Theta Network Articles

A Decentralized Video Delivery Network Running on a Dedicated Blockchain. Theta Network (THETA) Fact Sheet The Theta blockchain is a purpose-built end-to-end infrastructure for decentralized video streaming and delivery that provides technical and economical solutions. Theta Network features its native cryptocurrency, the THETA token. The network is powered by users and aims to reduce the cost of a content delivery network by creating a mesh network with shared content. The THETA cryptocurrency was originally launched on Ethereum and followed the ERC-20 token standard before launching its proprietary mainnet. Theta Network's three core components stand out: the Modified BFT Consensus Mechanism, the Off-Chain Pool for Micropayments, and the Aggregated Signature Gossip Scheme. THETA serves the role of a governance token and is used for staking as a Validator or Guardian node. In contrast, the second token, TFUEL, is the operational token that the users use to complete their transactions. Theta Network is managed by a private IT company Theta Labs, Inc., headquartered in San Jose, California, United States. THETA Historical Data Price Chart in the U.S. Dollars (USD) Theta Network (THETA) Historical Data Price Chart in the U.S. Dollars (USD). Source: TradingView What is Theta Network (THETA)? Theta Network (THETA) is a next-generation media and entertainment-focused blockchain. Theta introduces an infrastructure that enables existing video and media platforms to drive incremental revenues and reduce the content delivery network costs while rewarding the end-users for sharing their storage and bandwidth on any PC, mobile, Smart TV, or any Internet-of-Things (IoT) device. Theta Network also supports Turing-complete smart contracts and is fully compatible with the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Ethereum compatibility enables a wide range of Web3 applications to get developed directly on the Theta Network, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized applications (dApps), decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), among other things. Theta Network implements a peer-to-peer (P2P) network solution in which the viewers are incentivized to share their excess computing power, which addresses numerous issues found in today’s non-blockchain infrastructure, such as the last mile delivery issue since the devices are much closer to each other than the content delivery network (CDN) data centers would be. The network and the protocol are open-source, and anyone can build applications on the Theta Network. How is Theta Network (THETA) Used? Theta utilizes a two-token system. Specifically, there is the THETA cryptocurrency as well as the TFUEl cryptocurrency. Theta Labs, Inc. created its own efficient and decentralized Content Delivery Network (CDN) known as the Theta Edge Network to reduce the costs associated with data streaming. This network is not the blockchain and comprises computer nodes known as Edge Nodes. These Edge Nodes fill the role of interacting with decentralized applications, such as streaming services, content creators, and even viewers, through a digital token known as Theta Fuel (TFUEL), which fills the role as a medium of exchange. As a result, Edge Nodes are rewarded with TFUEL for relaying the data between streaming services and viewers. Furthermore, the viewers are also allowed to earn TFUEL through watching content, participating in online events, and other activities. Content creators can even make TFUEL through donations. Edge Nodes do not need to hold THETA tokens for the Theta Network to work as intended. However, this network cannot exist alone and requires another network to settle transactions and secure the transaction data in a distributed way. That’s where the Theta Blockchain is introduced. This blockchain is responsible for validating the transactions of TFUEL. To do this, Theta Network utilizes a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism to secure the TFUEL transaction ledger. Users have to stake vast amounts of THETA as they process blocks. The Theta blockchain, by design, can enable smaller payments. It can provide real-time payments to reward content distributors for all their efforts throughout the broader platform. Aside from being a governance token, THETA can also be staked or deposited within the network’s treasury system whenever an individual or a group of people aim to take the role of a validator within the network. As a result, there are staking incentives for validators to do their work the way they are meant to and not act maliciously. If validators fail to fulfill their responsibility or harm the network, it results in slashing – the removal of the staked THETA tokens. Use-Cases of Theta Network (THETA) Besides the Edge Nodes in the Theta Network, there are Enterprise Validator Nodes and Guardian Nodes. A node is essentially a network of computers distributed globally, where each computer is connected and can communicate with all other computers. They are network stakeholders, and their devices are authorized to keep track of the distributed ledger and can also fill the role of a