Everything You Need to Know about BitTorrent's New Altruistic Mode
BitTorrent, the company that develops and maintains the BitTorrent protocol as well as the BitTorrent and the uTorrent software applications, came up with a new feature for its torrent clients: Altruistic Mode.
"This is a feature for users who want to make sure that they upload more than they download and are okay with the tradeoff that their download might never complete," announced BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen.
Altruistic Mode’s purpose is to make sure that you upload more than you download.
Know how BitTorrent displays your upload/download ratio? Well, what Altruistic Mode does is it guarantees that your upload to download ratio is never much less than 2 to 1. So if you download 1GB, Altruistic Mode will ensure that you upload at least 2GB. It will guarantee a 2:1 ratio.
"The intended use of Altruistic Mode is to help out a swarm," Bram Cohen explained. "This can help other peers download faster or ensure a peer has a good sharing ratio. This is especially helpful in conditions where there are already plenty of seeds, which often happens after a torrent has been available for a while.”
With Altruistic Mode enabled, your downloads may never complete
The upside of using Altruistic Mode is that you’ll be doing your share to help the swarm. The downside is that your downloads may never complete. It all stems from the fact that Altruistic Mode wants to guarantee a 2:1 ratio.
Under normal conditions, BitTorrent uploads as much data as it can. Uploading is good, as it improves your ratio. But Altruistic Mode’s purpose isn’t to improve your ratio, it’s to guarantee a 2:1 ratio. Since it can’t upload more to achieve that goal, it has to download less.
Bram Cohen again: "Altruistic Mode guarantees that your upload to download ratio is never much less than 2 to 1. An important subtlety is that this cannot be guaranteed by uploading more. BitTorrent peers upload as much as they can under normal conditions. The only way to improve the ratio is by downloading less. Because of this Altruistic Mode downloads will often never complete."
How Altruistic Mode works depends on the regular Download Mode
The effects of Altruistic Mode on a torrent depend on how that torrent would behave in regular Download Mode. We have three situations here:
Altruistic Mode has to be unlocked first
To enable Altruistic Mode, you have to unlock it first. This can be done from the BitTorrent sections of the Preferences menu.
Options -> Preferences -> BitTorrent -> Enable Altruistic Mode.
Once Altruistic Mode has been unlocked, you have to turn it on. You can do this before starting a torrent download, from the Add New Torrent download dialog.
You can also do it from the Properties dialog, any other time you want.
BitTorrent is experimenting with Altruistic Mode
"For now Altruistic Mode is a bit of an experiment," said Bram Cohen. "We are hoping that it’s sufficiently understandable and useful that users embrace it and that we don’t get too many complaints about downloads never finishing or that the upload ratio remains unchanged."
You need the latest BitTorrent and uTorrent client to access Altruistic Mode.
That’s BitTorrent 7.9.9 and uTorrent 3.4.9.
"This is a feature for users who want to make sure that they upload more than they download and are okay with the tradeoff that their download might never complete," announced BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen.
Altruistic Mode’s purpose is to make sure that you upload more than you download.
Know how BitTorrent displays your upload/download ratio? Well, what Altruistic Mode does is it guarantees that your upload to download ratio is never much less than 2 to 1. So if you download 1GB, Altruistic Mode will ensure that you upload at least 2GB. It will guarantee a 2:1 ratio.
"The intended use of Altruistic Mode is to help out a swarm," Bram Cohen explained. "This can help other peers download faster or ensure a peer has a good sharing ratio. This is especially helpful in conditions where there are already plenty of seeds, which often happens after a torrent has been available for a while.”
With Altruistic Mode enabled, your downloads may never complete
The upside of using Altruistic Mode is that you’ll be doing your share to help the swarm. The downside is that your downloads may never complete. It all stems from the fact that Altruistic Mode wants to guarantee a 2:1 ratio.
Under normal conditions, BitTorrent uploads as much data as it can. Uploading is good, as it improves your ratio. But Altruistic Mode’s purpose isn’t to improve your ratio, it’s to guarantee a 2:1 ratio. Since it can’t upload more to achieve that goal, it has to download less.
Bram Cohen again: "Altruistic Mode guarantees that your upload to download ratio is never much less than 2 to 1. An important subtlety is that this cannot be guaranteed by uploading more. BitTorrent peers upload as much as they can under normal conditions. The only way to improve the ratio is by downloading less. Because of this Altruistic Mode downloads will often never complete."
How Altruistic Mode works depends on the regular Download Mode
The effects of Altruistic Mode on a torrent depend on how that torrent would behave in regular Download Mode. We have three situations here:
- If the ratio is 2:1 or greater in Download Mode, Altruistic Mode will have very similar behavior.
- If the ratio is between 2:1 and 1:1 in Download Mode, Altruistic Mode will upload and download less than Download Mode, thus achieving a 2:1 ratio.
- If the ratio is less than 1:1 in Download Mode, Altruistic Mode will do very little uploading or downloading.
Altruistic Mode has to be unlocked first
To enable Altruistic Mode, you have to unlock it first. This can be done from the BitTorrent sections of the Preferences menu.
Options -> Preferences -> BitTorrent -> Enable Altruistic Mode.
Once Altruistic Mode has been unlocked, you have to turn it on. You can do this before starting a torrent download, from the Add New Torrent download dialog.
You can also do it from the Properties dialog, any other time you want.
BitTorrent is experimenting with Altruistic Mode
"For now Altruistic Mode is a bit of an experiment," said Bram Cohen. "We are hoping that it’s sufficiently understandable and useful that users embrace it and that we don’t get too many complaints about downloads never finishing or that the upload ratio remains unchanged."
You need the latest BitTorrent and uTorrent client to access Altruistic Mode.
That’s BitTorrent 7.9.9 and uTorrent 3.4.9.
