BitTorrent Inventor Bram Cohen Will Start His Own Cryptocurrency

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BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen has already earned a spot in the Internet hall of fame, but he's not done yet. In recent years he's taken a strong interest in cryptocurrencies, something he will devote himself full-time to in the near future. This includes launching a new cryptocurrency which addresses some of the challenges facing Bitcoin.

BitTorrent’s inventor is known for his passion for puzzles, and more generally speaking, offering elegant solutions to complex problems through lines of code.

When Bram Cohen first launched BitTorrent he offered a solution to the bandwidth scarcity problem, by allowing anyone to distribute large files without having to invest in expensive infrastructure.

In recent years Cohen has closely followed the cryptocurrency boom. Not as a money hungry investor with dollar signs in his eyes, but as a programmer who sees problems that need solving.

In doing so, Cohen hasn’t shied away from offering his opinions and suggestions. Most recently, he presented a paper and a talk at the Stanford blockchain conference, discussing proofs of space and proofs of time.

Without going into technical details, Cohen believes that Bitcoin is wasteful. He suggests that a cryptocurrency that pins the mining value on storage space rather than processor time will be superior.

In an interview with TorrentFreak’s Steal This Show, Cohen revealed that his interest in cryptocurrencies is not merely abstract. It will be his core focus in the near future.

“My proposal isn’t really to do something to BitCoin. It really has to be a new currency,” Cohen says. “I’m going to make a cryptocurrency company. That’s my plan.”

By focusing on a storage based solution, BitTorrent’s inventor also hopes to address other Bitcoin flaws, such as the 51% attack.

“Another benefit of storage based things is actually that there’s a lot less centralization in mining. So there’s a lot less concern about having a 51% attack,” Cohen says.

“Sometimes people have this misapprehension that Bitcoin is a democracy. No Bitcoin is not a democracy; it’s called a 51% attack for a reason. That’s not a majority of the vote, that’s not how Bitcoin works.”

While the idea of a storage based cryptocurrency isn’t new, Burstcoin uses a similar concept, there is little doubt that Cohen believes he can do better. And with his status and contacts in the Bitcoin developer community, his project is likely to gain some eyeballs.

Before diving into it completely, Cohen will first finish up some other work at BitTorrent Inc. But after that, his full dedication will go into creating a superior cryptocurrency.

“In the next few months I’m going to devote myself full-time to the cryptocurrency stuff,” Cohen concludes.

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The full interview with Bran Cohen is available here, or on the Steal This Show website.

https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-inventor-bram-cohen-will-start-his-own-cryptocurrency-170424/