Theta Token (THETA)
Total supply | 1,000,000,000 THETA |
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Basics
- Based in:
- Founded in: 2017
- Mainnet release: 3-2019
- Theta is a blockchain and token that will be used to power a decentralized video streaming and delivery network. The Theta Token functions as an incentive mechanism that encourages users to share their unused memory and bandwidth, serving as video caching and relay nodes for the network. Theta will be an open-source project that will be shared with industry and community participants, and our long-term vision is to have all video platforms participate in the network by building Dapp on top of the Theta protocol. Applications such as TV, movies, esports, music, education, and enterprise conferencing can benefit from building on the Theta Network. Theta ERC20-compliant tokens are live and fully integrated into the SLIVER.tv platform as of December 2017. The new native blockchain and protocol is planned to go live in Q4 2018, at which point each ERC20 token will be 1:1 exchanged for native Theta Tokens.
History
THETA & TFUEL Tokens
Launch
"Initially launched as an ERC-20 token, Theta has run its mainnet since March 2019, following a $20MM raise via private token sales in 2017."
Token allocation
- "Private sale tokens made up 30% of the total token supply. It was conducted from September 26th 2017 to December 27th 2017 for 300,000,000 THETA and raised a total of $20.0MM at ~$0.067 per token, selling 30% of the total token supply.
- Team was allocated 7.49% of the total tokens issued (unlocked in January 2019).
- Advisors received 1.23% of the total tokens issued tokens.
- Partners received 12.5% of the total tokens issued tokens.
- Network Seeding received 12.5% of the total tokens issued tokens.
- Labs Reserves constitutes 36.28% of the total tokens issued tokens."
Utility
"THETA is the governance token of the Theta protocol: it is used to stake as a Validator or Guardian node, to produce blocks, and to participate in the protocol's governance.
Validator nodes (block production) or Guardian nodes (block finalization) can stake THETA tokens and can earn TFUEL (the 2nd token in Theta ecosystem) as a reward.
TFUEL is the operational token of the Theta protocol: it is used by users to complete transactions (e.g., for a relay node to provide a third party with a video stream, to deploy / interact with smart contracts). Nodes earn TFUEL for every video stream they relay to other users on the network."
Token Details
TDROP Token
Token Allocation
- From their blog (29-7-2021):
"TDROP will have a fixed supply of 20,000,000,000 (twenty billion) tokens with a target launch on February 1, 2022. The breakdown of TDROP token allocation is as follows:
30% — Earned by NFT Liquidity Mining on ThetaDrop platform (4-year period)
20% — TDROP staking rewards for decentralized governance (4-year period)
20% — TDROP for THETA validators and guardians including delegated stakers (18-month distribution based on average daily THETA staked balance from August 1st 2021 to February 1st 2023, with 1/3 distributed on February 1st 2022, then 1/6th distributed each of the following four quarters)
20% — Theta Labs dev team (18-month distribution from August 1st 2021 to February 1st 2023, with 1/3 distributed on February 1st 2022, then 1/6th distributed each of the following four quarters)
10% — Reserve for Theta marketing, advisors, partners (not vested)"
Utility
- From their blog (29-7-2021):
"In order to increase the rate of adoption and liquidity of ThetaDrop NFT Marketplace, a new TNT-20 token, TDROP, will be created to incentivize usage through “NFT Liquidity Mining”. TDROP tokens will be earned by users each time they make a primary or secondary purchase using TFUEL on ThetaDrop NFT Marketplace or through a 3rd-party NFT Dapp built on the NFT marketplace smart contract. hetaDrop users who hold a balance of TDROP will earn VIP benefits including early or exclusive access to NFTs, limited edition packs, unique offline perks and more.
TDROP will also serve as the governance token for ThetaDrop and the NFT Marketplace. TDROP holders can stake their tokens to gain voting rights for proposed changes to ThetaDrop."
Coin Distribution
Tech
- Whitepaper can be found here (11-11-2018). 'Thera Ecosystem' whitepaper can be read here (29-7-2021).
- Code can be viewed here (12-6-2020).
- Built on:
- Programming language used:
Transaction Details
- Capacity (TPS): 1000+ according to the whitepaper
- Latency:
How it works
"Theta Network leverages three core features:
- Modified BFT consensus mechanism: a modified BFT consensus mechanism that allows thousands of nodes to participate in the consensus process, while still supporting more than 1,000+ TPS.