communication hub for various network activities. Their primary job, however, is to confirm the legitimacy of each subsequent batch of network transactions in the form of blocks. Enterprise Validator Nodes are utilized to propose and produce new blocks within the chain. These are typically operated by partners of Theta, such as Google, Samsung, Sony Europe, and so on. These Validator Nodes get rewarded in the form of TFUEL for the process of providing these services. Note that any validator node needs to stake a minimum of 10,000,000 THETA. Guardian Nodes are utilized for sealing blocks and have the ability and purpose of checking on malicious or non-functional Validator Nodes. These are run by the Theta community members, who must stake at least 1,000 THETA to become one. The role of these nodes is integral to the overall Theta Network's performance as they provide a second layer of protection against attackers and get rewarded in the form of TFUEL. Usability & Primary Features of Theta Network (THETA) The Theta Network allows developers to build decentralized applications (dApps), and the network users can store and stake their THETA or TFUEL tokens. Theta has also built a micropayment system for video streaming, allowing content viewers and creators to send and receive THETA through an official wallet application. We will review the network's protocol, ledger, and smart contract support. Protocol BFT Consensus Mechanism - The Theta Network utilizes a modified BFT or Byzantine Fault Tolerance, a proof-of-stake (PoS) governance mechanism. It is responsible for keeping all computers on the distributed network running in synchronization. Additionally, this is different from traditional PoS systems because both validators and guardian nodes participate in the consensus process, adding an additional security level to the overall system. Thousands of nodes participating in the consensus process allow the network to process over 1,000 transactions per second (TPS). Off-Chain Pool for Micropayments is a system that relies on a set of guardian nodes to keep a signature through the partial aggregation of signatures, from its neighbors, before gossiping out the aggregated signature. In other words, this system allows the signature share of each node to reach other nodes at an exponential rate, all while keeping the communication overhead as small as possible. The aggregated Signature Gossip Scheme is built for video streaming purposes, and lets users benefit from the off-chain micropayment pool. Ledger Theta was originally launched as an ERC-20 token that worked on top of the Ethereum blockchain. However, the network launched its proprietary mainnet blockchain in March 2019, following a $20 million sale in 2017. While the Theta Network is a standalone project, it is also ERC-20 compliant, which means that it can still utilize the massive user base that Ethereum has and gain network benefits while also launching and deploying its proprietary technologies as a means of improving its content-streaming delivery service and enhance the end-user experience. Smart-Contract Support Theta Network runs on a modified Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism known as Multi-Level Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT). The Theta blockchain also provides full support for Turing-complete smart contracts. Tokenomics & Supply Distribution The total supply of THETA is capped at 1,000,000,000 tokens. The Theta Network (THETA) initiated a private sale from September 26, 2017, to December 27, 2017. 30% of the total token supply was sold, and 300,000,000 THETA raised $20 million. The team was allocated 7.49% of the tokens The advisors received 1.23% Partners got 12.5% Network seeding got 12.5% 36,28% were reserved for Labs Reserve. Team & History The Theta Network was founded in 2017 by Mitch Liu and Jieyi Long. Mitch Liu has an extensive history in the gaming and video industry. He is also the co-founder of the video advertising firm Tapjoy and the mobile social gaming startup Gameview Studios. He also co-founded THETA.tv, a live streaming platform with a decentralized application (dApp) that was the first to get created on top of the Theta Network. Jieyi Long is Theta’s second co-founder, who follows a similar multi-year experience in the gaming sphere, alongside virtual reality and design automation experience. In 2019, Theta Network launched its own proprietary Mainnet 1.0, while Mainnet 2.0 was introduced in 2020, and Mainnet 3.0 was introduced in 2021, bringing numerous innovations and improvements to the broader network. Theta is also preparing for the launch of the Theta Mainnet 4.0. Today, the Theta team is much larger and includes the following members: Ryan Nichols - Chief Product Officer Wes Levitt  - Head of Strategy Timothy Li  - Head of Platform Bruce Chong  - Head of Korea Development Ribao Wei  - Principal Engineer Qinwei Gong  - Platform Architect Jing Xu  - Blockchain Engineer Zhenyang Tang -  Blockchain Explorer Engineer Rene Garcia -  Platform Engineer Dion Loi  - Director of DevOps Antoine Riviere  - Android Developer Activities & Community When we go over its social media activity