Theta Network
The Theta Network is a distributed computing mesh network which uses cryptocurrency to encourage individual users to share their redundant computing and bandwidth resources as caching nodes for video streams. The Theta blockchain has two tokens. The governance token is Theta and it is required for companies to become validator nodes and individuals to become guardian nodes. Theta that is staked earns Theta Fuel (TFuel), a secondary token that is used for transactions. The blockchain uses proof of stake consensus and the programming language solidity.
The History of the Theta Network
SLIVER.tv began as a company developing virtual reality technology. Two of the first patents CEO Mitch Liu and CTO Jieyi Long pursued, patent number 9573062 and 9998664, were for for VR[1][2] and a significant portion of its financial backing came from investments in its VR technology.[3] One problem VR companies must address is the data throughput demanded by their technologies. According to Qualcomm, current-gen 360 (VR) video requires 10-50 megabits per second (mbps) of data throughput, next-gen 360 video requires 50-200 mbps, and 6 degrees of freedom video requires 200 to 5000 mbps.[4]. By comparison, Netflix's support page says standard definition video requires 3 mbps, high definition requires 5 mbps, and 4k Ulta HD requires 25 mbps.[5] If VR becomes more widely adopted, then the increased demand for data throughput may exceed the existing internet infrastructure's ability to meet it. This leads to network congestion, which is the reduced quality of service that occurs when a network node is carrying more data than it can handle. In the whitepaper for the Theta Network, the developers described their solution to this problem. "Viewers around the globe can contribute their devices as “caching nodes” whereby they form a video delivery mesh network that is responsible for delivering any given video stream to viewers anywhere around the world optimized for local... To encourage viewers to contribute their computing and bandwidth resources, we introduce the Theta token as an incentive mechanism."[6] According to PC World, the objective of mesh networks is to ensure that "as much throughput remains reserved for actual productive traffic, such as streaming 4K video or making fast connections to internet multiplayer games, relative to that consumed by moving data around the network."[7]
Theta was initially created as an ERC20 token and 30% of the total supply was sold to private investors in 2017.[8] Sierra Ventures, the Venture Reality Fund, and DHVC were among them[9] and later became validator nodes.[10][11] It was initially designed to be one token rewarded to users based on their reputation score; Individuals who contributed more to the network would have mined more Theta.[2][12] It later became a dual currency system. The stated reason for the change pertained to the different roles that needed to be performed by the token. Governance required an illiquid token in order to prevent malicious actors from threatening the security of the network whereas transactions required a highly liquid token that could be used for purchases. As one token couldn't be both highly liquid and illiquid at the same time, two tokens were needed. The Theta token became the token used to stake, secure, and govern the Theta Network while the operations of the network (video segment transactions, smart contract operations, NFTs, etc.) were to be paid with its secondary token, Theta Fuel.[13] When Theta Mainnet 1.0 launched on March 15th, 2019[8] investors who held their ERC20 tokens in a Theta wallet received the native Theta token and 5 TFuel for every Theta token they owned.[14] The native Theta token became tradeable on Binance on April 10th, 2019.[15]
Theta secures the blockchain with a Multi-BFT consensus mechanism comprised of Validator Nodes run by companies and Guardian Nodes run by individuals. These nodes came online during Theta's Mainnet 2.0 upgrade.[14][16] As of 06-24-2021, the validator nodes were run by Google,[16][14][17][18][10] Samsung,[19][16][17][18][10] Sony,[19][17][18][10][20] Creative Arts Agency,[18][10][20] Binance,[16][17][10], Blockchain.com,[19][16][17][10] Gumi,[16][17][10] Private Equity Institutional Group,[11][10] and DHVC.[19][10] Theta's mesh network also requires edge nodes which is a software download comprised of three main components - Edge Cache, Edge Compute, and EdgeCast.[16] The oldest of these components is Edge Cache and it enables users to be paid in TFuel for sharing their excess bandwidth resources as a caching node.[21] Edge Compute enables users to earn Tfuel by sharing their computing power and EdgeCast enables users to capture video, transcode it, cache it, and relay it to viewers around the world without the use of centralized servers.[16]
