Vitralik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, and its most visible advocate, recently tweeted an article about The Pirate Bay. ‘After 15 Years, the Pirate Bay Still Can’t Be Killed,’ the title reads.

Cryptocurrencies and peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing have much in common. After all, Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision for ‘digital cash’ was inspired by P2P clients like BitTorrent. Torrent files also contain cryptographic hash values, so they can be seen as the older cousins of the cryptocurrency sector. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that prominent blockchain developers like Vitalik Buterin are noted supporters of torrenting and, more specifically, The Pirate Bay.

The Pirate Bay currently accepts donations in BTC, ETH, and XMR and has also received significant backlash for utilizing users’ CPUs to mine XMR. Regardless, the project is a noted player in the cryptocurrency space.

Buterin, in his recent tweet, celebrates the 15 year anniversary of a website which has refused to back down amid an onslaught of threats from authorities.

The Pirate Bay: 15 Years

‘After 15 Years, The Pirate Bay Still Can’t be Killed’ is a coming-of-age story about a young student’s life and how his early years were formed so strongly by The Pirate Bay. Through the site, a whole treasure trove of media became accessible to him while in high school. The piece also recounts how uncertain the future of The Pirate Bay seemed just a decade ago.

Although giants like Napster and LimeWire have been shut down, and others like Kickass Torrents face copyright cases, The Pirate Bay has stood strong. This is mainly because the site has not been caught red-handed in jurisdictions with harsh punishments. More importantly, the site has outgrown its founders and seems to have a life of its own. It’s a testament to how powerful decentralization can be.

However, that’s not the say The Pirate Bay has not had its tumultuous history. It has been subject to multiple raids by authorities. Although anti-piracy efforts have been a major focus of groups like the RIAA, these major corporate representatives have failed to stop the free movement of media.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency — Spiritual Successors

There’s a reason Buterin recently tweeted a long-read on The Pirate Bay’s 15-year history. The cryptocurrency space owes most of its inspiration from early P2P clients and those that facilitate torrenting, like The Pirate Bay. That is because both torrenting and blockchain are part of a greater, decentralized web.

Given Buterin’s support of The Pirate Bay, one shouldn’t be surprised by the fact that many other blockchain developers feel the same way. The Pirate Bay undoubtedly holds a major place in the fight for a decentralized, free web.

Do you believe blockchain technology’s main inspiration came from P2P sharing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.