> On a semi-related note, I don't know if torrents are successful outside of piracy.
Regardless of the cause, they've been successful don't they? :)
I think partially it was because you had to download a separate piece of software -a BitTorrent client- to utilise the network. This is also changing thanks to WebTorrent[0] and IPFS.js[1] which works right in our web browsers without even requiring an add-on! They enable initiatives such as PeerTube[2] -a decentralised video-hosting platform- and distributed (NoSQL) databases such as OrbitDB[3].
Convenience is the key and huge advancements have been made in that direction!
Regardless of the cause, they've been successful don't they? :)
I think partially it was because you had to download a separate piece of software -a BitTorrent client- to utilise the network. This is also changing thanks to WebTorrent[0] and IPFS.js[1] which works right in our web browsers without even requiring an add-on! They enable initiatives such as PeerTube[2] -a decentralised video-hosting platform- and distributed (NoSQL) databases such as OrbitDB[3].
Convenience is the key and huge advancements have been made in that direction!
[0]: https://github.com/webtorrent/webtorrent
[1]: https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs
[2]: https://joinpeertube.org/en/
[3]: https://github.com/orbitdb/orbit-db