Theta Labs has been granted four patents pertaining to its blockchain technology. Methods and systems for a decentralized data streaming and delivery network patented its decentralized data delivery network which consists of viewer nodes such as the ones used at Theta.tv, the caching nodes used on the Theta Edge Node, and tracker servers which are used by the network to determine how to optimally deliver content from caching nodes to viewer nodes. Geolocation of neighboring nodes and the type of data desired are the two primary factors used by the tracker servers. A software developer kit that enabled third-party content viewers to integrate the Theta Network onto their platforms was also included in the patent.[22] Methods and systems for blockchain incentivized data streaming and delivery over a decentralized network pertained to the way caching nodes were paid for their service. The blockchain uses a payment service module that creates a micropayment pool on the blockchain. Whenever a caching node downloads a data resource from a CDN server and shares that resource with viewer nodes, it receives off-chain transactions from the payment service module that encode the total amount owed to the caching node from the micropayment pool. Once the service is completed, the total payment amount is submitted to the blockchain so that caching nodes can be paid.[23] The third patent, Methods and systems for peer discovery in a decentralized data streaming and delivery network, was an update of the aforementioned patents.[24] The fourth patent enables it to use NFTs to protect the copyrighted content of producers using its network.[25] Theta labs has a fifth patent in the patent pending stage that will enable it to use verifiable delay functions to thwart denial of service (DOS) attacks.[26]
Early adopters of the Theta Network were Samsung VR,[14][27] the Korean news channel Maeil Broadcasting Network (MBN),[28][27] Pandora.tv,[27] CJ Hello,[28][27] and G Fuel.[29] In 2018, Samsung VR, MBN, and SLIVER.tv were added on to a live testnet in order to assess how effectively the network was able to reduce internet demand.[27] According to Theta Labs, the bandwidth offload to the network averaged around 45% and it was as high as 90% in San Francisco and Seoul.[30] It should be noted that SLIVER.tv is based near San Francisco and MBN provides news coverage to Seoul. The energy drink G Fuel used the Theta Network on their e-sports channel.[31] Other adopters of the Theta Network are the World Poker Tour,[32][33] NASA,[14][34] Shout! Factory,[35] and Cinedigm.[36]
Sliver.tv, now Theta.tv, also uses the Theta Network for content it receives the distribution rights for such as MGM classic films during the summer of 2020[14][19] and Lionsgate for the summer of 2021.[37][38] Back when it was Sliver.tv, it partnered with the blockchain Klaytn to launch a SLIVER.tv Korea mobile app[39] and in 2020 Samsung announced that it would include Theta.tv on its phones.[40][20] The Theta Network also collaborated with Line to launch a video service for the Asian market.[41] Theta.tv is available on the web,[42] google play,[43] and the apple app store.[44]
In 2017, one of the stated objectives of the Theta team was to provide "Proof of Engagement".[12] Access to reliable viewership data is a problem advertisers face as traditional ways of assessing online viewership can be fooled by bots and click-farms. On September 25th, 2020, Theta partnered with Chainlink to provide proof of engagement to advertisers. As each video streaming on Theta's platform has a unique video ID, the blockchain has viewership data that can be fed into Google's Big Query to create a reputation score for the streams. Chainlink's oracle can then fetch this reputation score and broadcast it on the Ethereum network so advertisers can know which channels have viewership and are worth investing in.[45]
In 2021, Theta launched a Theta "Hackathon" to encourage project development on the Theta Network. Some projects are HarkTV, a livestreaming platform designed to help charities, Minty, an android ap that enables users without coding experience to create Theta NFTs, Thetascan, an ap that enables Guardian and Validator staking rewards to be exported as a csv file (which is helpful for tax returns), and Theta Buddy which links Amazon's Alexa to Theta.tv.[46] Theta Labs has also received outside support from advisors. The two most commonly mentioned by the media are YouTube co-founder Steven Chen and Twitch co-founder Justin Kan.[2][19][47][20] In a 2017 interview with Flixed, CEO Mitch Liu said that he felt Kan's role would be more on the marketing and business side whereas Chen's role would be on the technological side.[2]
The Theta Blockchain
Multi-BFT Consensus
Several blockchains have problems with transaction throughput. Bitcoin, for example, has a processing capacity estimated at 3.3 and 7 transactions per second. The lowest quality of VR streaming, on the other hand, requires 10-50 megabits per second (mbps) of data throughput. The disparity between Bitcoin's transaction throughput and the data throughput demanded by VR streaming means that Bitcoin can't be used to pay people for caching a video stream as that task would create more demand for transactions than the blockchain can process. Security is another problem blockchains must address as they can be compromised by a Sybil attack or a 51% attack. The Theta blockchain uses Multi-BFT consensus to address the needs for high transaction throughput and security.
