Founder of BitTorrent Leaves to Start Own Cryptocurrency After TRON (TRX) Acquisition

It seems that all the founders from the original internet era are getting involved with cryptocurrencies. This time, we’re seeing Bram Cohen, founder of the peer-to-peer file transfer platform, BitTorrent, leaving to work on his own crypto project, Chia.

From Torrents to Blockchain

The news, reported by TorrentFreak, arrives mere months after the TRON (TRX) acquisition of BitTorrent. TRON founder, Justin Sun, spent $140 million on the platform in his mission to make his blockchain “the largest decentralized Internet ecosystem in the world.” The BitTorrent integration into Sun’s project enables seeders to earn TRX—an idea that Cohen, apparently, didn’t care for.

Cohen revealed the BitTorrent idea to the world back in 2001 while founding the company in 2004. Though the platform made millions initially, it was never enough to be considered a financial success. He didn’t care much about the money, but Cohen blamed management for BitTorrent’s failures and began to distance himself from the company.

TorrentFreak reached out to the founder, asking for his thoughts on TRON taking over. Cohen responded shortly, stating, “I have no involvement with Tron.” The website pressed Cohen and asked if this means that he is no longer a part of the company he created, to which the inventor responded, “That is correct.”

Suggested Reading : Learn more about Tron in our ‘What is Tron?‘ beginner’s guide.

A Natural Evolution

Now, Bram Cohen is working on Chia, a project “focused on improving crypto-currency infrastructure.” The website states that the platform will use a coin that relies on “proofs of time and space” over more traditional proof of work algorithms. Chia “farms” coins instead of mining them, rewarding “farmers” who provide their empty storage space to the platform. The goal is to provide a more energy-efficient blockchain. Details are found in the Chia FAQ.

Named after a grain, Chia seems to be a natural, blockchain-based evolution from BitTorrent. While torrenting is a form of decentralization in itself, Cohen’s new project is moving his P2P vision to our favorite distributed ledger. The website notes that no coding has been done just yet, but the “mathematical primitives” have been worked out.

Chia plans a network launch by the end of this year.