53 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
53 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
[](https://travis-ci.org/lbryio/lbry)
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# LBRYnet
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LBRYnet is a fully decentralized network for distributing data. It consists of peers uploading
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and downloading data from other peers, possibly in exchange for payments, and a distributed hash
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table, used by peers to discover other peers.
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## Installation
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Download the [latest release](https://github.com/lbryio/lbry/releases/latest) or see [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md) for manual installation.
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## Overview
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On LBRYnet, data is broken into chunks, and each chunk is specified by its sha384 hash sum. This
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guarantees that peers can verify the correctness of each chunk without having to know anything
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about its contents, and can confidently re-transmit the chunk to other peers. Peers wishing to
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transmit chunks to other peers announce to the distributed hash table that they are associated
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with the sha384 hash sum in question. When a peer wants to download that chunk from the network,
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it asks the distributed hash table which peers are associated with that sha384 hash sum. The
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distributed hash table can also be used more generally. It simply stores IP addresses and
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ports which are associated with 384-bit numbers, and can be used by any type of application to
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help peers find each other. For example, an application for which clients don't know all of the
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necessary chunks may use some identifier, chosen by the application, to find clients which do
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know all of the necessary chunks.
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## For Developers
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LBRY comes with an file sharing application, called 'lbrynet-console', which breaks
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files into chunks, encrypts them with a symmetric key, computes their sha384 hash sum, generates
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a special file called a 'stream descriptor' containing the hash sums and some other file metadata,
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and makes the chunks available for download by other peers. A peer wishing to download the file
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must first obtain the 'stream descriptor' and then may open it with his 'lbrynet-console' client,
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download all of the chunks by locating peers with the chunks via the DHT, and then combine the
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chunks into the original file, according to the metadata included in the 'stream descriptor'.
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For detailed instructions, see [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md) and [RUNNING.md](RUNNING.md).
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Documentation: doc.lbry.io (may be out of date)
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Source code: https://github.com/lbryio/lbry
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To contribute, [join us on Slack](https://lbry-slackin.herokuapp.com/) or contact josh@lbry.io. Pull requests are also welcome.
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## Support
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Please open an issue and describe your situation in detail. We will respond as soon as we can.
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For private issues, contact josh@lbry.io.
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## License
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See [LICENSE](LICENSE)
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