Tribler, the impossible to shutdown, anonymous BitTorrent

The shutdown of Pirate Bay just a few days ago shows how vulnerable the Torrent world is, as a single raid pulled downwards the largest torrent site of the world. But it seems researchers at Delft Academy of Technology (Netherlands) take finally found a solution in the shape of a robust BitTorrent customer that they claim is impossible to shutdown.

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The site itself states 'Privacy using our Tor-inspired onion routing', be sure to check out that warning too! @Tribler.org

Anonymity comes with a price

Tribler, as information technology's called, is a torrent client like none other. What makes it different is that it doesn't demand to connect to a website to search for files, the whole process takes within the program itself. The idea is to stop relying on primal severs in a network (decentralization), using a network similar to the Tor network. Tribler also promises its users the highest degree of anonymity by allowing them to share cloth without exposing the first real IP accost. When you're using a standard torrent client your IP accost is shown pubically but Tribler uses onion routing which means that its data is wrapped effectually multiple layers of encryption.

"Tribler creates a new defended network for anonymity that is in no way connected to the main Tor network. By using Tribler you become part of a Tor-like network and help others become bearding," Dr. Pouwelse says

"That means you no longer have any exposure in any swarm, either downloading or seeding," he adds.

There is a downside to this increase in privacy and its higher bandwith usage, because users themselves become proxies and have to relay transfers of other users. The anonymity feature may also touch transfer speeds depending on how much users are willing to share.

"We are very curious to see how fast anonymous downloads will be. It all depends on how social people are, meaning, if they leave Tribler running and help others automatically to go bearding. If a lot of Tribler users turn out to be sharing and caring, the speed will be sufficient for a squeamish downloading experience,"Dr. Johan Pouwelse (Tribler's lead reasearcher) says.

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This is how the site explains its three layers of proxy @Tribler

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This shows how the latest version of Tribler works, the researchers all the same say they need to 'heighten' this @Tribler

Spamming is controlled due to decentralization

The decentralization feature is key to Tribler because it enables users to search for files within the application, which then finds torrents through other peers instead of finding them from a central server. Regardless of a tracker existence online the torrent will go along to download with the help of other users. This decentralization feature even serves equally a spam control; information technology uses user-generated channels which tin can be liked by users and the more than people that similar a channel the more heave in search results it will get.

Dr. Johan Pouwelse told Torrent Freak: "Tribler makes BitTorrent bearding and impossible to close downward. Recent events bear witness that governments do not hesitate to block Twitter, raid websites, confiscate servers and steal domain names. The Tribler team has been working for 10 years to prepare for the historic period of server-less solutions and ambitious suppressors."

After Pirate Bay's raid (simply a few days agone) Tribler saw a 30% increase in downloads. The team at Delft is confident that their encrypted torrent client can brand the Internet safer for its users.

"The Internet is turning into a privacy nightmare. There are very few initiatives that employ stiff encryption and onion routing to offering real privacy. Fifty-fifty fewer teams have the resources, the free energy, technical skills and scientific know-how to accept on the Big and Powerful for a few years," Pouwelse says.

If you are eager to endeavour it out, download Tribler here. At that place are versions for Windows, Linux and Mac and information technology's completely Open Source.