I was just doing some reading about a new p2p client called Alliance. It’s a cross-platform program (the main project homepage only offers the EXE, but for Linux and Mac jarfile, go here) that marries social networks and file sharing; sort of like instant messaging meets BitTorrent. Instead of joining a large network of unknown peers and sharing a file, you construct your own network of trusted peers.

For example, Joe Q. Paranoid installs Alliance and adds his old college buddy, Hubert P. Piratepants as a trusted peer, as well as a few other people he knows and trusts. Together, they make up a private network that can transfer files back and forth from designated shared directories. If the file is present on more than one peer’s computer, it works like BitTorrent, using the multiple peers to increase the download speeds. There’s also a chat feature, letting you communicate with the people in your network.

Another great feature is encryption. By default, Alliance uses a rather simplistic encryption algorithm. SSL and AES are available as an option, but as of the current version (0.9.8), they are both in an experimental stage.

Overall, Alliance looks really fucking sweet. I haven’t had the chance to install and test it as of yet, but definitely plan on it.