The blockchain has two types of nodes, namely validator and guardian nodes. Validator nodes are few in number by design (ten to twenty) and their purpose is to produce difficult-to-attack blocks at a fast speed. The guardian nodes then provide an additional layer of security by finalizing the chain of blocks produced by the validators. To finalize blocks, the guardians convince each other that they see the same chain of blocks. If more than 2/3rds of the guardians are in agreement, then the blocks are finalized. The guardians are more numerous which aids in security as it is much more difficult to attack thousands of computers than it is to attack just a handful of ones. While it is more secure, having more nodes would lead to a reduction in speed if the guardians had to process the blocks at the same level of detail as the validators do. To alleviate this problem, the guardians use a leapfrogging finalization strategy that enables the guardians to confirm the validity of the blockchain by coming to agreement on checkpoint blocks rather than analyzing the entire chain.[6][22][48]
Aggregated Signature Gossip Scheme
The term "aggregated signature gossip scheme" refers to the way guardian nodes communicate with one another. As there are numerous guardians at various different locations, it is difficult for guardian nodes to communicate the checkpoint block hash to all other guardians. Instead what the guardian nodes do is communicate with their neighbors their partially aggregated signatures, and then they gossip out the aggregated signature and a bitmap that encodes the list of signers. This signature aggregation keeps the size of the node-to-node communications smaller which increases speed and it retains security as all honest guardians should have a string that aggregates the signatures of all the other honest guardian nodes.[6][22][48]
Resource-Oriented Micropayment Pool
By themselves, multi-BFT consensus and aggregated gossip scheme aren't able to produce enough transaction throughput to keep up with the demand for micropayments produced by video streaming. In order to address this issue, Theta uses a resource-oriented micropayment pool in order to provide native support for off-chain scaling. This invention decreases the number of transactions that need to be stored on the blockchain which, in turn, decreases the storage space requirement of the computers and increases throughput. In order to prevent double-spending, this pool requires a deposit that is at least the cost of the resource being retrieved from the blockchain plus collateral that is at least the size of the deposit. If double-spending is detected by the validators, then the collateral is slashed. This pool also allows viewers to pull content from multiple caching nodes without on-chain transactions. The caching nodes are rewarded by the blockchain with TFuel.[6][16][22][23]
Design
Theta Wallet
The Theta Wallet is where tokens that are owned are kept. There is a web wallet option[49] as well as apps for Android and Apple devices.[50] A keystore file, mnemonic phrase, or private key can be used to access the wallet.[49][51] It also has options for Ledger and Trezor through their Ethereum apps.[52] Theta's wallet page recommends that the creation of the wallet be done offline. Unlocking the wallet can also be done offline and then one can turn the internet back on to do any activities associated with the wallet such as staking or sending coins. As with any cryptocurrency, the information needed to unlock the wallet should never be stored online or in the cloud. It should be stored in a safe place.[50] Checking one's balance or staking status doesn't require wallet access as this can be done through Theta Explorer.
