# kaal:claim:3808859-011

**Claim.** Distributed routing makes a peer-to-peer network resistant to shutdown: BitTorrent could not be taken down even when authorities shut down specific servers, because nodes could update their own routing tables indefinitely.

**Type.** mechanism  **Support.** asserted

**Holds when.**

- applies to networks that removed central indexing servers

**Source quote.**

> Even if government authorities shut down specific servers, the BitTorrent network could not be shut down because nodes could update their own routing tables indefinitely.

**From.** Wulf A. Kaal, *Decentralization – Why We Need Technology Infrastructure Upgrades* (2021), II.6 Peer-to-Peer Networking, page 18

**Cite as.** Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization – Why We Need Technology Infrastructure Upgrades (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808859

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `304ad25d43b5ecea3158e3a2ca04e6e1e3bd2958e2134e2dcefbfedf3b6f3ab7` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Kaal%20-%202021%20-%20Decentralization%20%E2%80%93%20Why%20We%20Need%20Technology%20Infrastructure%20Upgrades.pdf

**Topics.** institutional-design

**Keywords.** bittorrent, censorship-resistance, peer-to-peer, distributed-hash-tables

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of the claim. Its sha256 is the content hash used for attestation.