THETA Review

Theta Review:

An elegant amalgamation of blockchain technology and video streaming

We are all familiar with the predominance of video streaming services in the world of internet media. Although the exact number is not precise due to the consistency of technological advancement, it has been projected that video streaming services currently account for 82 percent of internet traffic. In fact, the global video streaming market size value in 2021 is worth approximately 59 billion USD but is expected to grow further. As great as this sounds, current video streaming services are struggling to provide the adequate resolution and speeds that the growing market demands. Much of this problem can be attributed to the fact that most video streaming services are built upon a centralized infrastructure.

Enter Theta:

Theta is a project of San Francisco based software company Theta Labs. It was created in 2017 by founders Mitch Liu and Jieyi Long, in an effort to correct several issues with their previous project Theta.tv. The project was created to provide consistent and high-resolution video streaming by utilizing blockchain technology. Theta.tv is now capable of streaming video in both 4K and 8K resolutions with little to no buffering required. The Theta network is also designed to effectively support any higher resolutions that are expected to become available in the near future.

Traditional Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) rely on a small number of servers to relay video data directly to the viewer. Theta differs from other CDNs by broadcasting media from servers to specific users who act as nodes. These nodes cache the video data. Theta then uses the excess upload bandwidth of the node to share the video data with other users and viewers. This is how theta can achieve high resolution video streaming at a much lower cost than that of the traditional CDNs Theta rewards users who contribute to the network with Theta Fuel. Theta also rewards viewers with a smaller amount of Theta Fuel for simply watching videos on the Theta.tv streaming service.

There are two native cryptocurrencies on the Theta Blockchain. Theta coin (THETA) and Theta Fuel (TFUEL). Theta Coin is currently used primarily for staking, although it will eventually be used as a governance token Theta fuel is primarily used for the purpose of executing transactions within the Theta network. It functions similarly to Ethereum’s GAS, however Theta Fuel itself can be traded and held as an independent cryptocurrency. Theta fuel is also used on the Theta blockchain to pay for the minting and moving of fungible and non-fungible assets, including the minting of the Theta Coin itself. Because Theta Fuel is required for minting of Theta Coin, it has great potential to become a deflationary asset when Theta 3.0 is released on June 30th 2021

Theta EdgeCast:

Theta EdgeCast is the worlds first fully decentralized video streaming Dapp built on Theta’s native blockchain technology. Although the project is still in beta, it already boasts a fantastic technology stack. Theta EdgeCast can capture video and transcode it in real time. This means video can be broadcasted to smartphones, laptops or smart televisions as its being recorded. The delay is only determined by network latency. There are currently over 9,000 users who act as EdgeCast nodes in operation. These are the same nodes that cache the video data for the THETA.tv streaming service.

Theta 3.0:

The Theta 3.0 upgrade is entirely focused on adding more Edge Nodes to the EdgeCast network. As mentioned earlier in this article, current Edge Nodes are rewarded with Theta Fuel for their contribution to the Theta network. On June 30th2021 Theta will allow nodes to stake Theta Fuel. Nodes staking Theta Fuel will then become Elite Edge Nodes, which earn more Theta Fuel than regular Edge Nodes. This excess Theta Fuel will be determined by the amount of network uptime and Theta Fuel staked. Theta is doing this in the hopes of incentivizing more users to become nodes. On top of all that, 25 percent of all Theta Fuel involved in transactions on the EdgeCast network will be burned. Theta Fuel is currently 5 percent inflationary however the 3.0 upgrade will increase Theta Fuel to around 2 to 4 percent inflation.