C omputing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application. They are said to form a peer-to-peer network of nodes. Peers make a portion of their resources, such as processing power, disk storage or network bandwidth, directly available to other network participants, without the need for central coordination by servers or stable hosts. Peers are both suppliers and consumers of resources, in contrast to the traditional client–server model where only servers supply (send), and clients consume (receive). The peer-to-peer application structure was popularized by file sharing systems like Napster . The concept has inspired new structures and philosophies in many areas of human interaction . Peer-to-peer networking is not restricted to technology, but covers also social processes with a peer-to-peer dynamic. I...