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BitTorrent Founder Bram Cohen Has Left the Company (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the parting-of-the-ways dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Bram Cohen, a co-founder of BitTorrent, the company which oversees the development of eponymous P2P protocol, has left its board, he told TorrentFreak. The revelation comes weeks after the file-sharing service provider said it had been acquired by blockchain startup Tron. It remains unclear exactly when Cohen, who also served as a lead engineer at the firm for years, made the decision to part ways with the company. He hinted to TechCrunch last year that, as of August, he was no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. The departure of Cohen underscores BitTorrent's long battle to find a lucrative business model. The company, the services of which are used by more than 100 million customers, has long struggled to find new applications of its platform and avenues to bring home some cash. In 2016, the company announced a mobile music and video streaming service [called] BitTorrent Now, which it abruptly shut down months later while also firing its co-CEOs. Last year, the company shut down its much hyped live streaming service BitTorrent Live, which Variety described as a brainchild of Cohen.

53 comments

  1. BSD has left the earthly realm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    I went out to *BSD's grave on Decoration Day. The old forgotten cemetery is to be found adjacent to the dark woods beyond the edge of town. There within olfactory distance of the municipal treatment plant you will find *BSD's final resting place.

    *BSD's tombstone was shrouded by thick mosses and knots of noxious ivy. A mournful funerary crow sounded the requiem, as I gently pulled aside the tangled twists of thorns, and cleaned the decaying marker the best I could. A suffocating melancholia filled my heart, while I pondered that this indeed was *BSD's figurative charnel house of which so many have plaintively spoken.

    Nothing is so pitiful as an untended grave, a loved one now forgotten. The short sad life of this doomed and fated OS makes us realize that there but for the grace of God go all of us.

    I planted some wilting marigolds, found discarded in the waste heap behind the caretaker's shack, wishing that by some miracle these fleurs de mort might take root and bring a modicum of cheer to *BSD's God forsaken plot. My fervent hope is that the torpid colored boy, who so carelessly mows the grounds, doesn't slice them down, inadvertently mirroring *BSD's own doomed encounter with death's irresistible scythe.

    Funny how things work out. Linux, that brilliant novam stellam, now runs the Internet and the world's fastest computers, while *BSD lies moldering within its forgotten crypt. Let the barren silence of *BSD's tomb be a mute reminder that hubris and braggadocio were no defense on that woeful day when the Angel of Death's bleak umbra was cast upon *BSD.

  2. Trump committed treason essentially by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Let's face it, Trump colluded and Putin's attack on US elections is an act of war. Trump is a traitor. Brennan isn't wrong even if saying so as a former CIA director is dangerous to maintaining the facade of US power right now.

    1. Re:Trump committed treason essentially by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Brennan's statements undermine the trust in the President of the United States of America, and in doing do Mr. Brennan has aided our enemies and international competition, and damaged relations with our international partners.

      Mr. Brennan's statement is sedition. If he had an ounce of integrity he would have kept his mouth shut. Clearly he does not put our nation first which, and so many others that followed along with his statements just shows how many snakes are in the swamp that President Trump is trying to drain, and it also shows why President Trump is reluctant to believe anything the "Intelligence community" says.

      Wasn't it just a few months ago that the Intelligence community was saying North Korea was going to attack us? or that Iran was our "friend"? Or that Syria is using chemical weapons? Now we see a demonstration from a lot of people from that very same intelligence community being openly critical of the seated POTUS.

      Those people are clearly undermining the duties of the POTUS and they are engaged in acts of Sedition and maybe even Treason.

    2. Re: Trump committed treason essentially by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      makes you wonder who's the bot here

  3. This is really exciting! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I think the combination of BitTorrent and blockchain is exactly what I need to power my new space elevator. I'm contacting Elon Musk right now over Twitter to get his thoughts on the matter but I think this could be the greatest technology since project Xanadu.

    1. Re: This is really exciting! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whatever you do, don't go public.

  4. Technology killed by the media industry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Of course P2P lives on, but the threats from the media industry have made it impossible for legitimate businesses to profit from it.

    1. Re: Technology killed by the media industry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right, itâ(TM)s such a great way to share Linux distributions.

    2. Re:Technology killed by the media industry by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

      If I remember correctly, both WoW and Microsoft used (still using?) P2P in order to reduce bandwidth on patches sent to users.

      --
      Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
    3. Re:Technology killed by the media industry by Killall+-9+Bash · · Score: 1

      Lots of companies are doing it. Intuit uses P2P when you download quickbooks.

      --
      "Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
    4. Re:Technology killed by the media industry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Blockchain completely kills bit-torrent, in other words it will all be traceable.

