WebTorrent is a peer-to-peer streaming torrent client written in JavaScript.
For a long time, the use of Torrents was quite popular until the arrival of direct downloads and later other solutions that arose in response to the demand to share information. In addition, part of the popularity of torrents was due to the fact that too much piracy was shared through this medium.
After that and to this day, torrents have not stopped being used, although to a lesser extent, they still have a large number of users who prefer this medium to be able to share and obtain files, from Linux distributions, books, information, images, among others.
The different torrent clients that exist offer various features, although one that has always been in high demand is the ability to use a web browser as a client , thus making many things easier.
In response to this, WebTorrent was created. Written entirely in JavaScript, it uses WebRTC for peer-to-peer transfer. No browser plugins, extensions, or installation are required . Using open web standards, WebTorrent connects website users to form a distributed and decentralized network. Unlike PeerCDN, WebTorrent is free software.
The WebTorrent protocol works exactly like the BitTorrent protocol, except it uses WebRTC instead of TCP/UTP as its transport protocol. Browser-to-browser communication eliminates intermediaries and allows users to communicate on their own terms. No more client/server, just a peer-to-peer network, all equal. “WebTorrent is the first step in a process of recentralizing the web,” writes WebTorrent.
To support the WebRTC connection model, the WebTorrent team made some changes to the tracking protocol. Therefore, a browser-based WebTorrent client or "web peer" can only connect to other clients that support WebTorrent/WebRTC.
Once the peers are connected, the wired protocol used to communicate is exactly the same as in regular BitTorrent. This should make it easy to add WebTorrent support to existing popular torrent clients like Transmission and uTorrent.
“The way we code the web will determine how we live online. So we need to integrate our values into our code. Freedom of expression must be built into our code. Privacy must be built into our code. Universal access to all knowledge. But right now those values aren't embedded on the web,” says Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive.
One of the most interesting uses of WebTorrent is peer-assisted streaming . Nonprofit projects like Wikipedia and the Internet Archive could reduce bandwidth and hosting costs by allowing visitors to participate. Popular content is streamed from browser to browser. Less frequently accessed content is reliably served over HTTP from the origin server.
There are also some interesting commercial use cases, from CDN to application delivery.
“WebTorrent has significant commercial potential to radically change the traditional notion of client-server, with applications for internal infrastructure and closed communications from external users. WebTorrent has gone from being an idea to a scientific experiment and is now on the brink of becoming viable. It's really cool,” says Chris Kranky.
It should be noted that in the browser, WebTorrent can only download torrents served by a WebRTC-compliant torrent client. Below are the WebRTC compatible torrent clients:
- WebTorrent Desktop - Open source torrent streaming client. For Mac, Windows and Linux;
- Vuze: powerful and complete torrent client;
- Playback: Open source JavaScript video player;
- [* ]webtorrent-hybrid: Node.js package (command line and API);
- Instant.io: Simple WebTorrent client on a website;
- βTorrent – Client: Full WebTorrent for browser;
- TorrentMedia : Bureau's WebTorrent Client.
Finally, if you are interested in learning more, you can find the details at the following link.
Get WebTorrent
For those interested in getting WebTorrent, you should know that in node.js, webtorrent-hybrid can download torrents from WebRTC peers or TCP peers. To install webtorrent-hybrid, just run the following command in a terminal.
npm install webtorrent-hybrid –g