The History and Evolution of BitTorrent

Everything starts somewhere; from humble beginnings to worldwide use. From an underground practice to something that everyone does. From nothing, to success; and that’s what happened with BitTorrent. Whilst much of the evolution of BitTorrent can be put down to a wider use of the Internet, there’s no denying that there has been a distinct evolution of BitTorrent over the last few years, and it’s this history and evolution we’ll be talking about today.

What is BitTorrent?

Almost everyone is familiar with the concept of BitTorrent in one form or another, and at its heart, it remains the same as it has always been – sharing files with other Internet users, over the Internet. a BitTorrent client is anything that make use of the BitTorrent protocol. This renders the computer capable of preparing, requesting and transmitting a file over the Internet network. This service started out as file sharing, and has evolved to include website updates and many other things.

File sharing used to consist primarily of sharing one or two files at a time, through websites such as Limewire, Bearshare and the like. However, file sharing in this day and age consists of sharing massive amounts of files at a time, and accounts for well over half the use of bandwidth as of 2015.

The History and Evolution of BitTorrent

We touched on this just briefly before, but the most prominent evolution of BitTorrent has been the use of the service for sharing files over the Internet, but this isn’t the only difference.

There is a prominent misconception that all BitTorrent file sharing is illegal, but this isn’t the case. Although some file sharing websites have had some problems with copyright infringement, and indeed many of these websites have been shut down or experienced a drop in traffic due to the emergence of convenient, affordable streaming plans and Internet Service Provider restrictions, many instances of file sharing are, in fact, legal. This is the case more so in 2015 than ever before, with many companies and individuals recognising the benefit of file sharing over the Internet.

Over the years, the sheer amount of BitTorrent file sharing that has occurred has increased exponentially; from accounting for 35% of all Internet traffic in 2004, to between 43%-70% depending on region today. Of course, this is only set to increase.

From File Sharing to Updates

BitTorrent sharing has evolved hugely from its origins in file sharing; now the process is used by some of the biggest companies in the world, including Facebook, Twitter and Blizzard Games, to roll out updates when the time comes around. This just goes to show how a service can evolve from one thing, to something entirely different in just a few short years.

Now There’s Offcloud

BitTorrent and file sharing is integral to what we do here at Offcloud. As a cloud based file sharing service allowing you to connect to and retrieve content from the web, we understand how BitTorrent works, and offer it to you in the most convenient way possible.

To find out more about Offcloud and how we can benefit you, just head over to our website and create a free account.