Tron to add decentralized file storage to BitTorrent in Q3 2019

Decentralized gaming platform Tron is adding file-storage services to the mega popular file-streaming service BitTorrent, which Tron acquired in June, last year.

The move will enable BitTorrent users to store digital information on other people’s computers on the peer-to-peer network.

The mainnet for the “BitTorrent File System” (BTFS) launches in Q3 2019. Decentralized applications built on the Tron blockchain will also be able to use BitTorrent’s file-storage services for their content.

To enable this, Tron has forked the InterPlanetary File System codebase—an open-source platform for decentralized file storage—and integrated it into BitTorrent.

It’s all part of Tron’s drive to give the BitTorrent token—launched via an IEO on Binance in January—an actual use case: In order to use the file-storage services, you need to pay with the BitTorrent token (BTT).

In a press release, Tron CEO, Justin Sun said the measure was designed “to let users quickly and privately interact with each other around the world, without a middleman or government intervention.”

Yet it appears that some Tron developers are still unfamiliar with the workings of GitHub, the platform that holds the code for most cryptocurrencies. To create the BitTorrent File System, Tron copied the IPFS code into its own designated area for Tron-related code. But a developer going by the name “Shengwen YU” attempted to rename the original IPFS codebase itself—not Tron’s version—to BTFS.

This is like plagiarizing a whitepaper before trying to change the name of the original. It, obviously, did not go down well and GitHub automatically prevented it.

Despite these hiccups, Tron is planning to fully implement the BitTorrent token into the main BitTorrent network by Q1 2020.

Let's hope these assurances go better than promises to deliver free Teslas.