TFuel payments from staking or participating as an edge node are sent to one's Theta Wallet. Staking Theta can be done by running one's own guardian node or by delegating one's Theta to an existing guardian node such as those offered in Theta's one-click staking program or gpool.io. Staking does not pose any additional security risk as the only place staked Theta can go if a guardian node is hacked is back to one's own Theta wallet. There is, however, a 60 hour withdrawal period before tokens can be retrieved from staking.[53] There have been multiple reports of scammers who try to take advantage of people by offering their support for issues such as staking. The Reddit page for Theta advises "DO NOT ACCEPT CHAT REQUESTS. DO NOT CLICK LINKS. DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR MNEMONIC PHRASE, PRIVATE KEY, KEYSTORE FILE OR PASSWORD."[54]
Theta Explorer
The Theta Explorer enables users to view transactions made on the Theta blockchain. This can be done for the transactions of a particular wallet address or it can be used to provide a general overview of activity on the blockchain. The explorer shows the market cap, circulating supply, and percentage staked of both Theta and TFuel. The explorer can also be used to view the amount of tokens held by a particular wallet, their staking status, and the number of tokens staked by particular guardian and validator nodes.[50][55][51]
Theta Validator and Guardian Nodes
Validator and guardian nodes are highly similar; validators are also guardians[22] and guardians could become validators in the future.[6] Moreover, both validator and guardian nodes receive 5% Theta Fuel as staking rewards.[56] There are, however, important differences between the two nodes.
While not an official announcement, the grouping of validator nodes at the 2,000,000 Theta level and none below that threshold is evidence that supports the thesis that validators must have 2,000,000 Theta staked for them to be validator nodes.[57] Validators are limited in number (between 10 to 20) and they form a committee[22] whose collective purpose is to propose new blocks and vote on them to determine their order. Validators can be elected or rotated which may happen once Theta becomes fully decentralized. Should the validators ever be fully compromised, the guardians can re-elect the validators and the blockchain can restart from the most recent block finalized by the guardians.[6]
Guardians must have 1000 Theta staked and they are more numerous. The purpose of guardians is to finalize the blocks produced by the validators and provide an additional layer of security.[22] In addition to 1000 Theta, guardians must have an internet speed of 5 Mbps or more, a cpu with 4 cores or more, and 8 gigabytes or more of memory.[50]
Geo-Optimized Tracker Server
The purpose of the tracker server is to match clients with caching nodes. Clients and caching nodes that are closer together in terms of router hops are chosen preferentially over ones further away. Access to the desired resource also matters. If none of the peer nodes have the desired resource, the client's viewer reverts to the CDN. The tracker server also sends heartbeat signals to peer nodes to ensure that they are still online and removes them from its spatial database if it doesn't receive a heartbeat for a certain period of time.[6][22]
Intelligent Player Client
In order to make use of peer nodes, viewing apps such as Theta.tv must be able to determine where they can obtain the resource that is desired by the client. When the viewer launches, it retrieves a list of peers from the tracker server. It then conducts tests for speed and reliability to assess which of its neighboring peers can reliably provide the video stream and refines this list throughout the live steam session.[6][22]
Theta Edge Nodes
The Theta Edge Node is a software download that enables users to interact with the Theta Network. It is currently in Beta and is comprised of three primary components - Edge Cache, Edge Compute, and EdgeCast.[50] Edge nodes can be upgraded to elite edge nodes by staking 10,000 or more TFuel. Elite edge nodes earn TFuel staking rewards in addition to the TFuel earned by edge cache and edge compute.[58]
The Theta Edge Cacher is the oldest component of the edge node and it enables computers to act as a relayer in the Theta Network and provides caching services to intelligent player clients. It doesn't require watching a video for it to work and it doesn't use a browser so there are no cache limits. It does require upload bandwidth and a participant might not be peered with other users if one's bandwidth is too slow.[21]
The Edge Compute function enables computers to earn TFuel for contributing their computing power to a particular task. In the Beta version, the two primary tasks for edge compute are transcoding and Folding@home.[50][59]
The Theta Edgecast is a peer-to-peer streaming application similar to other streaming applications such as Youtube and Twitch. The primary difference between the EdgeCast and the aforementioned platforms is that Theta relies on its edge nodes for content distribution and thus no centralized servers are used. The application enables users to capture video, transcode it in real-time, cache it, and then relay it to other users through Theta’s peer-to-peer edge network.[50][16]
Theta Smart Contracts
Theta employs solidity which enables smart contracts to be built on the Theta blockchain or ported over from Ethereum. Developers can use Remix, Truffle, or solc to compile the code for the smart contract and test their work against Theta's smart contract testnet.[50] On June 17th, 2021, Theta Labs announced the initial release of the Theta ETH RPC adapter software which is designed to facilitate the Theta blockchain's interoperability with Ethereum.[60][51]
