Bandwidth could become a form of “currency” with users paying for downloaded files by uploading more data themselves.

The researchers’ free software, called Tribler, uses a modified version of the popular BitTorrent file-trading algorithm. This requires people downloading a large file from a single source to pass segments of it on to other downloaders, dividing up bandwidth usage and speeding downloads. Unlike BitTorrent, however, Tribler asks users to “pay” for the bandwidth they consume by offering up more of their own in return.