What is the theta coin, how does it work, and what is it used for?
In this guide
The Theta coin has become a hot topic in the world of cryptocurrency. However, you may not know what it is, how it works, and what it’s used for. This article will provide some answers.
The growth of streaming
Over the past decade, one of the most notable and prominent online developments has been the rise of video streaming. Whether it’s standalone platforms like Netflix, platforms linked to established broadcasters like BBC iPlayer, or user-generated content providers such as YouTube, millions of people across the world use streamed services. As well as pre-recorded videos, videos of live events are also incredibly popular.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and the associated lockdowns, live streams of music concerts and sporting occasions have proved incredibly popular. However, there are some examples of live streams where the quality is poor.
In many cases, the content creators aim for high quality, but the existing technology can’t quite keep up with what people want to achieve. This can be a problem, especially when people have paid money to watch a stream and suffer poor picture quality and buffering.
Problems have solutions and, in 2017, a new system was created that would, at least theoretically, make a change. Jieyi Long, a businessman with a background of working in virtual reality live streaming technology, and Mitch Liu, an entrepreneur who had previously set up online advertising and mobile gaming companies, joined forces. Together, they came up with the Theta Network.
So how does Theta Network work? What does it do? Let’s find out.
What is Theta Network?
The rise of online streaming, particularly live streaming, has happened at the same time as the growth of blockchain technology. Theta Network is, to put it simply, using blockchain to help make streaming better.
The idea is that there are geographically linked networks of operators, called content delivery networks (CDNs), that work together to deliver online video streaming content, much of it live. However, since CDNs are restricted by their geographic locations, they end up being unable to keep up with the higher quality streams.
What Theta Network does is create a worldwide group of users who offer their spare bandwidth and other resources to help stream videos. In theory, this means that there’s more bandwidth available, meaning streams are higher quality and less likely to experience buffering.
The network itself is powered by three groups of users, or nodes.
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Enterprise Validator Nodes. These are businesses who stake theta tokens for the right to process transactions on the network. As of June 2021, these include such massive tech companies as Google, Samsung and Sony Europe.
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Guardian Nodes. These are users who make sure the transaction blocks proposed by the Enterprise Validator Nodes are accurate.
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Edge Nodes. These are users who either share their bandwidth or relay video streams over the Theta Network in return for rewards.
Developers can also use the Theta Network to build decentralised applications, such as apps for royalty distribution and crowdfunding, on top of its blockchain. Theta is becoming popular with online content creators who want to have more control over their videos, how they are watched, their quality, and how they are paid for them.
The Mainnet went live in 2019, and that's the Theta Network explained for you.
What is Theta coin?
As well as the Theta Network, there is a Theta blockchain, which basically runs in the background and helps establish a consensus mechanism and, perhaps more importantly, to help pay out rewards. The blockchain has two native currencies. There is TFUEL, which is used to pay out rewards to the Edge Nodes, but the main one is Theta coin. This went live in 2019.
The previous year, the company had held a private sale of 30% of the one billion theta coins available. This raised around $20m and started to generate interest in the theta token. Theta coin, which is really a token, is used to allow people to stake a claim on voting rights and to help validate transactions.
Theta coin’s price stayed around the $0.10 mark for the first couple of years of its existence, but last year things started to move slowly. It broke through the $0.20 barrier in May 2020 and started to rise, slowly but surely, hitting $0.70 in early December. It rose above $1 for the first time on 22 December and, in 2021, it really started to kick off.
It reached $2.13 on 5 January and on 14 Feb it hit $3.19. At the end of February it stood at just under $3.10, but in March it really took off. It ended March 31 at $12.21, an increase of more than 293%. It reached an all time high of $15.08 on April 16.
While the price has dropped by nearly half since then, at least partially because of the cryptocurrency crash of 19 May 2021, by 3 June 2021 it was worth $8.93, considerably more than it was at the start of 2021.
Looking at the future, WalletInvestor says that it should reach $20.925 in a year’s time and $78.97 in five years. DigitalCoinPrice is a bit more cautious, saying it should get to $13.52 in June 2022 and $31.19 in June 2026.
But any good theta coin review will tell you price predictions are often wrong. Remember that cryptocurrencies can be highly volatile, that the value of investments can go down as well as up, and that you should never invest more money than you can afford to lose.
FAQs
Theta Network was created by entrepreneurs Mitch Liu and Jieyi Long in 2017. Theta coin came on the scene in 2018, when the Network had a private sale of 30% of the token’s one billion fixed supply, raising around $20m. The Network’s advisers include YouTube co-founder Steve Chen and Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, among others.
Cryptocurrencies have value because, to put it bluntly, people say they have value. However, if we’re looking at why people say theta coin has value, it’s because it is used to produce blocks, vote on changes to the network, validate transactions, and earn TFUEL as a reward. Theta coin also has a fixed, limited supply of one billion.
Technically, you can’t mine theta coin. Since the supply is limited to one billion, and these coins are all in circulation, if you want to get hold of a Theta token, then you’ll have to buy it. There is no other way of having one.
Theta coin can be bought through some, but not all, cryptocurrency exchanges. Exchanges which deal in the token include Binance, OKEx, FTX, Upbit and Huobi Global. However, if you want to buy theta, please don’t get it confused with Theta Fuel (TFUEL), which is used on the Theta Network to carry out transactions.