- Off-chain pool for micropayments: 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 it out the aggregated signature. Through this system, it allows the signature share of each node to reach other nodes at an exponential rate while keeping the communication overhead small.
- Aggregated Signature Gossip Scheme: built for video streaming purposes, it allows users to benefit from an off-chain micropayment pool."
Fee Mechanism
Upgrades
- Theta Mainnet 3.0 was launched on 30-6-2021:
- "Elite Edge Nodes will enable “Uptime Mining”, the tokenization of Internet bandwidth and availability. Users will be able to stake TFuel to an Edge Node to upgrade it to become an Elite Edge Node. Elite Edge Nodes can earn additional TFuel through their staked TFuel, incentivizing a larger, more robust, and more reliable Edge Network. New 4% TFuel inflation for uptime mining for Edge Nodes will be introduced in this update.
- A new TFuel burning mechanism will add a cost for using Theta Edge Network, namely a “network fee” as a balancing force against new TFuel supply. Since Theta Network launched two years ago we recognized that there is significant value accrued to video platform partners in the form of content delivery network (CDN) cost savings, increased user engagement, and revenues resulting from shifting infrastructure costs to user rewards. With Mainnet 3.0, a minimum of 25% of each TFuel payment to the Edge Network will be burned at the protocol level, effectively becoming a cost for platforms using the network. In addition to this, 100% of all gas fees for running smart contracts and transactions are burned. In the long-run as Theta’s Edge Network becomes more widely adopted, this could meaningfully reduce the supply of TFuel."
Staking
"Validator nodes have a minimum stake of 10,000,000 THETA and will initially be run by Theta Labs, with close partners and video platforms, to follow in Q2 2019. The Guardian node functionality is now live, with some Validator slots filled by community-run Guardian nodes on a rotating basis. The minimum number of tokens to operate a Guardian node is 100,000 THETA. The team states that having a relatively high minimum token requirement for nodes would enhance security, as it makes attacks more expensive."
Validator Stats
- Google, Binance, Blockchain.com and Gumi are running (12-6-2020) 'Enterprise Validator Nodes'.
- More than 40% of TFUEL staked (60% of fully diluted Theta supply) and over 8,000 Elite Edge Nodes (29-7-2021).
Liquidity Mining
Scaling
Interoperability
Other Details
Privacy Method
Oracle Method
Their Other Projects
Edgecast
"Edgecast is a decentralized application (dapp) built on Theta’s peer-to-peer video blockchain technology, powered by the Theta Edge Network. According to the announcement, the network currently consists of over 2,690 nodes worldwide."
ThetaSwap
- From the mainnet announcement (5-2-2021):
"ThetaSwap is the first decentralized exchange built on Theta blockchain, using an open-source smart contract system built based on Automated Market Maker logic similar to that of UniSwap. It allows users to exchange their newly-created TNT20 tokens built on Theta blockchain in a trustless, non-custodial way."
Governance
Admin Keys
DAO
Treasury
Roadmap
- Can be found here (16-7-2020):
"Q2 2020
- Theta Mainnet 2.0 goes live with Multi-BFT consensus mechanism and growing number of enterprise validator nodes
- Guardian Nodes launch on Theta Mainnet 2.0
- Smart Contracts Sandbox testnet released
- THETA.tv app releases on AndroidTV platform
Q3 2020
- Video-on-Demand (VOD) streaming added to THETA.tv
- Release of generalized Turing-complete smart contract support to testnet_sapphire
- Beta of “Anycast” Theta Edge Node platform (previously Universal Edge Cacher) featuring local ingest and encoding of streams, end-to-end decentralized streaming, decentralized chat and event notifications
- Beta of Theta blockchain data repository using ETL / Google BigQuery
Q4 2020
- Release of generalized Turing-complete smart contracts to Theta Mainnet 2.0
- Release of “Anycast” Theta Edge Node platform
- Beta of Theta oracle feed to increase transparency to stakeholders including advertisers, publishers and content creators
- Beta of decentralized DRM (digital rights management) system for permissioned streams, using NFTs (non-fungible tokens) as DRM authentication method to purchase and access encrypted digital content
2021 and beyond
- Coming soon"
- From Paradigm (12-2020):
"Theta Mainnet 3.0 projected to launch in the Spring 2021 will introduce TFUEL staking and burning."