Theta Swap is an open-source smart contract system where TNT-20 tokens can be exchanged on the Theta blockchain. It is similar to Uniswap or PancakeSwap, the primary difference being that TNT-20 tokens are based in TFuel whereas Uniswap uses Ethereum and PancakeSwap uses Binance Smart Chain.[50][61]
The Theta blockchain can also be used to create NFTs.[50] The first "Theta Drop" of NFTs was with The World Poker Tour. The original launch date was May 2nd but "unusually high internet traffic" reportedly overwhelmed the servers. It was relaunched on May 13th.[62][63] Katy Perry announced that she will release NFTs on the Theta Network.[64][19]
Tokenomics
Theta
Theta has a total supply cap of 1,000,000,000 tokens all of which have been distributed. 30% of the total supply was sold in a private sale that occurred from September 26, 2017 to December 27, 2017. Another 7.49% was given to the team which was unlocked in January 2019.[8] Staking Theta is required for companies and other enterprises to become validator nodes and staking 1000 Theta is required for investors to become guardian nodes. TFuel earnings are awarded every 100 blocks using a probabilistic method[50] and 5% of the TFuel supply is earned by validators and guardians.[56]
Theta Fuel
TFuel is not capped and has an inflation rate of 9%. 5% of the inflation goes to validator and guardian nodes and 4% of the inflation goes to elite edge nodes.[56] Elite edge nodes must stake 10,000 TFuel[58] to earn TFuel from staking and this acts a temporary TFuel sink. Elite Edge Nodes will also burn at least 25% of each TFuel payment to the network which acts as a permanent sink.[65]
The golden ratio
As there are two tokens available for investors to purchase, believers in the Theta Network will often question whether it is better to buy Theta or TFuel. This is a difficult question to answer as there are multiple factors that drive price. For example, there may be more demand for a token that has a supply cap and has voting rights (Theta) or more demand for a potentially deflationary token whose price is more dependent on the use of the Theta Network (TFuel). Some investors whom ask this question will use the staking rewards provided by Theta and TFuel as a guide as to which one is undervalued and will adjust their investments in the two tokens according to what they perceive as an arbitrage opportunity. The amount of TFuel earned by staked investment capital constantly fluctuates depending on multiple factors such as price of the underlying asset and the amount of the asset that is staked by other parties.[66]
Legal status, tax, and regulation
This is a stub.
In popular culture
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References
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- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Munkachy, Alex (2017-12-21). "Theta Network Aims to Revolutionize Video Streaming with Blockchain". Flixed. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ Kim, SJ (2017-08-23). "SLIVER.tv Raises $9.8 Million In Series A Funding To Transform The VR Spectator Experience". vrandfun. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "VR and AR pushing connectivity limits" (PDF). Qualcomm. October 2018. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ "Internet connection speed recommendations". Netflix Help Center. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Theta Labs (2018-11-11). "A Decentralized Video Delivery and Streaming Network Powered by a New Blockchain" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Fleishman, Glenn (2020-05-05). "Mesh fills gaps, improves throughput, and eliminates configuration fuss". PCWorld. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "THETA Network (THETA)". Binance Research. 2019-03-14. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Jordan, Jon (2018-02-23). "Sliver.tv raises $20 million through private token sale". BlockchainGamer. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 10.00 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 10.06 10.07 10.08 10.09 Malwa, Shuarya (2021-06-15). "$500 million asset manager joins Theta Network as Enterprise Validator". CryptoSlate. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Hansford, Corey (2021-03-23). "Institutional Investors Stake Over $100 Million In Theta Network". CoinChapter. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Seaver, Jesse (2017-11-27). "Theta Labs: Reinventing: Streaming Video". HuffPost. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ Theta Labs (2018-06-27). "The Evolution of Theta Network — Governance and Economics". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 "What is Theta token? The Beginner's Guide". aboutbitcoin.io. 2020-06-02. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ Binance team (2019-04-09). "Binance Adds THETA/USDT Trading Pair". Binance. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 16.00 16.01 16.02 16.03 16.04 16.05 16.06 16.07 16.08 16.09 Walters, Steve (2021-02-05). "Review of Theta Token: Blockchain Powered Video Streaming". CoinBureau. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 Partz, Helen (2021-03-02). "Sony Europe joins Theta blockchain validator program". CoinTelegraph. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Palmer, Daniel (2021-05-27). "Hollywood Powerhouse CAA Joins Blockchain Video Network Theta". Yahoo!Finance. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 19.6 Kharif, Olga (2021-07-04). "Esports Crypto Streaming Service Turns Bandwidth Into Profits". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 2021-07-05.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Berkowitz, Bram (2021-05-16). "Is Theta Token the Next Ethereum or the Next Dogecoin?". Motley Fool. Retrieved 2021-06-20..