  5. The real truth about APK Hosts File Engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Here are the facts:

    1) It is incredibly slow and inefficient, taking an excessively long time to sort hosts files and remove duplicates. By the author's own accounts, the software was poorly and inefficiently written. The author responded with a link to testimonials that have thoroughly been debunked, as described later in this post.

    2) It is written in an arcane language, Object Pascal, because the author hasn't learned any superior alternatives like C or scripting languages like Python.

    3) It is written now to run on Linux, but the author is a novice with Linux. You are trusting someone to secure your Linux system who doesn't actually know much about Linux.

    4) Development of the Windows versions have stalled and new releases are unlikely because the author is too cheap and broke to pay for a new Windows computer. The author indicates that the Windows version is complete. In reality, it has been abandoned.

    5) Reviews are for the Windows version and are snippets taken out of context from longer posts that are critical of the software and/or its author. The reviews are extremely misleading. The author conveniently does not provide links to the original comments, likely to increase the difficulty of finding the original posts and reading the generally negative context.

    6) The author's promised BSD and MacOS versions, the release of which is supposedly imminent, are horribly behind schedule. The author recently claimed that they are being tested. However, more recently, the author moved the goalposts and stated that no specific BSD version is needed because of Linux binary compatibility. This change indicates the author is ignorant of the operating systems that you are trusting him to secure. Furthermore, it is partially false because OpenBSD no longer has Linux binary compatibility. The author has failed to provide updates on the status of the MacOS version.

    7) The software is closed source, preventing audits of the source code that would ensure malicious code is not embedded. The extremely vindictive nature of its author, as evidenced by years of hostile posts on public forums, makes the embedding of malicious code a very real concern. The author has since claimed that Steven Burn of MalwareBytes audited the source code and found it clean. It is unclear whether building the audited source code can reproduce the binary that is distributed. It is also unclear whether this is an audit of the current version or a previous one. Regardless, even if the current version is clean, it is entirely possible that future versions might not be clean.

    8) The hosts files are not actually created or curated by the author. Instead, they are obtained from several third party sources. These third party files are freely available and the functionality of the author's software can easily be duplicated by anyone willing to download these freely available files.

    9) The author has claimed to have blacklisted every single ad server in existence, a highly dubious claim. He has since denied making such a ridiculous claim, further raising questions about his integrity.

    10) The software relies on a blacklisting approach, which is inherently inferior to whitelists. Despite more than ample evidence favoring the use of whitelists, the author aggressively criticizes them in favor of his blacklist approach.

    11) The result is a massive hosts file that makes DNS resolution incredibly inefficient. The author disputes this, repeatedly parroting claims that his software speeds computers up in multiple ways.

    12) Despite paranoid claims that critics.of his software are mainly webmasters and advertisers, the author is almost certainly the most prolific spammed on Slashdot. He repeatedly advertises his software despite years of requests to refrain from doing so.

    13) The author clearly suffers from a number of undiagnosed mental health issues including narcissistic personality disorder. These issues render him virtually unable to interact normally with other people and make him incredibl

    1. Re:The real truth about APK Hosts File Engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      I use it all the time. I can't complain. (complaining is now blocked by hosts file).

    2. Re:The real truth about APK Hosts File Engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      That might all be true. You're still an obnoxious spambot like APK for copy/pasting this crap when it's clearly Off-Topic.

      And at least APK is amusing. You fail to entertain. We didn't need you to post all those points to let us know that APK's host file engine is undesirable.

    3. Re: The real truth about APK Hosts File Engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck off.

  6. What, exactly, is the "news"? by nadass · · Score: 2

    A co-founder of a quasi-influential silicon valley company left the company. Why is this written like an obituary? These days, everybody leaves their employers -- even Steve Jobs left Apple on a few occasions.

    1. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He'll be back any day now, after Tim Cook borked it.

      Still no amoled in 2018. Their screens look 8 years outdated smh.

    2. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      'Quasi-influential' might be overstating it.

      BitTorrent (the company) was not responsible for BitTorrent (the protocol). It was founded two years after the protocol was solid and most (if not all) further development of the protocol came from the community and third-party BT clients.

      The company was founded by Cohen and some guy with an Indian name, presumably to monetise the BitTorrent name. Apparently they succeeded, since they amassed enough money to buy uTorrent and launch a good handful of services. But they don't hold (and never have held) any influence in the BitTorrent community.

      (Bram Cohen wrote the original BitTorrent client in Python.)

    3. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Krakadoom · · Score: 4, Informative

      Incidentally all the good versions of uTorrent also pre-date it's acquisition by BitTorrent (Inc. or whatever).

