The video streaming landscape is massive. YouTube is a prime example, and you can make good money as a creator there. But what if you like to have more control over your content? On YouTube, this is very limited. This is where Theta Network comes to the rescue.
So, let’s have a look at what Theta Network is all about.
Theta Metachain technical documentation and SDK are now available, allowing developers to launch and develop on Theta subchains. Creating a subchain is permissionless, so anyone can launch a subchain without approval from Theta Labs. Get started today!https://t.co/o9izVB8Dh4 pic.twitter.com/tOEX8taxLB
— Theta Network (@Theta_Network) February 28, 2023
What Is Theta Network?
Theta Network is a blockchain that focuses on media and entertainment. They want to provide high-quality streams at lower costs. The current traditional video streaming providers face a variety of problems. For example, these content delivery networks (CDNs), face bottleneck issues. They can’t keep up with the high-quality streams.
On the other hand, Theta Network has a solution for this, based on blockchain technology. It has a system in place that offers rewards and incentives. These are for their users who share their spare bandwidth or computing resources. You get rewards in their TFUEL token. You can use this to execute transactions.
The more users who join their network, the more bandwidth becomes available. As a result, the streaming quality on the network improves. For this, they use Edgecast. This is a dApp that transcribes and distributes their videos.
They also have Theta TV. Here they stream videos, and you can earn TFUEL while you watch their videos. They have a growing ecosystem with plenty of entertainment-focused services. What they offer is, for example,
- E-sports
- Brand partners, like NASA
- Music
- TV
- Movies
- Games
- Language channels, for example, Spanish and French.
The video streaming industry is about to grow fast and hard. Expectations are by 20% per year until 2027. In other words, there will be a lot of money moving around in this industry. This video also gives you a good idea about the Theta Network.
How Does Theta Network Work?
Theta Network is currently on Version 4. It has a ‘Metachain’ which refers to their mainnet. This Metachain has many subchains that all connect to the Metachain. Anybody can launch a subchain, with Theta’s SDK or software development kit. In other words, they are permissionless. You don’t need approval by Theta. This SDK is easy-to-use, and devs can launch a subchain quickly and plug it into the Metachain.
All subchains execute transactions on their own. As a result, the Metachain can scale easily. This results in cross-chain features between all subchains. On top of that, this also includes other layer 1 chains. For instance, BSC, Avalanche C-chain, or Ethereum. As a matter of fact, Theta Network is EVM compatible. See the picture below.
Source: Theta Network whitepaper
To make all this work, Theta uses a modified PoS (proof of stake) consensus mechanism. This is how the protocol confirms transactions and validates new blocks. It uses a Multi-Level Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) mechanism. This uses a subset of nodes. As a result, it’s fast and resource-efficient. For this, Theta uses three different nodes and validators.
- Validator nodes – a small subset of 10–20 nodes. These are companies that stake THETA, and they can validate transactions. For example, Samsung or Google.
- Guardian nodes – They make sure that the proposed blocks by the validator nodes are accurate. The guardian nodes add blocks to the chain.
- Edge nodes – These are uses that share their bandwidth. They can also relay video streams. As a reward, they receive TFUEL.
Who Is in the Theta Network Team?
In 2017, two people founded Theta Network. Current CEO Mitch Liu and current CTO Jieyi Long. Liu has a history of founding mobile gaming startups. On the other hand, Long has a history in VR (virtual reality) before he joined Liu. Their mainnet went live in 2019. Between the two of them, they hold a variety of patents. For example, in fields like,
- Blockchain
- Video
- Streaming
- VR
- NFTs
They have an interesting board of advisors. This includes, among others, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen or Twitch co-founder Justin Kan. They also boast plenty of investors, for instance,
- Sierra Ventures
- BDMI
- Samsung next
- Sony
- Blockchain.com
- And more.
The THETA and TFUEL Tokens
Theta Network has three tokens,
- THETA – needed for staking and to become a validator. It’s also used for governance. THETA is available on a few exchanges including Binance.US for our American readers. Also, did you know that on Binance US you can get whitelisted for the Cristiano Ronaldo first official NFT collection, receive his free souvenir NFT and earn $500? Just click this link and type ALTCOINBUZZ as promo code.
- TFUEL – This token pays all transaction fees on the platform. It’s also used as a reward for sharing content or relaying video content. The initial supply was 5 billion TFUEL tokens, which will increase each year by 5%. The current supply is 6 billion tokens.
- TDROP – This is a token for ThetaDrop, an NFT marketplace, and for NFT drops. For example, Kate Perry is about to drop a collection. It’s used for governance and as a staking reward. It’s a TNT-20 token.
In 2017, the team raised the equivalent of $20 million during a private token sale for THETA.
Wallets for the Theta Network Tokens
The Theta Network has its own wallet, the Theta Wallet. That’s needed because all three tokens are TNT-20 tokens. MetaMask, and similar wallets, only support TFUEL.
This wallet is available as a web wallet, a Chrome extension, and as a mobile version for iOS and Android. Here’s more information on this wallet. It’s possible to connect this wallet to hardware wallets. For example, you can use a Ledger or Trezor.
Conclusion
We looked at Theta Network, which is making the blockchain version for streaming video content. It offers this in a decentralized way. With the addition of incentives for users, it’s an interesting prospect. Creators will have more control over their content. This may become a decisive factor once Web3 gets better integrated. In the long run, this could well be a serious contender for YouTube.
⬆️ For more cryptocurrency news, check out the Altcoin Buzz YouTube channel.
⬆️ Our popular Altcoin Buzz Access group generates tons of alpha for our subscribers. And for a limited time, it’s Free. Click the link and join the conversation today.
