ZeroNet

ZeroNet
Original authorTamas Kocsis
DevelopersTamas Kocsis and other contributors
Release2015
Final release
0.7.1 / 4 September 2019; 7 years ago (4 September 2019)
Written inPython, JavaScript, CoffeeScript
Operating systemWindows, Linux, OS X, FreeBSD, Android
Available inDanish, German, English, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Chinese, Persian.
TypePeer-to-peer web hosting
LicenseGPLv3
Websitezeronet.io
Repository

ZeroNet is a decentralized web-like network of peer-to-peer users, created by Tamas Kocsis in 2015. The programming for the network was based in Budapest, Hungary. It is built in Python and fully open source. Instead of having an IP address, sites are identified by a public key (specifically a bitcoin address). The private key allows the owner of a site to sign and publish changes, which propagate through the network. Sites can be accessed through an ordinary web browser when using the ZeroNet application, which acts as a local webhost for such pages. In addition to using bitcoin cryptography, ZeroNet uses trackers from the BitTorrent network to negotiate connections between peers. ZeroNet is not anonymous by default, but it supports routing traffic through the Tor network.

The ZeroNet website and bittorrent tracker are blocked in mainland China. Despite the censorship, however, it is still possible to access ZeroNet from behind the Great Firewall of China, even over Tor, by bootstrapping over Meek, and connecting to peers directly.

There is no way to take down a ZeroNet page which still has seeders, thus making such pages immune to most third-party methods of taking them down, including DMCA takedown notices.

Hiatus and forks

Following the stable release of v0.7.1 on GitHub, development of the original project ceased. Several forks, including ZeroNetX and zeronet-conservancy, continued development independently, but neither has shown significant development activity since 2025. In September 2025, the EpixNet project took over development, aiming to modernize the codebase and development environment while addressing critical technical shortcomings and security vulnerabilities inherited from the original project and its earlier forks.

Development of the network

The feasibility of peer-to-peer online web-sites had been hypothesised for some time, with The Pirate Bay suggesting they would build a network, as well as BitTorrent Inc. which created the closed-source Project Maelstrom.

Sites on ZeroNet are known as "zites" by its users.

ZeroNet supports HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Server-side languages like PHP are not supported, although ZeroNet creates and gives API to interact with SQLite databases, their data also distributed (as JSON files) via P2P.

By default, sites have a size limit of 10 megabytes, but users may grant a site permission to use more storage space if they wish.

With plugins and the ZeroFrame API, sites can communicate with ZeroNet calling Python by JavaScript.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Release ZeroNet version 0.7.1". 4 September 2019.
  2. ↑ "ZeroNet". GitHub. 19 May 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Play: A P2P Distributed Torrent Site That's Impossible to Shut Down – TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Kumar, Mohit (18 February 2015). "MegaNet — New Decentralized, Non-IP Based and Encrypted Network". The Hacker News. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  5. ↑ "FAQ: Is Zero Net Anonymous". zeronet.io. Archived from the original on 2 January 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  6. ↑ Hill, Paul. "China blocks access to ZeroNet website and tracker". Neowin. Archived from the original on 16 June 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  7. ↑ "Steal This Show S01E07: Did P2P Break the Law? - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. Event occurs at 17m39s. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2016. and what's happened is [...] some forward-thinking person has created a site on ZeroNet called Play, a torrent site[...]. The difference is that you can't take it down. I think you literally can't take it down. [...] It sniffs at your DMCA.