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Theta Labs (2019-07-01). "Theta Pre-Guardian Node / Edge Cacher v1.0.44 released". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 22.5 22.6 22.7 22.8 Long, Jieyi; Liu, Mitchell (2020-09-08). "Methods and systems for a decentralized data streaming and delivery network". US Patent Office. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Long, Jieyi; Liu, Mitchell (2021-03-16). "Methods and systems for blockchain incentivized data streaming and delivery over a decentralized network". US Patent Office. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Long, Jieyi; Liu, Mitchell (2021-04-13). "Methods and systems for peer discovery in a decentralized data streaming and delivery network". US Patent Office. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Long, Jieyi; Liu, Mitchell (2021-07-27). "Non-fungible token (NFT) based digital rights management in a decentralized data delivery network". Retrieved 2021-07-27.
- ↑ Theta Labs (2021-07-07). "Theta awarded patent application approval for USPTO Number 17/224,109 ("THETA-1005") — Preventing denial-of-service attacks in decentralized edge networks using verifiable delay functions (VDFs) to prevent malicious attacks". Medium. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 CryptoGr (2019-03-11). "Theta Network – Interview & Mainnet Review – The Ultimate Guide". CryptoWorldGreece. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 Marinoffnov, Nick (2018-11-14). "KOREA'S KAIST UNIVERSITY ADDS BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATION COURSES TO CURRICULUM". BitcoinMagazine. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ Prisconov, Giulio. "VIDEO STREAMERS HAVE MORE OPTIONS WITH THESE NEW BLOCKCHAIN STARTUPS". BitcoinMagazine. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ Theta Labs (2018-08-02). "Theta Testnet — Initial results". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "GFuel's e-sports channel". Gfuel.com. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ "THETA.TV ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH WPT® TO LAUNCH 24/7 LIVE POKER CHANNEL POWERED BY THETA BLOCKCHAIN". World Poker Tour. 2020-04-30. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "WPT 24/7 POWERED BY THETA NETWORK". Worldpokertour.com. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ "NASA's Theta.tv channel". Theta.tv. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ ShoutFactory (2020-10-22). "Shout! Factory is Latest Premium Content Partner to Join THETA NETWORK's Global Streaming Platform". shoutfactory. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "Cinedigm Integrates Theta Network to Launch Exclusive Theta-Powered Channels on CONtv.com". Yahoo!Finance. ACCESSWIRE. 2021-04-01. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "Watch Lionsgate Movies for FREE on THETA.tv". Theta.tv Community Events. 26 February 2021. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "Lionsgate's Theta.tv channel". Theta.tv. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Heal, Jordan (2019-05-31). "Klaytn, Sliver.tv, and Theta to launch Sliver.tv Korea mobile app". coinrivet.com. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ Bambrough, Billy (2020-05-26). "This Crypto Could Blow Bitcoin Out Of The Water This Year After 1,000% Gain—Here's Why". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ Hernandez, Maheen (2020-11-04). "Theta Network Video Service and their Collaboration with LINE Corporation of Japan on Blockchain". thecurrencyanalytics.com. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ "Theta.tv". Theta.tv. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
- ↑ "THETA.tv - Watch Streams & Earn TFuel". play.google.com. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ "Apple's Sliver.tv app". apps.apple.com.
