What is "super-seeding"

In file sharing, super-seeding is an algorithm developed by John Hoffman for the BitTorrent communications protocol that helps downloaders to be able to become uploaders more quickly, but it introduces the danger of total seeding failure if there is only one downloader.

The algorithm applies to a scenario in which there is only one seed in the swarm. By permitting each downloader to download only specific parts of the files listed in a torrent, it equips peers to begin seeding sooner.

In 2003, BitTornado became the first BitTorrent client to implement the algorithm.