Bitstream white paper proposes Bitcoin payments to disrupt file storage economics
Bitstream Revealed: Offering Bitcoin-Based Whitepaper to Overhaul Data Hosting
Bitstream’s white paper, written by blockchain programmer Robin Linus, reveals a method in which servers receive direct payments in bitcoin (BTC) for each file download they facilitate. To address the imbalance in today’s hosting economy, Linus’ system aligns server profits with content demand.
Servers are compensated for providing a service to the network, namely file distribution, the white paper explains. The system “creates a directory of responsible servers from which customers can choose,” details Linus’ document.
The Bitstream system leverages Bitcoin payment channels, including technologies such as Lightning Network, Liquid, Chaumian ecash, Fedimint or Cashu to enable fast microtransactions for file access.
“The server encrypts the file so that if there is any discrepancy during decryption, the client can obtain compact proof of fraud,” the document states. “A bond agreement guarantees that the client receives the exact file or it can punish the server.”
In Bitstream’s design, the use of a Merkle tree for file verification promotes the uniqueness and security of hosted data. By splitting files into hash components, the system can quickly confirm the accuracy of the content being transferred.
Linus adopted a simple encryption method using single-block encryption for its absolute security guaranteed by bitwise XOR operations. “If the encrypted file is not successfully decrypted, the customer may obtain succinct proof of fraud,” explains the Bitstream white paper.
After Linus published the article, several people were excited, while others were more critical. “Are you planning to continue to revolutionize Bitcoin every two months or so?” one person asked the programmer.
“File hosting is already a marginal basic service, and hash-based redundancy is achieved through Webtorrent when needed,” said another more critical person. “The less efficient inclusion of user bandwidth and edge storage does not solve any specific problem.”
Linus has also been working on the BitVM concept after presenting this specific whitepaper last month. We just broadcast the first mainnet transaction that has a Blake3 hash block implemented in Bitcoin Script,” Linus posted on X on November 6. “A small opcode for BitVM, a giant script for Bitcoin,” the developer added.
The Bitstream framework offers a variation on conventional data hosting methods, but its practical application remains to be seen. The white paper proposal is believed to have proposed a “system of incentives for decentralized file hosting without relying on trust or heavy encryption.”