- ↑ Chainlink (2020-09-25). "Theta Collaborates with Chainlink to Fight Online Video Ad Fraud". chainlinkecosystem. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Theta Labs (2021-05-17). "Top projects from the Theta Hackathon Q1 2021". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ La Monica, Paul (2021-06-16). "Beyond bitcoin: These altcoins are super popular". CNN Business. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ 48.0 48.1 Long, Jieyi; Wei, Ribao (2019). "Scalable BFT Consensus Mechanism Through Aggregated Signature Gossip" (PDF). arxiv.org. Cornell University. arXiv:1911.04698. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
- ↑ 49.0 49.1 "Theta wallet". wallet.thetatoken.org. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ 50.00 50.01 50.02 50.03 50.04 50.05 50.06 50.07 50.08 50.09 50.10 "Theta Docs". Theta Network Guides. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ 51.0 51.1 51.2 Theta Labs. "thetatoken". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
- ↑ Theta Labs (2019-05-23). "Theta Web Wallet adds support for Ledger/Trezor hardware wallets". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Theta Labs (2020-06-01). "Theta Guardian Node staking is now live on Theta Mainnet 2.0". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Ancient-Crypto (2021-06-04). "Report the scammer!!!". Reddit. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "Theta Explorer". Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 56.0 56.1 56.2 Theta Labs (2021-03-11). "Elite Edge Node BETA now live on Testnet with Uptime Mining — announcing 4% TFUEL inflation on April 21". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "Total Staked - Top Validator/Guardian Nodes". Theta Explorer. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 58.0 58.1 Long, Jieyi (2020-12-31). "Pre-Elite Edge Node Launches with TFUEL Staking as a Preview to Mainnet 3.0". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "Folding@Home Team Statistics". Folding@home. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Theta Labs (2021-06-17). "Theta extending development compatibility with Ethereum with a new RPC API suite, Web3 tools, Metamask integration and more". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "Theta Swap". Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Theta Labs (2021-05-06). "WPT ThetaDrop Launch Update". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
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- ↑ Akhtar, Tanzeel (2021-06-30). "Katy Perry Launches NFTs, Acquires Stake in Theta Labs". Nasdaq.com. Retrieved 2021-07-05.
- ↑ Theta Labs (2021-06-03). "Mainnet 3.0 Update — TFUEL Burning and Transaction Fee Increase". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ TeddyB (2021-05-19). "THETA TFUEL and the GOLDEN RATIO Theory". Youtube. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
New Work
The Theta Network is a distributed computing mesh network which uses cryptocurrency to encourage individual users to share their redundant computing and bandwidth resources as caching nodes for video streams. The Theta blockchain has two tokens. The governance token is Theta and it is required for companies to become validator nodes and individuals to become guardian nodes. Theta that is staked earns Theta Fuel (TFuel), a secondary token that is used for transactions. The blockchain uses proof of stake consensus and the programming language solidity.
History
The Theta token was created by SLIVER.tv, a company that developed virtual reality technology. Two of the first patents CEO Mitch Liu and CTO Jieyi Long pursued, patent number 9573062 and 9998664, were for for VR[1][2] and a significant portion of its financial backing came from investments in its VR technology.[3] VR streaming requires high data throughput[4] and the company created a cryptocurrency based mesh network called the Theta Network to address the CDN costs associated with that problem. The network uses two cryptocurrency tokens. The Theta token is used to stake, secure, and govern the Theta Network while the operations of the network (video segment transactions, smart contract operations, NFTs, etc.) are paid with its secondary token, Theta Fuel. When Theta Mainnet 1.0 launched on March 15th, 2019[5] investors who held their ERC20 Theta tokens in a Theta wallet received the native Theta token and 5 TFuel for every Theta token they owned.[6]
Theta's mesh network requires the use of a software download called a Theta Edge Node which is comprised of three main components. The oldest component is called Edge Cacher and it provides caching services for the mesh network. When a viewing app seeks to obtain a video, it retrieves a list of peers providing the caching services from a tracker server. Clients and caching nodes that are closer together in terms of router hops are chosen preferentially over ones further away. If none of the peer nodes have the desired resource, the client's viewer reverts to the CDN. The viewing app then conducts tests for speed and reliability to assess which of its neighboring peers can reliably provide the video stream and refines this list throughout the live steam session.[7][8] Caching nodes that are chosen are rewarded with TFuel.
