absolute numbers tiny compared to 10% of
today.

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Vektorweg
The pirate bay seems to run better than ever. Massive sharing via torrent is
really fast nowadays.

