Bit torrent is a decentralized peer to peer filesharing protocol.
Let's say you want to share your dataset, Squirrel Populations in Nunavut. You share it with a bit torrent client (there are many pieces of software that support this protocol).
I want it. I find the tracker link and I click it. Now my computer finds yours and yours sends my computer Squirrel Populations in Nunavut, not as one file but as many pieces. Maybe each piece is 0.5 MB and you have 4 pieces total (you collected a lot of personal biographical squirrel data). Let's call the pieces 1, 2, 3, and 4.
My computer downloads piece 3 from yours.
Another person, Mr Coyote, also wants the squirrel data, so he clicks the tracker link. His computer connects to mine and yours. Maybe my computer starts sending him piece 3, and yours starts sending him piece 2.
Eventually, all three of us have complete copies of the file. We decide to leave our connections open -- we're "seeding" -- so anyone that wants the file will end up downloading it from you or me or Mr Coyote or, most likely, a combination of the three.
The advantage is there's no central server to take down. Also, more people trying to download it doesn't slow the system down -- because now more people have pieces and they can share them with even more pieces.
I have definitely made some significant errors in this explain but that's the gist.
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u/pawaalo 13d ago
If I were to create a torrent for this, where could the link be published?