When bittorrent was released, I saw the technological aspects as groundbreaking, thinking it would be repurposed for much more than ISO downloads and mass media distribution. How did the technology not become a more popular way of distributing via crowdsourcing large community datasets, such as openstreetmaps, or something like distribution of Android rom updates, when the costs of distribution are so expensive?
only among tech people. Way to prove my point. The general population only cared about easy access to free movies, they did not, and still do not care about the underlying implementation that makes that possible. My dad downloads stuff occasionally, I assure you, he does not know what bittorrent does
However the reason why those non-tech savvy have access to pirated content for free, with fast download speeds and with unlimited downloading is because of torrents. Bittorrent is what makes that possible.
I was a prolific user of BitTorrent early, and I knew very few people who used it, let alone understood the basics of it. Now it seems like arcane knowledge, young folks have no idea. This is just my IRL experience though.