It supports theoretical file sizes up to 16 billion gigabytes , making it a staple for system backups and large software distributions. Why It Matters Today Does 7z compress better than zip? - Microsoft Community Hub
It was built with an open-source architecture, allowing anyone to implement the format. file.7z
It introduced AES-256 encryption , allowing users to password-protect not just the files, but the file names themselves (header encryption). It supports theoretical file sizes up to 16
The "story" of the file format began in 1999 when it was introduced by Russian developer Igor Pavlov as the native format for his new, open-source file archiver, 7-Zip. The Evolution of .7z open-source file archiver