and overall community, Theta Network (THETA) has over 260,500 followers on the Official Theta Network (THETA) Twitter page. There are over 49,520 members on the Theta Network (THETA)’s Theta.tv Discord Channel and over 10,330 members on the Theta Network (THETA) Official Telegram Group. Development Activity and GitHub Repositories When we go over the Official Theta Labs Github page, we can see that there are numerous repositories listed, out of which 6 are pinned, including: theta-protocol-ledger - the Reference implementation of the Theta Blockchain Ledger Protocol. theta-protocol-delivery-lib - the Reference Library and software development kit (SDK) of the Theta Mesh Delivery Protocol. theta-infrastructure-ledger-explorer - the explorer for the Theta Ledger. guardian-mainnet-guide - the guide for setting up a Guardian Node on the mainnet. theta-eth-rpc-adaptor - an adaptor that translates the Theta RPC APIs to the Ethereum RPC APIs. theta-edge-store-demos - Demos for Theta EdgeStore. On-Chain Activity When we look at data from Theta Explorer, as of July 2022, the THETA Token is trading at a value of $1.184556 and has a market cap of $1,184,556,320, with a total of 3352 total staked nodes and 62.28% THETA in total is staked. However, as of July 2022, the TFUEL price is trading at $0.052153 and has a market cap of $276,476,480, with a circulating supply of 5,778,877,190 TFUEL tokens and 7,761 total elite nodes, with 42.36% of the total TFUEL staked and locked. Theta Network (THETA) blockchain explorer. Source: explorer.theta As of July 2022, THETA is trading at $1.1846 and has a 24-hour trading volume of $41,417,684, and TFUEL is trading at $0.0521, with a 24-hour trading volume of $20,624,79. The Theta Blockchain Explorer. Source: Thetascan Activities and Partners Given that Theta Network (THETA) has been in the crypto sphere for several years and has undergone numerous upgrades to its mainnet, multiple activities and partnerships have been established throughout its lifespan. BridgeTower Capital - BridgeTower Capital launched an Enterprise Validator Node on the Theta Network and is a blockchain infrastructure and services company. Sierra Ventures - Sierra Ventures launched a new Theta Enterprise Node. Sierra Ventures is a premier venture capital firm with more than $2 billion in assets under management and is an early investor in Theta. Samsung - Theta has partnered with Samsung on numerous occasions. However, Theta established a partnership with Samsung to offer non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles to all Korean pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy Tab S8. Resorts World Las Vegas - Resorts World Las Vegas launched a collection of utility non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on top of Theta Network, making them the first to be released from a major Las Vegas Casino. Fuse Media - Theta Network welcomed Fuse Media as their latest media partner to bring their top talent to exclusive new Non-fungible token (NFT) campaigns on ThetaDrop. ThetaDrop is a fast, green, and robust NFT marketplace built on the Theta Network. References & Reports References BFT Consensus Mechanism ERC-20 TOKEN STANDARD - Ethereum Internet-of-Things (IoT) - Wikipedia Non-Fungible Token (NFT) - Investopedia peer-to-peer (P2P) network - Wikipedia Content Delivery Network (CDN) - Wikipedia Setting up the Edge Node - Theta Network Documentation Proof-of-Stake (PoS) - Investopedia Master Node - Investopedia Guardian Node Overview - Theta Network Documentation Theta Mainnet 2.0 Theta Mainnet 3.0 Theta Mainnet 4.0 Building the Theta Protocol: Part IV - Theta Labs Medium Scalable BFT Consensus Mechanism Through Aggregated Signature Gossip - Jieyi Long, Ribao Wei Theta Labs, Inc. Official Theta Network (THETA) Twitter page Theta Network (THETA)’s Theta.tv Discord Channel Theta Network (THETA) Official Telegram Group Official Theta Labs Github page theta-protocol-ledger - the Reference implementation of the Theta Blockchain Ledger Protocol. theta-protocol-delivery-lib - the Reference Library and software development kit (SDK) of the Theta Mesh Delivery Protocol. theta-infrastructure-ledger-explorer - the explorer for the Theta Ledger. guardian-mainnet-guide - the guide for setting up a Guardian Node on the mainnet. theta-eth-rpc-adaptor - an adaptor that translates the Theta RPC APIs to the Ethereum RPC APIs. theta-edge-store-demos - Demos for Theta EdgeStore. BridgeTower Capital BridgeTower Capital launches Enterprise Validator Node on the Theta Network - Theta Labs Medium Sierra Ventures Sierra Ventures launches new Theta Enterprise Validator Node, the 20th validator overall - Theta Labs Medium Samsung Theta Labs partners with Samsung to offer NFT digital collectibles to all Korean pre-orders for Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy Tab S8 - Theta Labs Medium Resorts World Las Vegas Resorts World Las Vegas to launch Utility NFTs on Theta Network, the first ever from a major Las Vegas casino - Theta Labs Medium Fuse Media Theta Network welcomes Fuse Media as latest media partner - Theta Labs Medium ThetaDrop Market Research TradingView Explorer.theta Thetascan