    4. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple Watch and iPhone X use AMOLED. Troll harder.

    5. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      does uTorrent have any users left now? Everyone I know moved to Qbittorrent over the last few years. The shitstorm of the embedded miner was the final straw for most.

    6. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by gitano_dbs · · Score: 1

      uTorrent version 2.2.6 its the last one usable whitout all the bloat the next ones started adding.

      I am still using it, just setup to never update and works like a charm. If something works dont touch it :P

    7. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      Why are you using utorrent anyway? There's a bunch of clients far better like qbtorrent, transmission, deluge.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    8. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "its"

    9. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

      Monty Python's Flying Circus

    10. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      To make you butthurt. I even use the latest version with all the ads.

    11. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why still using utorrent? Because I've yet to find a client that easily handle RSS feeds on Windows.

    12. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > If something works dont touch it :P

      I wish somebody could get that message through to the idiots at Microsoft...

    13. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Desler · · Score: 1

      Still no amoled in 2018.

      The iPhone X says hi from 2017. Want to try again?

    14. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Krakadoom · · Score: 2

      Because it works. And none of the clients you listed seem better to me.

    15. Re: What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bram Cohen is a white dude who invented BitTorrent. So, yeah, I imagine he was trying to make money from his work.

    16. Re: What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The benefit of the BitTorrent protocol has been enormous, and outweighs any monetary value to an individual. Not everything should be monetized, and it was foolish (and offensive) to even try with a communications protocol. It is ironic that it's creator wouldn't recognize this, or the ideals of those who value sharing and abhor the parasites profiting from centralized models. Where would the Internet be if someone tried to monetize TCP/IP? The core value is in enabling peers to communicate, and that accrues to its users. Trying to extract value there would harm everyone.

      Bram Cohen could have done very well for himself with just a donation-based non-profit foundation dedicated to developing and maintain the protocol. Perhaps expanding into other distributed services like p2p messaging and communications, including facebookless social networking, which are in a bad state today because of profit motives. He would have preserved more good will that way, and possibly focused efforts on achieving those other goals. Wikipedia.org is an example of the more admirable approach.

    17. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      To make you butthurt. I even use the latest version with all the ads.

      Wait, it makes me butthurt because you're making a bad decision? Okay. So when you make a smart decision then I guess that means I'm also responsible? Living rent free in your head too, I guess.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    18. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Because it works. And none of the clients you listed seem better to me.

      Really? Please explain how qbtorrent isn't better then utorrent, especially since even it's UI is based off of it.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    19. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Why still using utorrent? Because I've yet to find a client that easily handle RSS feeds on Windows.

      And qbtorrent handles RSS feeds with no problems and just in the same way as utorrent? So, how is it not the better option when it comes in at half the memory usage.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    20. Re:What, exactly, is the "news"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Problem is that just because you have a good idea or a useful algorithm it doesn't mean it can be successfully monetised. Such is the nature of bittorrent.

  7. TIL the torrent protcocol somehow needs a company by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Question: Why does the company even need to exist?

    From an outsider's point of view: The protocol is already implemented, so what does the company do, and where does it get its income? BT users don't exactly seem like the paying type to me, nor the type to tolerate advertisements, so does the official bittorrent client contain a coin miner or something?

    How does this company get paid?

  8. Chia Network by mcelrath · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Bram founded a new company, https://chia.net/ which is making a new bitcoin-derived crypto-currency based on Proof of Space and Time. Basically it fills the unused space on your drive with entropy, and uses this like a set of lottery tickets instead of Proof of Work mining. They're also focusing on features of the crypto-currency that will enhance "Layer 2" (like http://lightning.network/) to enable scalability. In an economic sense this construction shifts the costs of mining toward capital expenditure (for storage) instead of electricity consumption.

    He and a collaborator recently won Best Paper at Eurocrypt 2018 for a Zero Knowledge Proof of Time https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/1... (presentation: https://cyber.stanford.edu/sit... )

    Interesting things are coming from Bram.

    --
    1^2=1; (-1)^2=1; 1^2=(-1)^2; 1=-1; 1=0.
    1. Re:Chia Network by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      AKA bitponzitorrent.

    2. Re:Chia Network by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With this the skyrocketed GPU prices gonna switch to already inflated hard disks prices. Gimme a break. Then will be proof of idle RAM.

    3. Re:Chia Network by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      i agree. a smart guy.
      however "bit-torrent" and "blockchain" are still not implemented "at the right place".

      bit-torrent should be used for a decentralized name-addressing scheme:
      example: removing domain-dealers from the picture will make the whole house-of-online-advertisement come crashing down.

      block-chain should be used in the world of brokerage house: looking up (spying) on orders should leave a block-chain record.
      for example: spying on forward-orders, like stop-loss, trailing-stops, etc.

