BitTorrent to be Pimped by Nobel Prize Winning Theory
Written by Ernesto on October 19, 2007P2P researchers are working with the Harvard mechanism design group on implementing the “Nobel prize winning” mechanism design theory into their BitTorrent client. The ultimate goal is to keep people sharing as much as possible without imposing share ratio sanctions.
Last week the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Hurwicz, Maskin and Myerson for laying the foundations of the mechanism design theory. Interestingly, a practical implementation of this theory being worked on by P2P researchers. They believe that the principles from the mechanism design theory can be used to motivate people to share.
TorrentFreak spoke to Dr. Ir. Johan Pouwelse, researcher on P2P technology at Delft University of Technology, who is currently working with the Harvard mechanism design group. He told us: “We use the Nobel prize winning theory as a recipe for improving BitTorrent.”
A lot of people probably wonder how an economical theory can improve the performance of a BitTorrent client, Pouwelse explains: “A structured scientific advancement of P2P file sharing was really lacking. With Mechanism Design we can go beyond the current trial-and-error methodology. We are working on a mechanism design based solution for all 9 elementary actions in P2P by using a distributed reputation system and mechanism that does not degrade to a single shot prisoners dilemma, such as BitTorrent tit-fot-tat”
What Pouwelse is basically saying is that the mechanism design theory will be used to improve download speed and to make sure that content will be available for the long run, even when it’s not really popular. This is especially useful in BitTorrent streaming solutions where the incentive to keep sharing is relatively low.
The Nobel-powered BitTorrent/P2P client supports both regular .torrent downloads, but can also be used to stream videos from YouTube and Liveleak. As we reported earlier, the client also enhances the standard tit-for-tat BitTorrent algorithms with a so called give-to-get algorithm where bandwidth is used as a currency.
It is good to see that - unlike what others claim - p2p innovation is still alive and kicking, even in the land of the free and the home of the RIAA/MPAA.
Previously: After Demonoid, Canadian Music Labels Take on BitTorrent Trackers
Next: Telecoms Outfit Banned From BitTorrent Advertizing
34 Responses
Pages: « 1 [2] Show All
Nobel prize for that crap.
Methinks this will create more problems than it solves. As i understand it, it keeps the rarer torrents alive despite there being no/low no. of seeders. How exactly? The only way to do it would be to spread bits of the torrent across the network of bittorent users, even if the users are not aware of the file. In that case, each torrent being shared by you will also be treated the same. The problem is, and it is a big one: what will happen if the RIAA or other such organizations file suit against you. You are damned even if you are truly unaware of the fact. But the truly horrible fact is that in such a scenario, a mass trojan or virus can propagate instantly across millions of computers and crash the internet. Denial of service anyone, fake torrents by Media Defender anyone…
And another interesting development: http://www.turtle4privacy.org/new/
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting!
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links:
YouTubeRobot.com today announces YouTube Robot 2.0, a tool that enables you to download video from YouTube.com onto your PC, convert it to various formats to watch it when you are on the road on mobile devices like mobile phone, iPod, iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, or Zune.
YouTube Robot allows you to search for videos using keywords or browse video by category, author, channel, language, tags, etc. When you find something noteworthy, you can preview the video right in YouTube Robot and then download it onto the hard disk drive. The speed, at which you will be downloading, is very high: up to 5 times faster than other software when you download a single file and up to 4 times faster when you download multiple files at a time.
Manual download is not the only option with YouTube Robot. You may as well schedule the download and conversion tasks to be executed automatically, even when you are not around. Downloading is followed by conversion to the format of your choice and uploading videos to a mobile device (if needed). For example, you can plug in iPod, select the video, go to bed, and when you wake up next morning, your iPod will be ready to play new YouTube videos.
Product page: 3w.youtuberobot.com
Direct download link: 3w.youtuberobot.com/download/utuberobot.exe
Company web-site: 3w.youtuberobot.com
E-mail: support@youtuberobot.com
3 references to this post
Pages: « 1 [2] Show All
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.