A few days ago, the Crypto-verse was given confirmation that Justin Sun and the Tron (TRX) Foundation had legally acquired popular peer-to-peer sharing platform known as BitTorrent. The deal seemed to have been sealed last week as the company’s employees were notified by their top management about the acquisition. Major stakeholders of the firm were also notified by the agent handling the transfer.

But why acquire BitTorrent?

The main aim of the Tron project is to decentralize the web. The latest version of the technical whitepaper divides the architecture of the Tron network into three layers. The first is the social media platform which is also the application layer. The next one is the blockchain platform which has the contract layer and consensus layer. The third and the subject of our discussion is the P2P (Peer-to-Peer) Network layer.

This Peer-to-peer layer has a network layer with a P2P storage network and a data layer for the storage of data.

Why is this Tron Peer-to-peer network layer relevant to BitTorrent?

BitTorrent uses a file sharing mechanism that increases download speeds by sharing files in chunks or pieces. These pieces are gathered simultaneously from sources held by individuals who allow the BitTorrent network to share their files thereby facilitating a P2P network. No need of sourcing from one file location and downloading it as a whole.

BitTorrent does not use the traditional FTP (File Transfer Protocol) found in regular website download links where you get the files from a centralized server. It uses the aforementioned P2P network to query for active or connected sources of the file. This includes sourcing it directly from individual hard drives. Retrieving the file from several sources and in pieces guarantees that the file sharing is continual even if one or more ‘peers’ disconnects from the network.

Connecting the dots.

With the acquisition of BitTorrent, Justin Sun and the Tron Foundation have a ready-made P2P network to integrate into their project. BitTorrent has been time tested and has worked for years. Also to note is that BitTorrent was referenced approximately 8 times on the Tron Whitepaper. This means that Justin had his eyes set on the platform from the get-go. It was the missing link that would further the decentralization of the web by the Tron Project.