AKP2P is an unstructured (technically hybrid), pure Java, peer-to-peer file sharing application. You can use AKP2P to download and share files with anyone else on the AKP2P network.
AKP2P can be built from source or run in a Docker container.
Clone the repo and then build and run the jar from the project root. An optional address of a Beacon node can be supplied.
gradle build
java -jar /build/libs/AKP2P.jar [-beacon | -beacon-address <hostname> <port>]
The port for AKP2P must be published when run in a container. <port> defaults to 4444 inside the container,
but can be overridden.
docker pull alyoshakaz/akp2p
docker run -it -p <hostport>:<port> -p <hostport>:<port>/udp akp2p [-port <port>] [-beacon | -beacon-address <hostname> <port>]
An AKP2P node can be started in two modes Beacon and Standard. A Beacon node exists purely for other nodes to register with and download the addresses of other nodes who have also registered.
The project was built with a purposeful naive design, eschewing any know protocols or architecture. This was done firstly as the impetus for the project was exploratory and, secondly, to try to avoid a "Solutions looking for problems" mindset when building the code.
That being said, in a post-hoc analysis, it appears the protocol and architecture that emerged was something similar to that of the FastTrack protocol used by the networks such as Kazaa.
Essentially the standard nodes in the AKP2P network are the equivalent of Kazaa Supernodes sharing a central directory of files and peers available on the network. That is we have a network of supernodes without any ordinary nodes existing.
It could be interesting to lean into this architecture in a future iteration, creating something analogous to Bitcoin's full and lite nodes, giving a node owner a choice in their relationship to the network.
The concept of file Pieces and that of a Beacon node, for registering network node addresses, seems to be something a kin to a primitive form of the Bitcoin protocol.
Consensus problems are dealt with by not requiring any consensus.