 | |
 Typical landing page for a PeerTube instance, Showing Peertubes Homepage | |
| Developer(s) | Framasoft |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 11 October 2018; 6 years ago (2018-10-11) |
| Stable release | |
| Repository | github |
| Written in | TypeScript,HTML,CSS,SQL |
| Operating system | Unix-like |
| Platform | Web |
| Size | 2.49 MB (tar.xz),30.70 MB (zip) |
| Available in | 28 languages[2] |
| License | AGPLv3+[3] |
| Website | joinpeertube |
PeerTube is afree and open-source,decentralized,ActivityPubfederated video platform. It can usepeer-to-peer technology to reduce load on individual servers when videos get popular.
Started in 2017 by a programmer known asChocobozzz, development of PeerTube is now supported by theFrench non-profitFramasoft.[4] The aim is to provide an alternative to centralized platforms such asYouTube,Vimeo, andDailymotion.
As anActivityPub platform, it is part of the federated network known as theFediverse.
Each PeerTube instance provides a website to browse and watch videos, and is by default independent from others in terms of appearance, features and rules.
Several instances, with common rules (e.g. allowing for similar content, requiring registration) can form federations, where they follow one's videos, even though each video is stored only by the instance that published it.[5] Federations are independent from each other[6][7] and asymmetrical: one instance can follow another to display their videos without them having to do the same. Instances' administrators can each choose to mirror individual videos or whole friend instances, creating an incentive to build communities of shared bandwidth.
Videos are made available viaHTTP to download, but playback favors a peer-to-peer playback usingHLS andWebRTC P2P.[8] (not to be confused with WebTorrent which Peertube previously also supported but discontinued beginning with version 6) Users connected to the platform act as relay points that send pieces of video to other users,[9] lessening the bandwidth of each to the server and thus allowing smaller hardware to operate at a lower cost.
PeerTube was created by a web developer known asChocobozzz as a peer-to-peer alternative toYouTube, initially utilizing theWebTorrent protocol to share videos.[10] He was contacted in 2017 by Framasoft, which had a campaign calledContributopia,[11] the goal of which is to create alternatives to centralized platforms. In order to support him and his work, notably on improving the design and usability, Framasoft hired the developer.
In 2018, Framasoft launched a crowdfunding on KissKissBankBank which raised €53,100 — more than double the initial goal of €20,000.[12][4]
The first beta of PeerTube was released in March 2018[13] and the first stable version in October 2018. In June 2018, only a few months after the first beta, 113 instances[14] are publicly available on the web that together host more than 10,000 videos.[15][16]
In June 2018, as a result of its videos disappearing amid changes regarding the monetization ofYouTube channels, theBlender Foundation began experimenting with hosting a PeerTube instance to distribute copies of the foundation's videos.[17]
In May 2020, Framasoft published a roadmap of the software for the later half of the year and created a fundraising campaign requiring €60,000 for aiding the development.[18]Five months later (in October 2020), PeerTube announced that they reached their fundraising goal of €60,000 after a €10,000 donation fromDebian.[19][20] Throughout the later half of 2020, PeerTube has added features such as global search, improved playlists, and more moderation tools.
End 2020, themeta-search engineSepia Search was launched by Framasoft, allowing a global search on all PeerTube instances at once. To-date (2021) Sepia Search totalises close to 800 individual instances.
In January 2021, Framasoft announced the release of PeerTube v3.0 with the help of the successful fundraising campaign.[21]The release highlighted peer-to-peerlive streaming as the major feature of the release.
On April, the 28th of 2022, theEuropean Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) launched a pilot ActivityPub video platformEU Video of the EU institutions, bodies and agencies (EUIs), based on PeerTube.[22] The pilot project was officially closed on 18 May 2024, without an official continuation.[23]
OfficialAndroid andiOS mobile apps were released, that provide ability to play content from PeerTube instances.[24][25] Andoid app, available viaF-Droid andGoogle Play, allow for access from all or limited number of instances, respectively. iOS app available via AppleApp Store provides content from a narrow list of selected instances.[26]
PeerTube up until version 6.0.0 offered bothHLS overWebRTC-P2P (often referred to as "HLS with P2P") andWebTorrent technology.WebTorrent is basically theBitTorrent protocol re-implemented on top ofWebRTC.[27][28] With WebTorrent each server hosts atorrenttracker and each web browser viewing a video also shares it. Normally HLS is implemented using "hls.js" and doesn't have any P2P functionality. The PeerTube project extended it with a custom loader that simultaneously downloads video chunks from both the webserver as well as via other viewers via WebRTC.[29] This allows to share the load between the server itself and the clients as well as the bandwidth used throughP2P technology.
The system works via a federation of instances run by independent entities. Each PeerTube server can host any number of videos by itself, and can additionally federate with other servers to let users watch their videos in the sameuser interface. This federation permits collectively hosting a large number of videos in a unified platform, without having to build an infrastructure comparable to that of the web giants. Each server is operated by and stays under the sole administration of a distinct entity.
PeerTube uses theActivityPub protocol in order to allow decentralization and compatibility with otherfediverse services, which can preventvendor lock-in and makes it more resilient againstcensorship.[17][30]
The software relies on thePostgreSQLDBMS.
Unofficial PeerTube video playback integrations exist for popular platforms like Reddit[31] andKodi.[32]
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