A magnet link is a hyperlink that contains the hash code for a torrent file. It is an alternative to traditional .torrent files and offers some advantages over them.
In essence, a magnet link is simply a string of text. However, there’s a lot of information packed into that string!
A magnet link contains a unique identifier, various parameters depending on the exact nature of the torrent, and, most importantly, a cryptographic hash of the torrent files.
A cryptographic hash is a mathematical function that converts any data into a fixed-length string of numbers and letters. This string acts as a fingerprint of the data, meaning that any change in the data will result in a different hash.
By using the hash of the torrent files, a magnet link can locate and download the files from other peers without needing a central tracker server. This makes magnet links more resilient, efficient and convenient than .torrent files.