- From their blog (5-1-2021):
"Q1 2021
- TNT-20 “Theta Network Token” minter expanded for NFTs
- Pre “Elite Edge Node” (TFUEL staking testing)
- 1-click Delegated staking within Theta wallet
- Decentralized exchange (DEX) on Theta blockchain
- NFT marketplace on Theta blockchain
- 2nd Theta Hackathon launches
Q2 2021
- Mainnet 3.0 Launch: Elite Edge Nodes, TFUEL staking and burning
- LINE Dapp launches with Theta integration
- Official Theta app released for Ledger and/or Trezor
- v2 Edge Compute with expanded video transcoding/encoding
Q3 2021
- Edge Caching new use cases (game patches, software updates, etc.)
- Edge Compute new use cases (Machine Learning, AI, other compute-heavy jobs)
- v2 Edgecast fully decentralized streaming Dapp
Q4 2021
- Beta of Edge Storage / IPFS integration
- v2 Advanced Smart contract developer platform"
- Delayed (25-3-2021) their Mainnet 3.0 launch date from April 21st to June 30th, 2021. (Update; made 30th of June)
Audits
- Bug bounty program can be found [insert here].
Bugs
Usage
Projects that use or built on it
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
- If mining rewards are not enough to cover the costs of operating a miner, then there will be very few miners resulting in a poor CDN.
- Will viewers want to watch Theta streams if it means they need to compute service certificates? Volatility in the value of Theta tokens might incentivize network participants like advertisers, streamers, and miners to hold onto Theta in as short a time period as possible in order to lock in income.
- Volatility comes with risk whereas network participants are not investors and adverse to risk.
- How will advertisers plug into the system? Will advertisers be incentivized to buy Theta or simply pay in fiat? Will streamers be willing accept Theta or simply get paid in fiat?
- Will service certificates be enough to guarantee service quality? Service certificates are binary, either a viewer computes one or not. What if there’s gray area video quality issues like buffering and dropped frames?
Competition
Coin Distribution
Team, Funding, Partnerships, etc.
Team
- Full team can be found [here].
- Liu, Mitch; CEO / co-founder. Has been co-founder of three different companies before, one was Sliver.tv. BS in Computer Science & Engineering from MIT, MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business
- Long, Jieyi; CTO / co-founder, also co-founder sliver.tv. BS in Microelectronics, Peking University, PhD in Computer Engineering, Northwestern University. Developed multiple patented technologies including VR live streaming as well as instant replays for video games.
- 'Wes'
- Theta Labs, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SLIVER VR TECHNOLOGIES, Inc, both US Delaware C-Corp. Theta Labs is governed by the board of directors of SLIVER.tv and consists of founders Mitch Liu and Jieyi Long, and Dovey Wan, Managing Partner of Danhua Capital. SLIVER.tv, a leading esports entertainment platform has raised over $17MM in equity financing from Silicon Valley VCs, Hollywood media investors including Danhua Capital, DCM, Sierra, Advancit, Creative Artists Agency, BDMI, Greycroft and major corporations including Samsung and Sony
- SLIVER.tv is the parent company of Theta Labs, Inc. and the leading esports live-streaming platform built around a virtual economy with more than 5 million unique monthly visits. The company is based in Cupertino, CA and backed by top-tier Silicon Valley VCs including Danhua Capital, DCM, Sierra Ventures, Venture Reality Fund, leading Hollywood/media investors including Creative Artists Agency, BDMI, Greycroft GC Tracker, Advancit Capital and top Japanese mobile gaming firms including GREE and Colopl. https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/assets.thetatoken.org/Theta-FAQ-latest.pdf
- Strategic partners: DHCV, Sierra Ventures, DCM, The Venture Reality Fund, Gumi, IBC, Sparkland, ZP Capital, Nirvana Capital, Seraph, ZMT Capital, Heuristic Capital, Synapse Capital, aelf.
- Company investors: DHCV, Sierra Ventures, DCM, The Venture Reality Fund, Colopl VR Fund, Gree, Green Pine Capital Partners, Sparkland, ZP Capital, Advancit, CAA, GreyCroft, BDMI, Heuristic Capital, Sony & Samsung
- Media Advisory council: Samsung VR
- Has a sh*t load of partnerships and advisors. Most notable are Sony, Samsung and a co-founder of Youtube
Blockchain Advisors:
- Guo, Chandler; Blockchain angel investor
- Dakh, Steve; CTO at smartwallet. Steve Dakh was an original developer on the Ethereum project, co-founder and CTO of the KryptoKit team which launched the Rushwallet, and serves as an advisor to numerous blockchain projects such as Aeternity, Po.et, and Polymath. His current project is his most sophisticated wallet project yet, SmartWallet. Steve also serves on the Faculty of Advisors of the CryptoCurrency Certification Consortium (C4).