    4. Re:Chia Network by mcelrath · · Score: 1

      Give me another way to turn real-world assets into cryptographic form without "trusting" someone.

      --
      1^2=1; (-1)^2=1; 1^2=(-1)^2; 1=-1; 1=0.
    5. Re:Chia Network by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Using unused space on your HD might have been a good idea before SSDs became the norm. Now it's just extra write amplification.

  9. Re:TIL the torrent protcocol somehow needs a compa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The company is unrelated to the protocol. It was created about 2 years after the protocol was stable and they capitalised on the name.

  10. Re:TIL the torrent protcocol somehow needs a compa by guyniraxn · · Score: 1

    It was created to give BitTorrent's creator a job for his efforts and its function is to legitimize the protocol as something other than just an illegal file sharing method.

  11. Re:TIL the torrent protcocol somehow needs a compa by Desler · · Score: 1

    Unrelated only if you ignore that it was co-founded by the creator of the protocol.

  12. Re:TIL the torrent protcocol somehow needs a compa by Catbeller · · Score: 1

    It is 2018. We now have to justify "illegitimate" protocols. "Illegitimate" because they work better, take so much less electricity, and are utterly democratic. Because the tiny book, movie, music, and TV industries didn't like it.
    We nuked the protocol because it worked too well and it couldn't be easily surveilled.
    We are idiots led by liars.

  13. Re:TIL the torrent protcocol somehow needs a compa by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    The lawyers who took down Napster would like to have a word with you about illegitimate protocols, defined as a protocol whose nontrivial uses, percentage-wise, are to avoid royalty payments for intellectual property.

    It is perhaps fitting the guy who invented the protocol struggled to find a way to profit from it given all the clones.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  14. Resilio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if him stepping down from day to day last year coincides with Sync quality and direction going to shit. For a while, it seemed like it was getting stable, but every new release has worse and worse bugs.

  15. FACTS vs. your LIES #1/2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1.) Users disagree w/ you by DOZENS https://tech.slashdot.org/comm...

    2.) ObjectPascal is #12/20 on the TIOBE index (& has never left top 20 since 2001) - FAR from "arcane" (like C++, it's a classic here to stay).

    3.) I've used Linux & *NIX before you were BORN most likely (*NIX thru the 80's & Linux on/off since 1994)

    4.) Windows version doesn't need anymore work (see #1 reviews of it above).

    5.) see #1 above for EXACT QUOTES registered /.ers stated

    6.) BSD version IS done in latest Linux model (BSD keeps binary compatiblity w/ Linux afaik).

    7.) My source was audited by Steven Burn of Malwarebytes (not some amateur) who hosts it & recommends it also

    APK

    P.S.=> Part #2/2 coming & it's obvious you FEAR me... apk

  16. FACTS vs. your LIES #2/2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    8.) Part of my PERSONAL hosts file's created by me. I give users the method to do the same via my program.

    9.) SHOW ME where I said "ALL" adservers: Like vs. malware it's an ongoing process.

    10.) Whitelists = maintenance & false positive nightmare (so are wildcards) - hosts specifics aren't.

    11.) Resolution's FASTER via hosts (blocks don't matter: you don't intend to get to 'em) via fav. sites you spend most time @ online @ TOP of hosts CACHED IN RAM locally (faster vs. dns & no chance of redirect poisoning).

    12.) Hosts do MORE for LESS, natively, vs. other so-called 'solutions' w/ less bugs & complexity for exploit.

    13.) You're a psychiatric pro who did a formal exam of my alleged mental condition while in a professional psychiatric environs? No. You're a libelous troll HIDING from me via UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous STALKING me!

    APK

    P.S.=> ENJOY YOUR DOWNMOD, in addition to PART #1/2 here dusting you hhttps://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12499002&cid=57163148 ... apk

  17. 100,000++ users of my work disagree... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    100,000++ users of my work disagree: Here are some of their thoughts vs. yours on the quality & efficacy of it https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57130680/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137806/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137868/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137916/ https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12478398&cid=57137944/

    * Want more? Ask & "ye shall receive"!

    APK

    P.S.=> What I find AMUSING is how "your kind" that both STALKS & IMPERSONATES me has to resort to lies + HIDING from me by UNIDENTIFIABLE "antifa" ANONYMOUS, lol - worms... apk

  18. torrent is so 90s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    its 2018. torrent is so 90s. and provides absolutely no benefit. i can get anything i need, legally, without having to use such a shitty, stupid, useless, and pointless protocol.