BitTrusty: A BitCoin incentivized peer-to-peer file sharing system

Abstract

Among the various challenges faced by the P2P file sharing systems like BitTorrent, the most common attack on the basic foundation of such systems is: Free-riding. Generally, free-riders are the users in the file sharing network who avoid contributing any resources but tend to consume the resources unethically from the P2P network whereas white-washers are more specific category of free-riders that voluntarily leave the system in a frequent fashion and appearing again and again with different identities to escape from the penal actions imposed by the network. BitTorrent being a collaborative distributed platform requires techniques for discouraging and punishing such user behavior. In this paper, we propose that “Instead of punishing, we may focus more on rewarding the honest peers”. This approach could be presented as an alternative to other mechanisms of rewarding the peers like tit-for-tat [10], reciprocity based etc., built for the BitTorrent platform. The prime objective of BitTrusty is: providing incentives to the cooperative peers by rewarding in terms of cryptocoins based on blockchain. We have anticipated three ways of achieving the above defined objective. We are further investigating on how to integrate these two technologies of distributed systems viz. P2P file sharing systems and blockchain, and with this new paradigm, interesting research areas can be further developed, both in the field of P2P cryptocurrency networks and also when these networks are combined with other distributed scenarios.