It seems that nowadays new trends are constantly emerging, taking the world by storm, and developers and entrepreneurs are trying to get the maximum benefit from this. But there is a “bulwark” in this world that has existed for many years — peer-to-peer connections.
The emergence of peer-to-peer networks has attracted the attention of both ordinary internet users and computer technology professionals. Currently, more than half of internet traffic belongs to peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.
Peer-to-peer connections are becoming more common. But how did we come to this, and what are the prospects for the future of P2P?
What is peer-to-peer?
Peer-to-peer networks have many alternative names. Besides peer-to-peer, these are decentralized or P2P. Their main feature is the distributed architecture of the application. The solution of each task is divided into each active node (peer) — a device controlled by people or automated systems.
For a more visual representation of what P2P is, imagine a local network of computers. If you have ever worked in such a network or were part of it, then you know that computers are connected by cable to each other and can transmit some information to each other. P2P works similarly, only computers are not located in the same locale but can be at a distance from each other.
This format of network organization minimizes its vulnerability and provides stable security. There is no possibility of overlapping individual channels since all nodes are separate servers and clients at the same time. Interconnected “jumpers” are formed between them, allowing the system to fully function even when up to 96.34% of nodes are turned off.
Today, the world of P2P connections has already changed traditional industries and destroyed classic business models. One has only to look at Airbnb and Lyft to see how P2P connections have affected the hotel and taxi business in different aspects.
The ideas behind these companies and the services they provide are related to P2P, and therefore it is safe to say that the future of this technology will affect this business as well.
Let's look at why P2P attracts so much attention, how this technology has developed and where it is going.
Early P2P projects
There are many early P2P projects, including ARPANET and USENET, in the 1960s and 1970s. But the most famous example of using a P2P service was probably the Napster network.
Today, this company resembles Spotify or Google Play Music. This is a subscription-based streaming music service. But at first it was a network whose members could share audio files with each other using P2P connections.
Users could interact with an extensive network of peers and have access to other people's MP3 files, as well as share their own. This file-sharing platform both took off quickly and collapsed quickly. But users appreciated the effectiveness of P2P connections, and the demise of Napster did not affect their desire to use such services in the future.
Correcting the shortcomings of Napster, BitTorrent, a protocol created by Bram Cohen, appeared in 2001. The new protocol allowed peers (clients) of the P2P network to connect to each other directly, without using a central indexing server. In addition, users could now download files from a distributed network of peers with the necessary information.
Instead of downloading a large file from one source, BitTorrent made it possible to connect to other peers and download small fragments of this file from each. The result was not only a decentralized system that facilitated P2P interactions. The load on the distributor was significantly reduced (compared to downloading an entire file by each feast, but from a single source).
Technical features of peer-to-peer
During that time, while the creators were experimenting with peer-to-peer technology, its main advantages and advantages became clear.
Peer-to-peer networks are characterized by a uniform division of workload or specific tasks between elements endowed with identical privileges.
Each such node can give the network participants a part of its potential, which consists of the components:
- computing power
- network bandwidth
- disk storage capacity
This completely eliminates the need for coordination from a central node, for example, the main server or stable hosts. It turns out, an important difference from the classic “client-server” prototype.
In decentralized networks, each node performs two functions — both the client and the server. At the same time, resources are supplied to the network by one device, and are also accepted for consumption. That is, a model is being formed:
- The node sends a request to get the required resources and uses them.
- The node responds to someone's request and offers its resources.
There are hybrid forms of peer-to-peer networks, where the presence of individual servers creates partially decentralized systems. These are intermediate, coordinating links mainly for the current accounting of active nodes, into which tasks can be distributed.
Now there are more combined peer-to-peer networks using, in addition to the equal status of participants, also unique ones. These nodes have exceptional capabilities that benefit the entire community of this system.
This architecture allows you to solve complicated tasks with the redistribution of loads and goals.
But what is the future of peer-to-peer technologies?
Blockchain and the future of P2P
Blockchain technology, which has entered the scene, has led to a completely new technological shift that has completely fit into the P2P movement.
The rise in popularity of this technology was associated with the advent of Bitcoin in 2009. Blockchain has absorbed everything learned in previous iterations of P2P, and improved it. Bitcoin has captured the most important part of the market — money — and introduced this part into the world of P2P, creating a peer-to-peer system of electronic money. No Federal Reserve, no monetary policy, no central authority: a completely peer-to-peer network for storing and transmitting value.
Bitcoin is just one of the manifestations of the blockchain movement. There are already many other projects based on this technology. Their nature is similar to Bitcoin, but they implement blockchain technology in a completely new way in the so-called “sharing economy.”
With the development of blockchain technology, services that are part of the shared participation economy can acquire a decentralized structure. And if we focus on development within the framework of sharing economy and P2P networks, then the future of P2P is connected with blockchain.
As P2P evolves, there are likely to be more and more related technologies that allow customers to communicate with each other.
Nowadays, when the economy of shared participation is unfolding at full capacity, and innovators are constantly busy improving distributed networks, blockchain can be the key to the large-scale integration of P2P.
The most promising P2P project?
Utopia P2P is considered one of the most promising and promising P2P projects. This is a decentralized ecosystem of a new generation, which is already ready to provide all the advantages of Web 3.0. Utopia P2P is a private platform for communication, data transfer, anonymous browsing, and much more.
The Utopia P2P ecosystem was created by the 1984 Group team. These are hidden IT enthusiasts who have been creating the most secure and closed network for several years with their own money. The nickname of the group is the name of George Orwell's novel "1984", because the name of the ecosystem correlates with the events of the novel — a real utopia of reality.
Utopia is a decentralized anonymous ecosystem of the third generation, which has comprehensive protection of user data. Firstly, the ecosystem is anonymous, so the user does not need to enter personal data to register. Secondly, all data is encrypted with multi-level encryption. Thirdly, the ecosystem is built on peer-to-peer technology, that is, without using a single server to store user data — they are stored in encrypted containers.
The fact that there is no single server in the ecosystem where all user data would be stored sets it apart from others. Any server is a real threat to the security of not only individual users, but also the entire ecosystem as a whole. In addition, the server is always belonging to some person or group of people, which means an additional opportunity to put pressure on these people and find out any information stored on the servers. Therefore, the ecosystem creates individual crypto containers for data storage.
To start using all the features of the ecosystem, the user needs to register. However, unlike other services, registration in Utopia P2P is completely anonymous. Therefore, the user does not need to enter personal data. No phone numbers, addresses, or anything else. All you need is to come up with a nickname and password. After that, the ecosystem generates a unique and individual key that opens access to data and tools.
Ecosystem security is based on several components: decentralization, peer-to-peer technology, multi-level encryption, and blockchain architecture. This combination of methods provides not only reliable protection against hacking and leaks, but also data storage security.
Moreover, it is impossible to influence developers to bypass encryption and disclose any data, since apart from the name of the group of IT creators, nothing is known about them.
You can evaluate all the advantages of peer-to-peer technology right now. You just need to download the ecosystem here and enjoy anonymity and the future that has already come.