BitTorrent

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol designed in 2001 by American programmer Bram Cohen. It divides a large file into many pieces, and the peers downloading the file upload the pieces they already have to one another until each holds the complete file. Because no single central server carries the whole load, large files can be distributed efficiently to many people.

Information about a file is shared through a .torrent file or a magnet link, and peers find one another through tracker servers or a distributed hash table (DHT). The protocol is also used to distribute large software packages and data files, and a client program of the same name exists.

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