The History of THETA

What Is THETA?

One of the fastest-rising altcoins of the past year, THETA is the offspring of Theta Labs, a 2016 collaboration between Mitch Liu, who had founded a few mobile gaming startups, and Jieyi Long, an eSports platform pioneer. Focused out of the gate on VR video streaming technology, the pair soon encountered numerous roadblocks associated with centralized bandwidth, leading to a shared realization that blockchain technology could bring about dramatic, badly needed changes, resulting in the creation of Theta Network. 

The blockchain was built in order to provide an entirely decentralised native blockchain for the purpose of video streaming and distribution – to ultimately streamline content creation for independent creators.

Unlike any other blockchain technology, the Theta network is aiming to completely replace traditional video streaming services by allowing users of the blockchain to share bandwidth with one another and other computing resources using a peer-to-peer (P2P) approach. 

Whilst Theta may have originally been an additional layer on top of the Ethereum ecosystem, Liu and Long have since gone on to develop Theta’s entirely unique blockchain technology alongside a small, yet immensely skilled crew of developers. The network is powered by two primary tokens that allow the ecosystem to flourish and continuously develop.

The blockchain’s native token, THETA, allows users of the technology to perform a range of governance tasks which help contribute to governance tasks relating to and helping to run a range of participant activities, including one major category known as Enterprise Validator Nodes, comprising a group of prominent companies, such as Google, Samsung and Sony. 

These companies stake large blocks (of 1 million) Theta tokens for the bulk processing of transactions on the platform. Additionally, there are also Guardian Nodes, which are community nodes (backed by 1,000 staked THETA coins) that require validation at predefined points, as well as a third category, Edge Nodes, involving participants sharing video and bandwidth via Theta.tv

In addition to the THETA governance token, the protocol also uses a second token, Theta Fuel, or TFUEL, for operations. Specifically, TFUEL is used for on-chain transactions, such as rewarding Edge Nodes, powering the ecosystem.

Scrapping the traditional video streaming industry’s flaws of poor infrastructure, low revenue for creators, high costs, and so forth – the THETA network reconciles this issue and seeks to revolutionise video streaming and content distribution for the masses. 

Where Did THETA Come From?

Mitch Liu’s previous involvement within the gaming and video streaming industry led him to initially develop THETA.tv, the first live streaming DApp built using the THETA protocol. Combining his passion for blockchain technology and continuous digital innovation, Liu joined forces with Long.

Similar to Liu, Long spent several years focused on design automation, virtual reality and gaming. In 2015 Liu, Long, with the help of VCs, found SLIVER.tv, eSports platform and the forerunner to Theta.tv. They then followed this success in 2016 when the pair founded Theta Labs to build a blockchain solution for a peer-to-peer streaming network – where the native token was later released in 2018 to help power the network and lead it to new heights. This was then succeeded by the mainnet launch in 2019.

With the pair combining their passions and onboarding likeminded individuals along the way, the Theta protocol has since developed and is striving to meet new heights, in terms of value and blockchain capabilities. 

Through continual blockchain development and striving towards innovation, the Theta protocol is working towards restructuring the video streaming and data sharing industries to ensure that cost efficiency and speed is prioritised.

What’s On The Horizon For THETA?

As THETA appears set to continually develop and expand to continue identifying and resolving the pre existing issues within the video streaming industry, it’s likely that the video streaming industry will see drastic changes in the near future.