Blockchain Startup Tron Closes BitTorrent Acquisition

Tron founder Justin Sun says the deal makes his firm the “largest decentralized Internet ecosystem in the world.” BitTorrent said in a statement last month it “has no plans to change what we do or charge for the services we provide. We have no plans to enable mining of cryptocurrency now or in the future.” But it’s not clear what Tron’s plans for it will be going forward.

One thing’s for sure: the BitTorrent and uTorrent clients are not going away, nor should it’s more than 100 million active users have to start paying for the base service any time soon. It appears other apps and services BitTorrent has launched over the last few years, such as the ad-supported music and video app BitTorrent Now, could remain too. However, it’s unclear whether we’ll see future BitTorrent products, or if Tron will focus more on maintaining the current services and bolstering Tron’s own offerings.

Image Source: Bit Torrent

The acquisition closes a chapter in turbulent history. While it was committed to the notion of a decentralized internet, it still had to function as a business and attempts to find an app or service that helped BitTorrent turn the corner didn’t really work out. The situation was in such a mess a couple of years ago that the company fired its dual CEOs, while the company hadn’t raised any money since 2008.