Bram Cohen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bram Cohen
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Cohen in 2015
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| Born | October 12, 1975 New York City, U.S.
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| Alma mater | University at Buffalo |
| Occupation | Chief executive officer, Chia Network |
| Known for | BitTorrent protocol |
| Spouse(s) | Jenna Cohen |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Ross Cohen (brother) |
| Awards | USENIX STUG Award Time 100 MIT TR35 |
Bram Cohen is an American computer programmer. He is famous for creating the BitTorrent protocol in 2001. This protocol helps people share large files online. He also made the first program that used this protocol, called BitTorrent.
Bram Cohen also helped start CodeCon. This was a special event for new technology projects. He later created the Chia cryptocurrency. This digital currency uses a special way to confirm transactions.
Contents
Bram Cohen's Early Life and Learning
Bram Cohen grew up in New York City. His mom was a teacher and his dad was a computer scientist. He says he learned to code at age 5. He used a BASIC programming language on his family's computer.
He went to Stuyvesant High School in New York City. He was very good at math. He even qualified for a national math competition. After high school, he went to SUNY Buffalo. However, he later left college. He wanted to work for different internet companies in the 1990s.
How BitTorrent Was Born
One of Bram's last jobs was at a company called MojoNation. This company had an interesting idea. It let people break up secret files into small, encrypted pieces. These pieces were then stored on many different computers. If you wanted to download a file, you would get pieces from many computers at once.
Bram thought this idea was perfect for sharing files. Older file-sharing programs often downloaded files from only one source. This made downloading large files very slow. Bram designed BitTorrent to download parts of a file from many different people. This makes downloads much faster. The more people who are downloading a file, the faster it gets for everyone. This is because those people are also sharing parts of the file.
Bram Cohen has said that he has Asperger syndrome. He came to this conclusion himself.
The BitTorrent Protocol
In April 2001, Bram Cohen started working on BitTorrent. He showed his ideas at the first CodeCon conference. He and his roommate, Len Sassaman, created CodeCon. They wanted a place to show off new tech projects.
Bram wrote the first BitTorrent program using the Python language. Many other programs now use the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent became very popular for sharing large music and movie files quickly.
Bram has said he never broke copyright laws using his software. He believes that old ways of doing business in media would change. He thought this would happen even with legal actions or digital protections. In 2005, he released a test version of BitTorrent that didn't need a central server.
In 2003, Bram worked briefly at Valve Corporation. He helped with their Steam system. This system delivers games digitally.
By 2004, he left Valve. He started a company called BitTorrent, Inc. with his brother Ross Cohen. In 2012, he announced a test version of BitTorrent Live. This was for broadcasting TV over the internet. Bram left his daily role at BitTorrent, Inc. in 2017. He then started a new company called Chia Network.
BitTorrent and Copyright
By 2005, BitTorrent, Inc. received money from investors. Bram Cohen and his business partner made a deal with the MPAA. The MPAA is a group that represents major movie studios. The deal meant the official BitTorrent website would remove links to illegal content. This agreement followed rules in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Chia Network
Chia Network is a company Bram Cohen founded in 2017. It created a cryptocurrency called Chia. This digital currency uses a method called "proof of space-time."
Chia was designed to use less energy than other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Bitcoin uses a lot of electricity. Chia also aims to be safer from big organizations than other systems. Chia Network has received money from investors. The way Chia uses computer storage (hard drives) has raised some concerns. People worry it might make these drives more expensive or wear them out faster.
Bram Cohen's Personal Life
As of 2008, Bram Cohen lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. He lives there with his wife, Jenna, and their three children.
Bram Cohen has said that he has Asperger syndrome. He came to this conclusion himself.
Bram has many hobbies. He enjoys making original origami figures. He can also juggle up to five balls. His main interest is in recreational mathematics. He has a blog where he talks about math-related topics. He also likes assembly puzzles. He has designed several puzzles, some with another designer named Oskar van Deventer. Some of his puzzle designs can be made using 3-D printing.
Awards and Recognition
Bram Cohen has received several awards for his work on the BitTorrent protocol:
- 2004 Wired Rave Award
- 2005 MIT Technology Review TR35 (one of the top 35 innovators under 35)
- 2005 Time's 100 Most Influential People
- 2006 USENIX STUG Award
- 2010 Internet Evolution 100
See also
In Spanish: Bram Cohen para niños
