A (mostly) decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing protocol
- “(mostly)” because of trackers, although these aren’t necessary (see Magnet Links)
Vocabulary
- Swarm: The computers involved in uploading/downloading a particular file
- Peer: One of the computers in the swarm
- Seeders: Peers that have the entire file but are good enough to stick around and continue uploading
- Choking: See BitTorrent Resource Allocation
- Torrent file/Metainfo file: See Torrent Files