BitTorrent to Release P2P Social Media App BitTorrent Live in Q2 2019

Tron (TRX)-owned peer-to-peer (p2p) software company BitTorrent announced that it will release the public beta version of its decentralized social media app BitTorrent Live in Q2 2019 in a press release on March 27.

Per the release, the company started offering early access to the BitTorrent Live streaming service today. The app, a video-based social media platform seemingly similar to Snapchat and TikTok, allows its users to create live content and connect with other people through mobile devices.

The service will also reportedly let its users livestream from anywhere they have access to the internet while viewers will be able to instantaneously give feedback and likes. The app’s users can also search for subjects in which they are interested.

BitTorrent Live is not actually new, in 2012 Bram Cohen — the author of BitTorrent — said that his goal with the platform was “to kill off television.” While the software is not new, its character has changed much over time.

The first version of BitTorrent Live was mostly just a new content delivery protocol, not a social media app. The initial version of the application was shut down after the company unsuccessfully attempted to raise funds to spin it off as an independent business in April 2017.

In January, former chief strategy officer at BitTorrent Simon Morris said that Tron will not be able to manage the transaction volume needed to tokenize BitTorrent. Morris stated that there is “no way” the Tron blockchain could handle the transaction volume that the system would require.