The World's Oldest Torrent Is Still Being Shared

[Skeithex]

On December 20, 2003, a torrent file was created for an ASCII version of The Matrix. In January 2016, after countless other albums, movies and TV shows have come and gone, it’s still active.

Since there’s no official world governing body of the torrent scene, the guys at TorrentFreak are the closest thing we’ve got, and having tracked the torrent for over a decade (they first wrote about it in 2005, when it only had a single seeder) they’re comfortable calling it “the oldest torrent that’s still being actively shared”.

While in 2016 it’s easy for even the most obscure stuff to find a home in someone’s HDD, a lot of older torrents are gone because back when BitTorrent had “only a fraction of the users it has now” (the first client was released in 2001), it was a lot harder for torrents to remain continuously active.

source

[froggyboy604]

Wow, I wonder could this Torrent be the oldest video file people share online someday.

[Skeithex]

hard to say how long it will last, but I wasn't aware it be so popular it last this long.

[froggyboy604]

It's crazy how popular "The Matrix" is that fans made an ASCII version of The Matrix which may of taken a long time back in the past when computers were slower, and animation programs were not as good or fast.

[Skeithex]

I wonder if any other torrents will come to live this long?

[froggyboy604]

I'm sure the Rickroll song would be torrented for a long time because a lot of people like pranking friends with the Rick Roll video.

[BBvideo 800,600][/BBvideo]

Psy-Gangnum style may also be torrented for a long time to come.

[Skeithex]

I would think better music torrents would stay alive than those really.