- Skewers, Travis; Founder CoinMkt. Travis Skweres is an early entrepreneur and investor player in cryptocurrencies. Travis was the CEO and Cofounder of CoinMKT, one of the first Bitcoin exchanges based in the United States. Operating from 2013 - 2015, CoinMKT achieved tens of thousands of users, millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin traded, and was acquired by ANX Hong Kong in 2015. Travis remains an active investor in the cryptocurrency community and is currently working on releasing his next cryptocurrency-related project. Travis clients have included Occidental Petroleum, The Home Depot, Blinds.com, NBC Universal, and more.
- Serrano, Sebastian; Founder Ripio. Sebastian Serrano is a young entrepreneur from Argentina. Starting as a skillful developer at a very early age and then leading a successful web & mobile development startup, Sebastian founded Ripio in 2013, offering Bitcoin wallet services plus credit payments for consumers and a full suite of financial services for merchants. With Ripio, Sebastian and his team aim to democratize digital payments in developing countries.
- Haobo, Ma; CEO of aelf. Ma is the founder and CEO of aelf, a decentralized cloud computing blockchain network, as well as founder and CEO of Hoopox, a technology company that provides vertical industrial solutions from infrastructure to blockchain systems. A blockchain expert and early adopter of digital assets, Ma also previously served as CTO of GemPay and AllCoin. He is a member of Blockchain Experts’ Commission of Chinese Institute of Electronics.
- Zhang, Shoucheng; Founder Danhua Capital
- Shoucheng Zhang (Chinese: 张首晟; born 1963) is the JG Jackson and CJ Wood professor of physics at Stanford University. He is a condensed matter theorist known for his work on topological insulators,[1] quantum spin Hall effect, spintronics, quantum Hall effect and high temperature superconductivity. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the Guggenheim fellowship in 2007, the Alexander von Humboldt research prize in 2009, the Europhysics prize in 2010, the Oliver Buckley prize in 2012, the Dirac Medal and Prize in 2012, the Physics Frontiers Prize in 2013, the “Nobel-class” Citation Laureates by Thomson Reuters in 2014[2] and the Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2015. He is identified as one of the top candidates for the Nobel Prize by Thomson Reuters in 2014.[3] He has been elected as the member of the National Academy of Science in 2015. Mr. Zhang is also the founding chairman of Danhua Capital, a VC fund that invests primarily in early stage and growth stage company with disruptive technology/business model, big market and excellent team.
- Zhang, Fan; Seqoia Capital China.
Media advisors:
- Chen, Steve; co-founder and old CTO of youtube
- Kan, Justin; co-founder Twitch
- Wick, Sam; a leading digital and entertainment executive. He currently leads UTA’s new venture group. He most recently was a key member of Maker Studios’ management team where he was responsible for the enterprise P&L, corporate development, business development and strategic partnerships. He has 20+ years of experience in the media and technology space including senior positions at MySpace, AOL, Mp3.com and Sony. During this time he was involved in M&A activity including financing and acquisitions of his companies.
Funding
- The team raised $16 million in equity funding and launched Theta in Q2 2017. In Q3 2017, Theta completed an incredibly successful pre-sale of Theta tokens to strategic investors. A public ICO was scheduled for January 2018 but was cancelled partly from legal concerns. Theta was listed on exchanges starting January 17th. The team will start development of the Theta blockchain in Q1 2018 and plans to launch the blockchain in Q4.
Partners
- From this article (28-5-2020):
"Google has joined the grandly-named Enterprise Validator Program, alongside Binance, Blockchain Ventures, and Gumi, which ‘allows enterprises to validate transactions in accordance with Theta’s underlying consensus protocol’, in its own words. Google Cloud’s role will be to provide ‘stability, reliability and security’ to the Theta network, in the company’s words.
Google itself, rather than Google Cloud, is a member of the Hedera Governing Council, while the company has a standing partnership with Cypherium, alongside AWS and IBM."