Developer(s) | Tamas Kocsis |
---|---|
Initial release | 2015 |
Stable release | 0.7.1[1]
/ 4 September 2019 |
Repository | |
Written in | Python, JavaScript, CoffeeScript |
Operating system | Windows, Linux, OS X, FreeBSD, Android |
Available in | Danish, German, English, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Chinese, Persian. |
Type | Peer-to-peer web hosting |
License | GPLv3[2] |
Website | zeronet |
Part of a series on |
File sharing |
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File Hosts |
Video sharing sites |
BitTorrent sites |
Media Servers |
Technologies |
File sharing networks |
Academic |
P2P clients |
Anonymous file sharing |
History and societal aspects |
By country or region |
Comparisons |
ZeroNet is a decentralized web-like network of peer-to-peer users, created by Tamas Kocsis in 2015, programming for the network was based in Budapest, Hungary; is built in Python; and is fully open source.[3] Instead of having an IP address, sites are identified by a public key (specifically a bitcoin address). The private key allows the owner of a site to sign and publish changes, which propagate through the network. Sites can be accessed through an ordinary web browser when using the ZeroNet application, which acts as a local webhost for such pages.[3] In addition to using Bitcoin cryptography, ZeroNet uses trackers from the BitTorrent network[4] to negotiate connections between peers.[3] ZeroNet is not anonymous by default, but it supports routing traffic through the Tor network.[5]
There is no way to take down a ZeroNet page which still has seeders,[3] thus making such pages immune to third-party methods of taking them down, including DMCA takedown notices.[6]
The feasibility of peer-to-peer online web-sites had been hypothesized for some time, with The Pirate Bay suggesting they would build a network, as well as BitTorrent Inc. which created the closed-source Project Maelstrom.[3] Another application, Beaker Browser, uses the P2P DAT files protocol to allow the creation, hosting and serving of websites without need of a server.[7]
ZeroNet supports HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Server-side languages like PHP are not supported, although ZeroNet can achieve user signup/login on MySQL databases, that are also distributed via P2P.
By default, sites have a size limit of 10 megabytes, but users may grant a site permission to use more storage space if they wish.
With plugins and the ZeroFrame API, sites can communicate with ZeroNet calling Python by JavaScript.