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There are now many technologies for P2P file sharing:

  • Usenet
  • Bittorrent
  • IPFS
  • Tenfinger
  • more?

And also several technologies for anonymization:

  • VPNs
  • Tor
  • I2P

AFAICT the most popular option is still Bittorrent with various public and private trackers and indexers. Private trackers seem to be the most effective option that communities have converged on.

I've tried all of the above solutions over the years and while I think something like I2P sounds great in theory, it doesn't seem to actually work well in practice. Because it's not terribly popular, it's hard to know what to expect.

We clearly still haven't found the ideal model that can provide both good performance, discovery, access, availability, and anonymity. But do you think we will actually make progress on these problems? We seem to have stabilized on a local maximum.

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[-] DeadEndLink@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago

Dead drops.

[-] dan@upvote.au 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Usenet is client-server, not P2P.

The issue with "good performance" on P2P systems is that you're reliant on other users' bandwidth, and there's a lot of people in the world that have slow upload speeds. Some users use a seedbox with a fast datacenter-grade 10Gbps or 40Gbps connection, but it's not common.

The obvious approach if you want to download something from people with slow connections is to download parts of the same files from a lot of them in parallel, which is exactly what BitTorrent does. That's good enough for plenty of use cases, which is why BitTorrent has been around for so long. The protocol is designed pretty well for this use case.

It's got plenty of legit use cases too, especially in research (where it's common to have data files that are tens or hundreds of gigabytes and need to be shared with other researchers) and in gaming (where it was common to use BitTorrent to download updates, at least outside of Steam).

[-] MEtrINeS@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago

usenet is p2p: server p2p. The servers share the articles between themselves in a p2p manner

[-] dan@upvote.au 4 points 3 days ago

That's not what P2P means though. With Usenet, the articles are stored on a server, and you download them from the server. P2P always means one peer directly connects to another. The reason P2P systems exist is that they avoid things like takedowns (since you'd need to take down every user instead of a central server), and Usenet doesn't have that advantage.

If Usenet is P2P, then every other system that lets people upload files is P2P, including things like Rapidshare, Google Drive, forums, etc. That wouldn't make sense.

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[-] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 41 points 4 days ago

I try alternatives but keep returning to 'old fashioned' BT + VPN.

[-] django@discuss.tchncs.de 29 points 4 days ago

Bittorrent is peak filesharing technology.

[-] scratchmex@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago

When you share medium sizes Torrents yes. But too many small files or a bit collection and I think something like soul seek or ipfs wins. The problem with bittorrent is that is not file centered

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 19 points 4 days ago

BitTorrent is a good middle ground between decentralization, adoption and user-friendliness. I think the transport layer is pretty solid, and there's no need to stick an anonymity layer at the protocol level, as the preferred method might change over time.

Combined with a VPN to handle the anonymity part, I think it's solid and modular enough.

[-] tatterdemalion@programming.dev 8 points 4 days ago

I agree the transport layer is good and having anonymity in a different layer works. I think my main gripes with it today are:

  1. Anonymity is paid for and trust-based. It'd be awesome if something like I2P started working well enough that anyone could have anonymity for free without needing to trust a company or worry about poor performance.
  2. Private trackers. While I understand the logic behind this form of community (incentivize seeding and make bans meaningful), I think it's possible to solve those problems with a public tracker. I have ideas on how this could work if anyone is interested.
[-] django@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 4 days ago

I guess anything too convenient is bound to be attacked by lawyers.

[-] ekky@sopuli.xyz 4 points 4 days ago

Yeah, of it either becomes too popular or too conventient, then it MUST be destroyed! :(

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 3 days ago

BitTorrent, IPFS, and maybe some airdrop standard like thing.

[-] UiUiUiUiUi@piefed.nl 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

SoulSeek? Its like old limewire; dangerous and also full of really kind people too.

Nicotine+ is a client.

I think a combination of Soulseek and bittorrent, so you can share your library in the file structure you want, then collectively seed files with the same hash.

[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago

is it like emule ?

[-] tatterdemalion@programming.dev 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I haven't tried SoulSeek. What does it do better than Bittorrent?

EDIT: After playing around with SoulSeek, it seems pretty cool, although the amount of time it takes to scan your files on startup is laughably bad.

[-] SolarPunker@slrpnk.net 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Soukseek is great, I recently discovered people sharing also movies and other stuff, so not only music which is what is famous for. You can also ban Israel from your sharing!

[-] dan@upvote.au 3 points 3 days ago

It's like Napster or Limewire if you ever used them. You download files directly from individual users. You can also browse all of a user's shared files.

It requires inbound connectivity to work well, so you'll have to ensure your VPN supports port forwarding. The VPN that's usually recommended for Soulseek (and torrenting) is AirVPN.

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[-] UiUiUiUiUi@piefed.nl 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

It’s more like (old) Facebook where you make your media folder available to download, add buddies so you can check out their library later, thank them using the in built chat.

Just use a vpn with a port. And don’t add identifiable stuff to share.

