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Freenet as a Content Distribution System

In addition to its anonymity features, Freenet is also an effective way to distribute large files - often achieving download speeds faster than other content distribution systems. As a content distribution network Freenet has the following advantages:

• Totally decentralized
  Information can be inserted into Freenet for download without any reliance on a centralized server. All the inserter needs to do is give the content's "key" to someone else and they will be able to download it.
• Adaptive caching
  Many CDN architectures only allow peers which have already downloaded a file to share it with other peers. Freenet will adaptively cache information on peers as necessary to meet demand regardless of what that peer has downloaded. This allows Freenet to "scale-up" much more quickly than most solutions for popular files, and improves load-balancing.
• Strong Security
  Freenet has long-supported the concept of "Content Hash Keys" which guarantee the integrity of retrieved data. This approach has since been adopted by other architectures. Freenet also supports "Signed Subspace Keys" which allow content to be digitally signed. This also allows content integrity to be guaranteed, but is more flexible than CHKs.
• Forward Error Correction
  In-common with some other CDN architectures, Freenet employs "Forward Error Correction", which allows files to be reconstructed even if some of the parts of that file can't be retrieved. Uniquely, Freenet also supports "healing", which involves the reconstruction and reinsertion of missing file components.

This page contains links to freely available content on Freenet. If you would like to add a new link please email it to us - remember that we will only link to content that can be legally distributed in the United States of America.