#corrent

Torrents have been used for decades as one of the most efficient ways to share a file with others. While some torrents have seedboxes which help to speed up distribution, there is still the possibility for a long wait period when more people are leeching than seeding. I have personally had to wait for hours to download a file with heavy traffic when I wanted to watch it immediately.

Introduce Corrent, a "cloud torrent" system powered by Google Drive. This website keeps links to movie files on another user's Google Drive account and allows for the anonymous copying of them to another user's account. I have tried writing about how Corrent works with little success, so I have decided to allow a nifty diagram showing how Corrent works to do all of the heavy lifting for me:

Note: One may notice that there is no specific incentive of keeping files in their Google Drive account if the user is not using them, but from our findings, the majority of users never delete the files out of ignorance or only remove them when they need additional Google Drive space. While a "reward" system could possibly added in the future for each seeded file, there seems to be little need for it from the few months that the project has been active. Because the user is not actually using any bandwidth of their own from the file being here, there is no negative for keeping it there for a very long time, either.

As a user, all you need to do is to authorize the application's access to your Google Account (we suggest using a fake one for security and convenience, but most people use their normal accounts) so that the website can copy the file directly to your Google Drive. You can watch the movie in browser on many devices that support MP4 playback, including Android, iPhone, iPad, Xbox browser, Playstation browser, Windows Phone, etc. Corrent supports MKV, AVI, and other file formats within a browser mode, but the VLC or DIVX plugins are needed for these methods to work. Normally, the uploaded files are in MP4 format.

Alternatively, these video files can also be played back to Chomecast or on an Android device using the DriveCast application on the Google Play Store. This application allows for third party integration, which is Corrent in this case. Log into the appropriate Google account, select the device to cast to, select the video file, and select the quality. I have personally experienced issues with AllCast and other similar applications in the past, but DriveCast send over a 4GB movie spanning 3 hours without any lag at all on my 65-inch Panasonic TV. Very impressive.

Perhaps most impressive about the project is its speed. Not only can users download the file directly using Google's own super-speed servers, but the streaming ability is also powered by the same servers to provide uninterrupted viewing pleasure. Users are no longer reliant on the speed of the other seeders and the number of leechers. Instead, the only bandwidth used is from the initial upload and the actual viewing of the file.