...

• Enable a user to securely share a dataset with other users.
• It must be possible to limit access to datasets based on user-defined groups.
• It must be possible to use a normal BitTorrent client both for sharing and for downloading datasets.
• An API is needed for integration with other systems

...

Dataflow

The following picture illustrates the flow of data in Lobber:

...

Storage nodes are special in the sense that they are trusted to keep and retain datasets as opposed to regular BitTorrent clients that are not expected to be available. In the larger BitTorrent community the problem of dataset availability is typically solved by so called ratio limits which ensure that users keep sharing data they download. This model does not work for Lobber since we need to guarantee the existence of every dataset and not just the average availability of datasets in general.

Authentication

Users are authenticated to the Lobber web application using federated authentication.