"That's a pretty big hurdle considering most regular torrent users don't even realize WebTorrent exists"
They don't need to. That's the point.
If I send a user to https://file.pizza/ to transfer a file to them. Not once to I have to mention that it uses WebTorrent.
IMO that's the killer feature.
Yes, WebTorrent enables plenty of really great, novel use cases for BitTorrent technology, but it will remain a second-rate BitTorrent client in the eyes of most existing BitTorrent users without great interop. Although I personally do like these new WebTorrent-based web services, there's no guarantee that any of them will ever reach critical mass in terms of adoption, whereas BitTorrent itself has long since reached critical mass. To say that "normal clients don't really matter" simply because WebTorrent can enable new use cases for BitTorrent (that haven't shown any significant traction) really seems like you're missing the proverbial forest for the trees.
> To say that "normal clients don't really matter" simply because WebTorrent can enable new use cases for BitTorrent (that haven't shown any significant traction) really seems like you're missing the proverbial forest for the trees.
"there's no guarantee that any of them will ever reach critical mass in terms of adoption"
When you give away tool with a widespread guaranteed userbase like this, someone is bound to build something that people will use.
Not to say WebTorrent will be this big, but that's how the internet came to be.
And this is a completely decentralized upload and download library for the web, someone's going to build something popular with it I'm sure and it's not even at version 1.0 yet.
They don't need to. That's the point.
If I send a user to https://file.pizza/ to transfer a file to them. Not once to I have to mention that it uses WebTorrent. IMO that's the killer feature.