About

Theta Network is a blockchain-based platform specializing in video streaming. It leverages decentralized technology to improve video delivery networks, facilitating user participation in streaming content delivery. By utilizing blockchain, it aims to reduce the costs of video streaming and improve the quality and reach of content distribution. The network uses a native token, THETA, to incentivize user participation in the ecosystem.

History

Theta Token and Blockchain were announced on Medium in November, 2017. The first Theta token sale started in January, 2018, as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum. Theta Network launched its own mainnet 1.0 in March, 2019.

When Mainnet 2.0 launched in May 2020, they introduced Guardian nodes, a two layer consensus mechanism to complement its Enterprise validators run by partners including Google, Samsung, Binance, Blockchain.com, and Gumi.

Mainnet 2.0 also introduced a Theta "Edge Node" network with peer-to-peer “EdgeCast” technology. This decentralized technology stack adds the ability to capture live video, transcode it in real-time, cache and relay live stream video data to users globally. The Theta Network claims an edge network run by thousands of community members, without central servers or services.

In July 2021, Theta launched Mainnet 3.0, adding a smart contract capability. The project hopes to significantly increase the engagement and retention of platform users. For example, leveraging smart contracts on the Theta network could enable fully digitized item ownership, innovative payment-consumption models, transparent royalty distributions, trustless crowdfunding mechanisms, etc. This may provide an additional layer of social and economic interactivity to supplement the core functionality of video and data delivery.