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'''Bram Cohen''' (born October 12, 1975) is an American [[computer programmer]], best known as the author of the [[peer-to-peer]] (P2P) [[BitTorrent (protocol)|BitTorrent protocol]], as well as the first [[file sharing]] program to use the protocol, also known as [[BitTorrent (software)|BitTorrent]]. He is also the co-founder of [[CodeCon]] and organizer of the [[San Francisco Bay Area]] P2P-hackers meeting, and was the co-author of [[Codeville]].

== Early life and career ==
Cohen grew up in the [[Upper West Side]] of Manhattan, New York City as the son of a teacher and computer scientist. He claims he learned the [[BASIC programming language]] at the age of 5 on his family's [[Timex Sinclair]] computer. Cohen passed the [[American Invitational Mathematics Examination]] to qualify for the [[United States of America Mathematical Olympiad]] (USAMO) while he attended [[Stuyvesant High School]] in New York City. He graduated from Stuyvesant in 1993 and attended [[University at Buffalo, The State University of New York|SUNY Buffalo]]. He later dropped out of college to work for several [[dot-com company|dot com companies]] throughout the mid to late 1990s, the last being [[MojoNation]], an ambitious but ill-fated project he worked on with Jim McCoy.

MojoNation allowed people to break up confidential files into encrypted chunks and distribute those pieces on computers also running the software. If someone wanted to download a copy of this encrypted file, he would have to download it simultaneously from many computers. This concept, Cohen thought, was perfect for a [[file sharing]] program, since programs like [[KaZaA]] take a long time to download a large file because the file is (usually) coming from one source (or "peer"). Cohen designed BitTorrent to be able to download files from many different sources, thus speeding up the download time, especially for users with faster [[download]] than [[upload]] speeds. Thus, the more popular a file is, the faster a user will be able to download it, since many people will be downloading it at the same time, and these people will also be uploading the data to other users.

Cohen claims he has [[Asperger syndrome]]

== BitTorrent ==
In April 2001, Cohen quit MojoNation and began work on BitTorrent. Cohen unveiled his novel ideas at the first [[CodeCon]] conference, which he and his roommate [[Len Sassaman]] created as a showcase event for novel technology projects after becoming disillusioned with the state of technology conferences. It remains an event for those seeking information about new directions in software, though BitTorrent continues to lay claim to the title of "most famous presentation".

Cohen wrote the first BitTorrent client implementation in [[Python (programming language)|Python]], and [[BitTorrent client|many other programs]] have since implemented the protocol.

In the summer of 2002, Cohen collected free pornography to lure [[beta test]]ers to use the program. BitTorrent gained its fame for its ability to quickly share large music and movie files online. Cohen himself has claimed he has never violated copyright law using his software.

===BitTorrent and the MPAA===
By mid-2005, BitTorrent, Inc. was funded by venture capitalist [[David Chao]] from [[Doll Capital Management]], and in late 2005 Cohen and Navin made a deal with the [[MPAA]] to remove links to illegal content on the official BitTorrent website. The deal was with the seven largest studios in America. The agreement means the site will comply with procedures outlined in the [[Digital Millennium Copyright Act]].

==Personal life==
As of 2008, Cohen lives in the [[San Francisco Bay Area]], United States, with his wife Jenna and their three children.

Cohen's hobbies include original [[origami]] and [[juggling]] up to five balls, but his main interest is in [[recreational mathematics]]. Cohen maintains a [[blog]] where he frequently discusses [[trust metric]]s with [[Raph Levien]], as well as money systems, games of skill, and other math-related topics. He is also an [[Mechanical puzzle|assembly puzzle]] enthusiast. He has designed several puzzles including some in conjunction with [[Oskar van Deventer]] including several gear-based puzzles such as Gear Shift and a multiple [[Rubik's Cube]] variant called Bram's Fortress. Some of Bram's puzzle designs are available for [[3-D printing]] via [[Shapeways]].

==Awards==
Cohen has received a number of awards for his work on the BitTorrent protocol. These awards include:
* [[2004 Wired Rave Award]]
* 2005 [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] [[Technology Review]] [[TR35]] as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
* [[Time 100|2005 Time's 100 Most Influential People]]
* [[2006 USENIX STUG Award]]
* [[2010 Internet Evolution 100]]

==Source==

[http://wikipedia.org/ http://wikipedia.org/]
[[Category:People of the industry]]
==See Also on BitcoinWiki==
* [[Tencent QQ]]
* [[BitcoinX (application)]]

Bram Cohen - Revision history

Admin: Created page with "'''Bram Cohen''' (born October 12, 1975) is an American computer programmer, best known as the author of the peer-to-peer (P2P) BitTorrent (protocol)|BitTorrent prot..."