Rainberry, Inc.
Rainberry, Inc., formerly known as BitTorrent, Inc., is an American company responsible for μTorrent and BitTorrent Mainline. The company was founded on September 22, 2004 by Bram Cohen and Ashwin Navin. It was successful during the Great Recession under the leadership of CEO Eric Klinker. In 2018, the company was acquired by cryptocurrency startup TRON, and Bram Cohen left the company. In March 2022, the SEC charged Rainberry with fraud for selling cryptocurrencies Tronix and BitTorrent as unregistered securities.
History
The company was founded in 2004 by Bram Cohen and Ashwin Navin, and became the inventor of "μtorrent and BitTorrent software and a pioneering San Francisco company in decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing technology." According to the San Francisco Times at its peak, BitTorrent in the early 2010s had up to a quarter billion active monthly users, while its protocol "accounted for virtually half of file-sharing bandwidth on the Internet."Tron, a cryptocurrency startup, acquired Rainberry in 2018, with Tron later introducing BTT, a BitTorrent cryptocurrency token. The token aimed to help monetize Rainberry's software, which had been supported by advertising in the user interface since its inception.
In early 2023 Rainberry Inc. closed its San Francisco headquarters in the Financial District and laid off 92 employees. In March 2023, Sun served as CEO of Rainberry, Tron, and Peiwo simultaneously.
In March 2023, the SEC sued Tron founder Justin Sun, the Tron foundation, the BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry Inc. over the sale of TRX and BTT tokens, and over the debate as to whether they counted as unregistered crypto asset securities.
BitTorrent software
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer computer program developed by Bram Cohen and BitTorrent, Inc. that is used for uploading and downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent was the first client written for the protocol. It is often nicknamed Mainline by developers, denoting its official origins. Since version 6.0, the BitTorrent client has been a rebranded version of μTorrent. As a result, it is no longer open source and is currently available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.μTorrent
'μTorrent' is a freeware, closed source BitTorrent client owned by BitTorrent, Inc. It is available for Microsoft Windows, Android and Mac OS X. A μTorrent Server is available for Linux. All versions are written in C++.On December 7, 2006, μTorrent was purchased by BitTorrent, Inc., as it was announced on their official forum.
BitTorrent/μTorrent Pro
Pro is the name received by advanced versions, formerly branded Plus, of BitTorrent and μTorrent. These are premium versions of the Windows software with additional features that are downloaded and installed when the user upgrades for US$19.95. Pre-sales for Plus were announced November 29, 2011 and the upgrade became available December 8, 2011. A "Pro" version of uTorrent for Android also exists, for a lower initial price, though in-app purchases can take it over the cost of the desktop version.When a user upgrades to the Pro version of BitTorrent or μTorrent they enable the following features:
- Anti-virus protection for acquired.torrent files
- Integrated HD media player
- Transcoding capability with media codecs
- Streaming playback while torrent is downloading
BitTorrent Sync
The BitTorrent Sync pre-Alpha program, announced in January 2013, was opened to general users on April 23, 2013. On November 23, 2013, BitTorrent announced the release of version 1.2 of the client along with a beta version of the BitTorrent Sync API.
On June 1, 2016, product and team were spun out of BitTorrent Inc. as an independent company, Resilio Inc. which will continue development of the product under the name Resilio Sync.
BitTorrent Bundle
The company has released "Bundles" with artists such as Linkin Park, Pixies, Public Enemy, and Madonna. The Madonna Bundle, entitled secretprojectrevolution, was released on September 24, 2013 and consisted of the 17-minute film of the same name, stills from the film, and an option for those users who submit their email addresses and make a donation that also includes HD and 2K versions of the film, a VICE interview, and a message from Madonna.On September 17, 2013, the company launched "BitTorrent Bundles for Publishers", an alpha program for content creators to distribute bundles of any size and file type using the BitTorrent client. The first released bundle was the fantasy feature film "Overturn: Awakening of the Warrior" starring Ukrainian Vietnamese actor Ivan Doan
On September 26, 2014, Thom Yorke released his album Tomorrow's Modern Boxes as the first paid Bundle, priced at US$6.00. On October 3, 2014, it was announced that the project had been downloaded over 1 million times, which included the free single and video plus the paid downloads; sales numbers have not been released.
On October 28, 2014, Alice in Chains released their music video for "Phantom Limb" via BitTorrent Bundle for free streaming and download. The bundle also included the video treatment and the shot list in PDF, as well as access to the band's merch.