Tehparadox going down also threw me for a loop.
We experimented once before with some key users getting a download link via PM and then having them all seeding a torrent as a means of handling the high demands of initial distribution. There was some technical fiasco and it didn’t work well at all. Doesn’t mean it’s not worth another shot, but maybe someone would need to document a “you must do it exactly like this” set of instructions to avoid issues. In theory, it seemed like a pretty good idea. Maybe worth another go.
It seems that an initial distribution using magnet links and relying on dht could work?