BitTorrent ‘Project Atlas’ Integration With TRON Moving Forward, Says CEO Justin Sun

Decentralized internet startup TRON announced fresh details of its bid to integrate with torrent client BitTorrent in a press release Thursday, September 27, two months after the first plans went public.

TRON, which acquired BitTorrent in July for an undisclosed amount, is now seeking to use its TRX token within the platform’s user base to create a hybrid content sharing ecosystem which leverages cryptocurrency.

Dubbed “Project Atlas,” the changes will come in the form of a series of “backward-compatible protocol extensions,” the release shared with Cointelegraph now confirms.

“To start, the product will feature faster downloads, more seeds, no mining, and backward compatibility,” TRON CEO Justin Sun commented,

“We aim to eventually empower all content creators and their communities by eliminating the middleman and enabling content creators to distribute directly to users.”

Under the arrangement, users will be able to create incentives with tokens as a means of obtaining premiums such as faster download speeds. Those who continue to seed torrent files after completed downloads can also earn tokens as a reward.

The project will enter the content creation arena alongside other schemes incorporating cryptocurrency, principally Kim Dotcom’s Bitcache, which has Bitcoin (BTC) at its core.

TRON promises a further rundown of Atlas’ features in a presentation set for September 28.

BitTorrent — which ended its live streaming business in 2017 — was developed by Bram Cohen, who has since left the company to serve as CEO at Chia, a San Francisco-based company focused on improving cryptocurrency infrastructure.