Theta Network (THETA) is an open source protocol that uses a decentralized blockchain network. Theta Network has done a good job of integrating blockchain and the gaming industry. THETA tokens and TFUEL tokens are Theta Network-specific tokens.
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Theta Network has been designed for uploading and streaming movies and videos, yet its Blockchain created to secure and distribute tokens. SLIVER.tv was the first Theta show to attract millions of Sports visitors.
What is Theta Network (THETA)?
The goal of Theta Network is to create a more efficient way to deliver content on a global, peer-to-peer mesh network. Tokens in the Theta blockchain are used as storage nodes or relays for video to encourage users to share idle calculations and their bandwidth resources. This design aims to improve the quality of flow delivery and solve the “last mile” delivery problem, which is the main bottleneck of traditional content delivery pipelines, especially for high-resolution streams with high bit rates of 4k, 8k and next generation. With sufficient network density, most viewers pull streams out of similar storage nodes, allowing video platforms to significantly reduce the cost of a content delivery network (“CDN”). By introducing tokens as an end-user incentive mechanism, Theta Network aims to enable video platforms to deepen viewer engagement, increase revenue, and differentiate content and viewing experience from its competitors. Theta uses a two-token model with the following application.
How Does THETA Work?
Theta consists of two parts. The first is the video delivery network. It consists of nodes that connect to the network and provide their bandwidth. This network is what makes real decentralized video delivery. The second part of the blockchain is theta. This is for incentive purposes, to provide a reason for participants to join the delivery network.
Theta Network
Currently, content delivery networks (CDNs) offer video content and streaming. These usually include very large centralized data centers scattered around the world. The main problem with these cases is that they are not geographically close enough to many viewers, which leads to lower quality broadcasts. Theta’s answer to this is to create a P2P mesh network of users who share their bandwidth. The result must be a global network to replace or complement the CDN infrastructure.
Users can borrow their devices as storage nodes that send video streams to any viewer in the world. A node is a node that stores video data. As a result, the flow quality is improved because the theta network has more storage and relay points than the current system. This is because video data packets do not have to travel that far. Storage nodes are rewarded with theta tokens, and are therefore motivated to provide additional bandwidth resources and strengthen the theta network.
Theta White Paper claims that its solution could reduce delivery costs by up to 80% compared to existing infrastructure. This seems to be because of the savings in not having to maintain the huge data centers that CDNs currently supply. While this is a big claim, we have to wait and see if they can do it.
Improved resilience
In addition to the improved stream quality, it has to offer, Theta also hopes to improve infrastructure flexibility. Currently, the entire streaming industry is dependent on a small number of data centers. This carries with it the risk that the global trend will worsen dramatically if several failures or go offline. By distributing cables and relays to thousands and potentially tens of thousands of nodes, the theta network should be much stronger than the current system.
Variety in quality
The main problem that theta identifies is the difference in the quality of the different nodes. In addition, there is nothing to stop the nodes. To address these issues, the team is building a server and client to help nodes identify the closest nodes in terms of network bounce. Nodes can then communicate with their closest counterparts, as opposed to being randomly connected to any node in the world. Theta hopes this will allow nodes to run streams more stably and thus compete with current CDNs.
Theta Blockchain
The purpose of the Theta Blockchain is to act as a consensus layer for payments and rewards in the ecosystem. It is important to know that no video files are stored in Blockchain. This will be impossible due to the data demands it imposes. Blockchain will be fully open source, and the team hopes developers will build and deploy their DAPPS on top of Blockchain.
Dealing with scaling
As theoretically, tens of thousands of nodes will participate in the mesh network, as a result, there will be a large number of micropayments for rewards. In addition, the Blockchain must consider a large number of payments in the form of tips, purchases and other uses of tokens. As a result, Theta is trying to build a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain with very high throughput, while not including decentralization and security. Of course, this is not a small problem and it is something that has caused many problems in blockchain.
The team has divided its blockchain into two levels. A small validation committee of 20 validation nodes produces the blocks. Beneath that, a large body of guards, numbering in the thousands, is responsible for validating the Blockchain at designated points and helping to build consensus. Theta believes that without compromising decentralization, it brings a very high throughput.
In addition, Theta uses a rumor-mongering scheme. This means that guard nodes send their signatures to adjacent nodes instead of sending their signatures. This process continues and spreads signatures in the same way that the virus spreads in an epidemic. It is designed to maximize performance where guard nodes communicate with each other. The last part is the off-chain micropayment system, which adds extra capacity to the blockchain. It seems to be doubly resistant to spending.
The team behind Theta Network (THETA)
There were and still are big names in the network of advisors of this network. YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Twitch co-founder Justin Kana, Verizon CEO Rakuten Wiki and CG Peach are prominent figures on the consulting team. In 2017, Theta was able to raise $20 million in a private sale by selling 30 percent of its total 1 billion digital currency supply.
In addition to Jieyi Long as Chief Technology Officer and Mitch Liu as CEO, Ryan Nicholas is currently on the core team and CEO of the network. He has previously managed Tencent for the Wechat app. Also on the blockchain and theta development team are 15 people, mostly from East and Southeast Asia.
The purpose of the Theta token
Theta token currently exists as an ERC20 token and has no functional function. However, when theta is transferred to its main network on March 15, 2019, these tokens will be replaced with new theta tokens in a 1: 1 ratio and will be placed on top of the new theta blockchain.
Once the main network is up and running, these new tokens will be used primarily to secure Theta blockchain. In addition, the team hopes that people will use the token as a means of paying and rewarding content creators, marketing virtual products, and purchasing premium content.
708,000,000 out of a total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens are currently in circulation. This is equivalent to 71%, which means that the supply of tokens cannot be significantly reduced, this is positive news for investors.
At the same time as launching the main network, Theta issues Gamma tokens to all THETA holders. For each THETA token stored, five gamma tokens are issued. These tokens have practical value and are used to pay for video transactions and cover smart contract operations. The Gamma token appears to be used instead of the THETA token as a means of paying and rewarding content creators, trading virtual products, and purchasing premium content.
In conclusion
The response of Theta to current content delivery scaling problems is certainly astonishing. Its unique approach to the P2P mesh network, which is driven and secured by high-throughput Blockchain, can certainly be very destructive if successful.
Whether they can maintain their blockchain decentralization and maintain their mesh network of consistent quality are probably two big questions right now.
Theta token itself makes a lot of sense as a functional token. Most importantly, it should act as a means to motivate bandwidth sharing. This in turn contributes to the development and growth of the mesh network.