The other two components of the Edge Node are Edge Compute and Edge Cast. The Edge Compute function enables computers to earn TFuel for contributing their computing power to a particular task. In the Beta version, the two primary tasks for edge compute are transcoding and Folding@home.[9][10] The Theta Edgecast enables users to capture video, transcode it in real-time, cache it, and then relay it to other users through Theta’s peer-to-peer edge network. As it relies on edge nodes for content distribution and not centralized servers, Edgecast is censorship-resistant.[9][11]
The blockchain is secured with Multi-BFT consensus which became active during the Mainnet 2.0 upgrade on ???.[6][11] Multi-BFT consensus requires Theta to be staked to provide security and TFuel is given as a reward to those whom have staked their Theta. Companies that currently stake Theta as enterprise validator nodes are Google,[11][6][12][13][14] Samsung,[15][11][12][13][14] Sony,[15][12][13][14][16] Creative Arts Agency,[13][14][16] Binance,[11][12][14], Blockchain.com,[15][11][12][14] Gumi,[11][12][14] Private Equity Institutional Group,[17][14] and DHVC.[15][14] These companies earn TFuel which can then be used to pay caching nodes for providing video relaying services. Other companies that use the Theta Network are the World Poker Tour,[18][19] Shout! Factory,[20] and Cinedigm.[21]
The Theta blockchain can also be used to create NFTs. The World Poker Tour launched their NFTs on the Theta Network on May 13th, 2021.[22][23] Katy Perry plans on releasing NFTs on the Theta Network during her Las Vegas residency.[24][15] The Theta Network has been granted five patents. Three of the patents pertain to the use of caching nodes, tracker servers, peer nodes, and the payment system used to reward network participants for their contributions. The fourth patent is designed to protect the digital rights of content producers through the use of NFTs and the purpose of the fifth patent is to thwart DDOs attacks.
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- ↑ "Patents by Inventor Jieyi Long". Justia Patents. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
- ↑ Munkachy, Alex (2017-12-21). "Theta Network Aims to Revolutionize Video Streaming with Blockchain". Flixed. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ Kim, SJ (2017-08-23). "SLIVER.tv Raises $9.8 Million In Series A Funding To Transform The VR Spectator Experience". vrandfun. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "VR and AR pushing connectivity limits" (PDF). Qualcomm. October 2018. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedThetadocs - ↑ "Folding@Home Team Statistics". Folding@home. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 Walters, Steve (2021-02-05). "Review of Theta Token: Blockchain Powered Video Streaming". CoinBureau. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 Partz, Helen (2021-03-02). "Sony Europe joins Theta blockchain validator program". CoinTelegraph. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Palmer, Daniel (2021-05-27). "Hollywood Powerhouse CAA Joins Blockchain Video Network Theta". Yahoo!Finance. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 14.7 14.8 Malwa, Shuarya (2021-06-15). "$500 million asset manager joins Theta Network as Enterprise Validator". CryptoSlate. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 Kharif, Olga (2021-07-04). "Esports Crypto Streaming Service Turns Bandwidth Into Profits". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 2021-07-05.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedFoolTheta - ↑ Hansford, Corey (2021-03-23). "Institutional Investors Stake Over $100 Million In Theta Network". CoinChapter. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "THETA.TV ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH WPT® TO LAUNCH 24/7 LIVE POKER CHANNEL POWERED BY THETA BLOCKCHAIN". World Poker Tour. 2020-04-30. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "WPT 24/7 POWERED BY THETA NETWORK". Worldpokertour.com. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
- ↑ ShoutFactory (2020-10-22). "Shout! Factory is Latest Premium Content Partner to Join THETA NETWORK's Global Streaming Platform". shoutfactory. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "Cinedigm Integrates Theta Network to Launch Exclusive Theta-Powered Channels on CONtv.com". Yahoo!Finance. ACCESSWIRE. 2021-04-01. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Theta Labs (2021-05-06). "WPT ThetaDrop Launch Update". Medium. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ "World Poker Tour Marketplace". Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ↑ Akhtar, Tanzeel (2021-06-30). "Katy Perry Launches NFTs, Acquires Stake in Theta Labs". Nasdaq.com. Retrieved 2021-07-05.
