Design Principles

Principles

SeedPay is designed around five core principles:

1. Backward compatible with BitTorrent — SeedPay extends the existing wire protocol via BEP 10 (Extension Protocol). Non-SeedPay clients continue to work without modification.

2. Opt-in — No forced payments. Users choose whether to participate in the paid tier or use free BitTorrent as usual.

3. Blockchain-agnostic — Solana is the initial target chain, but the protocol is designed to be extensible to Ethereum, L2s, and other chains.

4. Minimal trust required — Payment verification is done on-chain. Seeders verify payments independently via blockchain state — they never trust client-reported data.

5. Privacy-preserving — On-chain payments cannot be linked to download activity. Ephemeral session keys (ECDH-based) replace raw PeerIDs in on-chain memos.

Participation Model

Users can participate in both directions:

• Earn: Seed files and receive payments from leechers
• Spend: Pay seeders to download files quickly

This creates a circular economy: users earn USDC by seeding, then spend it on downloads, all within the same payment system.

User A: Seeds 10GB → Earns 0.1 USDC
User A: Downloads 5GB → Spends 0.05 USDC
Result: User A has 0.05 USDC remaining (net earner)

Getting Started as a User

Users can enter the economy in multiple ways:

1. Add funds (buy USDC) for immediate download access
2. Seed popular content to earn USDC from other users
3. Offset costs by seeding and earning while downloading
4. Become a net earner by seeding more than downloading

Protocol Version

This documentation covers SeedPay v0.3, which introduces:

• Ephemeral Session Keys (ECDH-based) for privacy
• Unidirectional payment channels with streaming micropayments
• Simplified protocol focused on crypto-native users with direct payments
• Ratio credits system dropped in favor of simpler implementation