WebTorrent Update - Decentralized Web Meetup 2018

Feross shares an update on the latest in the WebTorrent project , what's next for WebTorrent, and lessons that may help other decentralized web projects to achieve ease-of-use, adoption, and user growth.

Event link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/decentralized-web-meet-up-tickets-46225948055

Transcript

1. Presented by Feross
2. TORRENTS LARGEST P2P ECOSYSTEM
3. WEB BROWSER LARGEST + BEST APP RUNTIME
4. TORRENT APPS > 250 million users > 10-20 million nodes online WEB BROWSERS > 4 billion users > 1 billion sites
5. BRINGING P2P TO TODAY'S WEB
6. BROWSER ® SERVER
7. BROWSER ® BROWSER
8. WEB RTC REAL TIME COMMUNICATIONS
9. DATA CHANNEL
10. > NAT traversal > No cross-origin policy > Transport encryption > Reliable/unreliable > In-order/out-of-order
11. DEMO
12. HUNDREDS OF REAL USERS > CineTimes > Bitlove > PeerTube > BTorrent > live-torrent > More on webtorrent.io/faq
13. GET STARTED WITH <SCRIPT> <script src="webtorrent.min.js"></script> <script> const client = new WebTorrent() const torrent = client.add('magnet:...') torrent.on('ready', torrent => { const file = torrent.files[0] file.appendTo(document.body) }) </script> webtorrent.min.js is loaded 2 million times per month
14. WEBTORRENT ON NPM > Lightweight (just 75 KB) > Pure JavaScript (no native dependencies) > Full-featured (magnet uris, dht, tracker, pex) > Stream from files (On-demand piece prioritization) > Shares dependencies with Dat and JS-IPFS
15. EVEN EASIER WITH A CUSTOM ELEMENT <script src="webtorrent-element.min.js"></script> <web-torrent src="magnet:..." file="Sintel.mp4" />
16. HOW SIMPLE IS YOUR HELLO WORLD?
17. WHAT'S NEXT? > Fix performance issues with 20+ torrents > WebRTC DHT (blocked on WebRTC NG) > Update APIs for ES next (async, await) > Finalize the spec (for third-party implementors) > Sustainable community > Release version 1.0
18. WEBTORRENT DESKTOP
19. WEBTORRENT DESKTOP TALKS TO DESKTOP & BROWSER CLIENTS
22. FEATURES > Non-commercial (No ads) > Free software (MIT) > Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) > Instant playback (Fastest DHT implementation) > Casting (AirPlay, Chromecast, etc.) > Best torrent app UX (In my humble opinion)
23. WEBTORRENT DESKTOP USAGE > Currently has 70,000 monthly active users > Organic, word-of-mouth growth
24. WHAT IS THE USER PROBLEM YOU'RE SOLVING?
25. WHAT'S NEXT? > Rehaul UX (could be even simpler than it is now) > A few important power user features > Outreach to get users faster — to 1 million! > Sustainable community > Release version 1.0
26. STATE OF COMMUNITY > Supported in Brave Browser and Vuze > Looking for new maintainers > Just added GitHub bots > Need help reviewing pull requests > Patreon funding is very helpful
27. WEBTORRENT IS HUMBLE IN SCOPE > No mutability (static content only) > No reinvention of existing standards > No crypto-currency > No way to serve full websites/apps > No venture capital funding > No plan to make a profit > No scope creep (Keeps API simple)
28. FOCUS
29. LEARN MORE AT WEBTORRENT.IO
30. THANKS! SAY HI AT @FEROSS OR FEROSS.ORG