What is the benefit of WebRTC P2P system?

Question

I am wondering what the benefit of a WebRTC based P2P system would be?

• Is the performance improved?
• Is the security stronger?

... as opposed to a traditional vanilla P2P solution in, fx, Java.

Answer 1

The benefit of WebRTC/RTCWeb (first is the implementation and w3c API, second is the ietf standard) is in its name: Web. It does not have anything special, it's just an standard inspired by SIP whose implementation is shared by all the main browsers. The benefit is that you don't have to code a client for it because it's already embedded in the browser next to GetUserMedia which enables you to easily capture video and audio streams from the devices.

Performance is determined mostly by the codecs and they use open source codecs you could use in your own implementation. It is also secure, but you can make any p2p connection secure through encryption.

It is just an standard meant to make web developers' lifes easier when dealing with p2p real time voice, video and data streaming.