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backus's profile
John Backus
John Backus
John Backus
@backus

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John Backus

@backus

Seeking alternative compression. Hopefully wrong on average. Shameless. Started @getcognito and @bloom

San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2012

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    1. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      In financial markets… • News is quickly priced into stocks • Firms buy undervalued stocks • Investors arbitrage between markets Tokenizing BitTorrent is similar: • Popular downloads becomes faster • Hoaders find undervalued content • Seeders arbitrage between trackers

      2 replies 2 retweets 10 likes
      Show this thread
    2. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      Imagine if you could place a bounty on a certain file you want. > I'll pay 1,000 TRNT for a leak of the new Star Wars Private torrent trackers have success with this using upload credit. A decentralized token bounty would take this to another level. Huge incentive to share!

      2 replies 1 retweet 8 likes
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    3. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      Private trackers enforce centralized upload ratios. Tokenized BitTorrent decentralizes and improves on this: • Tokens are portable between trackers • Token rates can be negotiated based on demand. Private trackers manually adjust requirements when current ratio is too hard

      1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
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    4. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      Tokenizing BitTorrent introduces global and decentralized upload ratio-like incentives even if you can’t cash out to fiat Even without a profit motive, global upload incentive means you can benefit everywhere and you don’t lose big if OiNK or http://what.cd  is shut down

      6 replies 1 retweet 5 likes
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    5. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      Fitting network payments to user incentives is hard! By using a token instead of ETH/BTC, the protocol designer can experiment in early phases and decentralize proportional to risk tolerance. A BitTorrent token fork is reasonable, BTC not. Big reason to consider tokens IMO

      1 reply 0 retweets 7 likes
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    6. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      Building decentralized protocols is hard. Historically, file sharing businesses are hard to profit from. I think the fat protocol paradigm is a strong argument for tokenizing BitTorrent, specifically. Launching a protocol isn’t just tech. Network effects require marketing.

      1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
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    7. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      As mentioned, using a token instead of BTC lets you hedge risk while experimenting by keeping the possibility of a fork open You can also use a token to incrementally experiment w/ incentives. Start with a closed network token you can’t cash out then support fiat exchange later

      1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
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    8. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      PayPal scaled past network effects by giving $5 to every invited user. Decentralization liberates, right? Tokens provide a low cost alternative that let you try things like tokenizing BitTorrent and overcoming network effects without $100M in VC funding

      1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes
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    9. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      Yeah, you can fork a tokenized protocol and add Ethereum or Bitcoin. Who is footing the marketing bill for bootstrapping your hostile yet philanthropic fork? It’s not about greed driving protocols, it just doesn’t cost $0 to get users.

      2 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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    10. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      I intentionally didn’t cover a few topics: • Scaling blockchains • Decentralized identity and Sybil resistance • Fraud resistance These are what crypto companies will spend years building. I just wanted to share the vision for tokens I think others might be missing

      1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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      John Backus‏ @backus Jul 2

      👆 Is you enjoyed this thread, I also have a blog post on tokenizing BitTorrent. The post goes into more detail while this thread clarifies and expands on some things I didn’t cover in the post. Thanks for reading!https://medium.com/@jbackus/what-if-bittorrent-had-a-token-13d62a590aa7 …

      7:33 PM - 2 Jul 2018
      • 2 Retweets
      • 14 Likes
      • David H. Clark Austin M. Craig Heath Chris 🔪 Jason Schoorhees🔪 Kristin Low Santiago Tórtora Paul Metni Manfred Neustifter
      1 reply 2 retweets 14 likes
        1. Kacper Wikieł‏ @kacperwikiel Jul 2
          Replying to @backus

          https://thehackernews.com/2018/06/tron-cryptocurrency-bittorrent.html …

          0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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