BiglyBT: The First Client with BitTorrent v2 Support

The first version of the BitTorrent protocol dates back to 2001, and although it has served us well, experts in its operation understand that it carries several weaknesses and needs optimizations. That leads us to the proposal of BitTorrent v2, which improves everything related to integrity and security in transfers. The BiglyBT client is the first to incorporate support for BitTorrent v2, and even though nothing changes in the short or medium term, it is good to know that it already has some official presence.

A Protocol in Need of an Upgrade

The history of BitTorrent began in April 2001, when programmer Bram Cohen from the University of Buffalo designed the original version of the protocol. These are 19 years full of files, transfers, exchanges, services, controversies, and legal battles, but none of that has stopped BitTorrent. On the contrary: the latest statistics suggest that it has about 170 million users around the globe.

BitTorrent v2 Arrives

In early September, the people behind libtorrent (an open source implementation of the BitTorrent protocol) announced the release of version 2.0, and with it the official debut of BitTorrent v2. One of the main objectives of this second edition is the definitive retirement of SHA-1 in favor of SHA-256, blocking the possibility of collisions that could lead to attacks and exploits. The hash function change is not backward compatible, and the developers have plans to add other improvements, so the jump to BitTorrent v2 is the most convenient decision.

Now, what does the loss of backward compatibility mean? In relaxed terms, users who download a v1 torrent will not be able to share it with v2 users and vice versa. The swarms are separated, but the solution will be to generate hybrid torrents, which will connect to both swarms without too much trouble. The transition process is expected to be slow, however, it is already possible to download a BitTorrent client with v2 support: BiglyBT.

BiglyBT is the child of Parg and TuxPaper, two developers from the Vuze/Azureus project who decided to create their own variant. With a classic interface and a huge number of advanced parameters (which you will have to activate on your own), BiglyBT is the first of the clients to incorporate libtorrent 2.0, and by extension, BitTorrent v2. BiglyBT also has a partial Spanish translation, so if you have difficulties with English, you will not feel so lost.

Personally, I have not noticed any performance difference with BiglyBT. Our "download benchmark" of Linux Mint immediately took advantage of all the available bandwidth, but we manually configured the ports that are already open on our router. The only technical detail I have left to mention is that BiglyBT depends on Java to work. I know that not all users will see that with good eyes, but I did not detect any major problem. You can download BiglyBT now, or wait for other clients based on libtorrent (for example, qBittorrent) to update.

Official site and download: Click here