Patent ID: 7937362

Claim:
A method for facilitating a credit system to provide user incentives in a peer-to-peer overlay (P2P) network, the method comprising: receiving an upload report from a first peer node, wherein an unverified entry in the upload report comprises a destination user identifier and the amount of data uploaded, by a first user associated with the first peer node to a second peer node associated with a second user; receiving a download report from the second peer node, wherein an entry in the download report indicates the amount of data received by the second user at the second peer node from the first peer node; verifying the unverified entry in the upload report by matching the amount of uploaded data and the destination user identification in the unverified entry in the upload report to the corresponding amount of downloaded data in the second user's entry and the second user's identification in the download report; and increasing credit for the first user in proportion to the verified amount of data uploaded by the first user from the first peer node to the second peer node; and decreasing credit for the second user in proportion to the verified amount of data downloaded by the second user at the second peer node from the first peer node.