MagnetChain | Devpost

Inspiration

Developments in tech throughout the last decade have enhanced this freedom. The rapid growth of the p2p protocol, from Napster to BitTorrent, allowed for people to share files with each other, on a scale that would make up almost half of all internet bandwidth. The Bitcoin protocol allowed for the growth of a public ledger (or blockchain), hosted by hundreds of thousands of people, and cryptographically protected by these same people through proof of work, a never ending puzzle.

MagnetChain is the marriage between p2p file sharing and the public ledger of Bitcoin. This software will give the users the tools needed to both share and find data, with no centralized servers involved.

Data should be free, not at the whim of hosting companies, international media conglomerates, and government bodies. MagnetChain guarantees this freedom, and is the enhancement that we believe will revolutionize the flow of information forever.

How it works

Our client lets users submit transactions with the OP_RETURN opcode, allowing users to submit magnet links (trackerless torrents) directly to the Bitcoin blockchain. It also queries the blockchain, returns all magnet links, and indexes them in a locally hosted DB.

Challenges I ran into

Low level Bitcoin transactions building. Getting torrent metadata Optimized blockchain querying.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Working product!

What I learned

Lots about blockchains and transactions.

What's next for MagnetChain

However, MagnetChain can be much more than a simple index. Special functions can also be submitted to the blockchain. Users could submit special transactions that enable donations, and alias among many other functions.