PEER-to-peer networks, touted as the future of video distribution on the internet, face a critical problem: many users download lots of data but refuse to repay the compliment by uploading more content for others to see. The overall effect of this one-way traffic, or 鈥渓eeching鈥�, is to slow down everybody鈥檚 internet access.
Now researchers at Harvard University and at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have created a program, called , that turns net bandwidth into a commodity akin to a currency. The idea? You can only spend it if you earn it.
In Tribler, users have to 鈥渆arn鈥� credit by uploading data before they can 鈥渟pend鈥� it by downloading. As well as ensuring fair play on the part of users, trading bandwidth in this way could relieve traffic jams on the net as online video proliferates.
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