Earlier this week, BitTorrent, Inc. announced Project Maelstrom. The idea is to apply the bittorrent technologies and approaches to more of the web.

Note: if you can’t read the text in the image, it says: “This is a webpage powered by 397 people + You. Not a central server.” So. Much. Win.

The blog post announcing the project doesn’t have lots of details, but a follow-up PC World article includes an interview with a couple of the people behind it.

I think the key thing comes in this response from product manager Rob Velasquez:

We support normal web browsing via HTTP/S. We only add the additional support of being able to browse the distributed web via torrents

This excites me for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve thought on-and-off for years about how to build a website that’s untakedownable. I’ve explored DNS based on the technology powering Bitcoin, experimented with the PirateBay’s now-defunct blogging platform Baywords, and explored the dark underbelly of the web with sites available only through Tor.

Second, Vinay Gupta and I almost managed to get a project off the ground called Firecloud. This would have used a combination of interesting technologies such as WebRTC, HTML5 local storage and DHT to provide distributed website hosting through a Firefox add-on.

I really, really hope that BitTorrent turn this into a reality. I’d love to be able to host my website as a torrent. :-D

Update: People pay more attention to products than technologies, but I’d love to see Webtorrent get more love/attention/exposure.

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Comments? Questions Email me: doug@mozillafoundation.org

http://literaci.es/bittorrents-project-maelstrom-is-firecloud-on-steroids