ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

BitTorrent

Bittorrent is a way to share big files with lots of people online.

Imagine you have a big toy box with lots of toys inside, and you want to share those toys with your friends. But your toy box is too big to carry to your friends' houses all at once, so you give them pieces of the toy box instead.

Bittorrent works the same way. If you have a big file you want to give to lots of people, you don't send them the whole file at once because it's too big. Instead, you break the file up into little pieces, like puzzle pieces.

Then, you send those pieces out to lots of different people on the internet who want to download your file. These people, called "peers," each get different pieces of the file.

Once a peer has their piece of the file, they can share it with other peers who need that piece. So, all the different peers are helping each other out by sharing the pieces of the file they have until everyone has all the pieces they need.

Once someone has all the pieces, they can put them back together to create the original file. And now, lots of people have the same file and can use it however they want!

Bittorrent is really helpful for sharing big files like movies or computer programs, especially when lots of people want to download them at the same time. It means the download speeds are faster and the load on the original download source is decreased, making it easier for everyone to get what they need.