eDonkey2000 Launches
Jed McCaleb launches eDonkey2000, introducing content-addressable hashing and creating the technical precursor to Mt. Gox.
On September 6, 2000, developer Jed McCaleb released eDonkey2000 (ed2k), a highly advanced P2P file-sharing network. eDonkey was significant for introducing the ed2k hash, a cryptographic fingerprint for files. In previous networks, files were identified by filenames (e.g., "song.mp3"), which allowed for easy spoofing and corruption. In eDonkey, files were identified by the hash of their content. If the file changed by a single bit, the hash changed. This concept of content-addressability is a core component of Bitcoin, where transactions are identified by their TXID (SHA-256 hash).
eDonkey2000 eventually grew to be larger than Kazaa, thanks to its ability to handle large files and its robust decentralized server architecture. It also introduced Overnet, one of the first implementations of Kademlia (DHT) in a commercial product, further removing reliance on central servers. McCaleb's experience in building, scaling, and defending eDonkey2000 against the RIAA gave him the unique skill set required to build Mt. Gox ten years later.
The network was eventually sued into oblivion in 2005, costing McCaleb $30 million in settlements, but the technology persisted in open-source forks like eMule. eDonkey2000 pioneered the use of cryptographic hashing for data identification in P2P networks, a direct technological ancestor to the immutable ledger entries of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Key Sources:
• Wikipedia: eDonkey2000
• CNET: eDonkey Settlement (2006)
• Observer: Profile on Jed McCaleb