Question

In Freenet, if a file is large, it is split into datablocks and what is called a splitfile, contains keys to all these blocks. Why is this necessary?

The only possible explanation I could draw from it is that they want the possibility of a hash collision to be minimal.

NOTE: I’ve posted this in StackOverflow because I believe it is a programming problem of sorts

Answer 1

I’m not a freenet expert, but… splitting files into small chunks has several benefits:

• The “burden” of large files are split across nodes. This means that even nodes who have only set a small amount of storage or bandwidth aside for freenet can help store and deliver parts of larger files.
• Nodes in freenet are not guaranteed to be stable. If a node goes offline during the storing or fetching small chunks little effort is lost and another node can be used instead without added protocol complexity.
• Chunks can be stored and fetched in parallel allowing for very fast transfers despite a network of slow nodes.