Upfiring releases new software for incentivised P2P file sharing

File-sharing platform Upfiring has this week released a brand new version of its incentivised file-sharing software.

Upfiring is a peer-to-peer (P2P) distributed file-transferring platform designed to enhance the file-sharing protocol by incentivising seeders with crypto rewards. By encrypting communications on the blockchain and allowing nodes to communicate directly, Upfiring can function as a fully-decentralised exchange for file transactions – allowing users to download or seed their files while earning UFR tokens in the process.

Upon downloading the software, users will be able to create a new UFR wallet within the Upfiring application. This wallet can hold both UFR tokens and ETH.

In order to download files, users will need to have both UFR and a small amount of ETH in their wallets. Ether is needed to cover the transaction fees of sending UFR across the Ethereum main network. Initially, UFR can be loaded into your wallet from an exchange or earned by seeding a new file.

However, the need for Ethereum could disappear with either of the following developments:

1. The Upfiring dApp may eventually switch to a sidechain, like Loom or POA. That way, security decreases but transaction costs decrease as well, and efficiency increases exponentially.
2. Ethereum may start accepting tokens for transaction fee payments – a concept referred to as economic abstraction, or the ability for miners to choose which cryptocurrency/token they wish to receive payments in.

The Upfiring protocol : How it works

Upon uploading a new file, setting a UFR price for your file, and commencing seeding, you will be given a link. This link will allow others to download your file directly from you as long as you are seeding it.

As the original seeder, you are guaranteed 50% of the total UFR earnings from your file. If others begin to download your file and seed it for the same price, they will evenly split the other 50% of the UFR earnings.

This increases the number of peers for the given file, making it more stable and allowing for faster download speeds. More seeders/peers on your file means your file will be more attractive to downloaders (leechers).

This is one of the aspects that makes Upfiring so attractive to users compared to any other existing P2P file-sharing application. An artist can upload their original MP3 file on Upfiring and become the original seeder, guaranteeing themselves 50% of the overall earnings. They can then promote their link, allowing others to easily download the file.

If others reseed the file at the same price, they will become seeders of that artist’s file as well. As a result, these new seeders will benefit from all that artist’s promotional efforts and earn UFR whenever the file is downloaded. In turn, the artist benefits from more peers and faster (ever-increasing) download speeds.

Earning UFR

UFR is sent to seeders when a file download is completed. With this said, there is the potential for users to immediately close the application upon receiving the downloaded file and prevent UFR from being sent from their wallet to the seeders.

In this case, that user will no longer be able to use the application (or their current wallet) to download new files until that transaction is completed and the seeders are rewarded. This system ensures that users cannot continuously bypass the UFR requirement.

Upfiring’s main competition is of course BitTorrent, backed by the might of Tron, as well as the much more established Filecoin and Siacoin. Will UFR be able to compete with all the other file-sharing cryptocurrencies out there?

Only time will tell.

Disclaimer: this article isn’t financial advice or promotional material; it represents my personal opinion and should not be attributed to Coin Rivet. I have savings invested in cryptocurrency so take whatever I write with a grain of salt. Do not invest what you cannot afford to lose and always read as much as possible about a project before investing.