Peer-to-peer is frequently associated with illegal downloading, especially music and video. For this purpose, downloading video, peer-to-peer can also be considered as positive for once. What is the case? Research workers of the Technical University of Delft, the Free University of Amsterdam and Harvard’s School of Engineering are working on the development of a video peer-to-peer platform what bandwidth converts into a global currency.
The platform is based on the program Tribler. The researchers strive for an e-commerce model that connects users with each other in a global market, without a centralized governing organization, as the first real Internet currency, comparible to currencies such as the Euro or the Dollar. The more a user uploads, and the better the quality, it enables more and faster downloads for the user. This virtual economy is regulated on the basis of trust, a network of friends that ascertain users can be trusted.
Read the article (PDF) which describes the P2P algorithm (Give-to-Get) that prevents free-riding. It explains how using bandwidth to upload is rewarded by being able download more and faster. When there is an abundance of common download capacity, it remains possible for free-riders to download at good speeds. As yet, the algorithm is more suitable for relatively shorter videos. See also the post on the Dutch P2P blog.
I am really interested by the greater topic of this initiative. I think the concept of shifting economy from providing information and, only partially, to creating it is not really ideal. In this regard, I think that in the long run a good system for sustainable P2P, or other network, driven society could well be monetizing all communication in a universal way. I think this could be issue prone however it could be used to create an economy where media is free for the users except for the communication which is required to get it, publishing companies including tel cos could would still exist and make some profit but not control popularity and media rights in the way they do now and finally, artists would receive the rights they deserve.
This idea is based on the assumptions that artists are passionate about what they do, publishing on a large scale is profit centric, not voice or meaning centered, and that users need to pay for communication services as it is so creating a conversion to make this payment extend to artists would not be of great disadvantage.