[-] diocesegoldmine@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

Wait since when have you had to use a VPN with soulseek? I've never done that and I live in the states.

[-] tatterdemalion@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

You don't need to. But it's probably a good idea for the same reason as with BitTorrent.

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[-] MEtrINeS@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

so you can share your library in the file structure you want, then collectively seed files with the same hash.

So... .... .... emule and gnutella? Both have DHT and that's how they work...

[-] UiUiUiUiUi@piefed.nl 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Cool what client would you recommend?

It’s a bit suspicious to recommend two protocols as I question if you use it yourself or just looked it up.

[-] MEtrINeS@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

well gnutella is almost dead, the only usable client is gtk-gnutella https://sourceforge.net/projects/gtk-gnutella/, but there's not enough users. You might be lucky if you find anything you want.

For ed2k, you have amule https://github.com/amule-org/amule/releases/tag/3.1.0 . This network still has around 100k users (a drop in the number of torrent total users - but it's around the same number of users of soulseek) but you can still find lots of stuff there. Lately the amule client has been improving and improving and currently it's the best client for ed2k - my opinion.

For you to have high id you need to have 2 ports open, and some vpn don't allow that. They only allow one port. With ed2k you can search the network (imagine like searching directly the bittorrent DHT), or you can use any ed2k link sharing community to get the stuff you want - this way is safer

It’s a bit suspicious to recommend two protocols as I question if you use it yourself or just looked it up.

Well, i'm old enough to have used almost everything. And i like to know how stuff works.

[-] UiUiUiUiUi@piefed.nl 2 points 2 days ago

I tried amule and it is technically better than soulseek but the client is not as friendly.

This one particularly is pretty sketchy where bold and colour define if it is shared or not. I’m currently not certain if I’m sharing my root dir recursively or not, I’ll come back once they’ve improved it.

https://github.com/amule-org/amule/issues/1519

[-] MEtrINeS@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

Awesome that you opened a github ticket. Most people just complain on forums/reddit/lemmy.

And yes i agree with you, there are some stuff that can be more user friendly and less confusing.

[-] UiUiUiUiUi@piefed.nl 2 points 2 days ago

I didn’t make that issue sorry, but hey you aren’t using Gnutella so even? xD

[-] supervent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

For ed2k/kad I am using rucio is written in rust. Also aMule was updated recently.

[-] NotFrenchJack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago

You included memes (IPFS), and omitted important shit (DC, original Freenet), not to mention some old networks (ed2k, gnutella/G2) that went out of fashion, but are not fully extinct.

As for the future, the situation could get grim at a much lower level, as both the "file" as an ubiquitously accessible unit, and desktop computers in general as ubiquitously available and affordable hardware, are both under threat, with the latter already affected by the semi-fake partial (for now) scarcity supposedly fully caused by the AI craze.

[-] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago

Computers are probably going to hang around for a while. Just get out of the mindset that you necessarily need a brand new computer.

supposedly fully caused by the AI craze.

The silicon cartel. Gotta assign blame to the ones who dug this hole and not paint them as heroes or worse, a neutral party. They made this mess

[-] scratchmex@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago
[-] fartzo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago
[-] NotFrenchJack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

That was my first too. But WinMX was more relevant and lasted much longer.

[-] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 11 points 4 days ago

Ive trued private trackers, but there is very little for me to try and keep up the ratio them while on public my share ratio is well above 5.

Public trackers and no vpn gets it done

[-] tatterdemalion@programming.dev 7 points 4 days ago

Public trackers never seem to have as good of releases or swarm health, except for the most popular content.

[-] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 3 points 4 days ago

see, I don't really do popular (except for the kids) and private trackers just seemed like too much hard work

[-] Damage@feddit.it 9 points 4 days ago

They're certainly an imperfect solution, downloading shit you don't care about just to build ratio, at least at first, seems really stupid.

But you can't argue with the quality of the content on good private trackers.

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Most private trackers have a point system where you accumulate points that you can exchange for upload credit, as a mean to provide an incentive to keep less popular torrents active.

That way you can build up your ratio without downloading stuff you don't want.

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[-] Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

I’m on IP torrents. It’s 2 weeks or 1:1 health. And you get points just for seeding. I have my client auto delete after 3 weeks. And I can just zap stuff I don’t want with points. It’s so low management when I’m downloading stuff that’s newly releasing. I hardly ever login to the site anymore with my *arr setup.

[-] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 11 points 4 days ago

Some type of multi-dimensional quantum storage will be developed that will allow simultaneous, unlimited, instant sharing across as many different people as want to. This will all fit into something the size of a thumb drive and allow direct viewing/listening through implants.

[-] 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 days ago

I thought we will be running around with tablets, separate tablet for each new file, like in star trek :D

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#utopeer it's hard to grasp but it's decentralized tracker (in the community of people sharing torrents file/magnets) over #nostr

@piracy

[-] tatterdemalion@programming.dev 2 points 3 days ago

Reading through the docs about it here, it sounds like it's only an indexer, not a tracker.

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this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2026
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