[murbard2]

Sure, then just have trusted third parties (such as TPB) sign the torrents. It would be pretty hard to shutdown someone signing hashes from an unknown location.

[runn1ng]

In a fully decentralized environment, you would need to somehow know who to trust and make some karma/feedback in a decentralized way.

Given that PGP's web of trust never really caught on, I am not sure if this would work.

But maybe it would and I am just too pesimistic.

[murbard2]

Decentralization is a tool, not a goal. TBP, and some verified uploaders managed to gain a good reputation and they didn't abuse it, did they?

[dandelion_lover]

Why not just use I2P? Though it is not so fast, but for many things acceptable.

[minthd]

The pirate bay has a comment system, and an option to verify torrents are uploaded by someone. It's possible to implement those in a p2p way, but than it comes close to the improved systems on silk road with reputation ,etc - so maybe they prefer not to go there.