The Theta Network is bridging the gap between blockchain technology and video content creation to heights never seen by any competing project until now, with Web 3.0 and decentralized finance paving the way for digital and economic freedom.
The Theta Network – A Sleeping Giant
The Theta Network holds its focus on enabling video streaming content creators to profit from their contributions, as well as giving them methods to moderate how their content is presented and how it can be monetized, all while remaining decentralized through a P2P (Peer to Peer) community of ‘Guardian’ nodes. Despite this focus, VR (Virtual Reality) is next on the forefront for The Theta Network - with Samsung VR as a prime new candidate for pairing.
Theta’s chain is built to work alongside Ethereum, making it highly versatile and easy for user integration with the web’s most popular dApp (Decentralized Application) blockchain through the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), all while maintaining independence with an open-source platform that utilizes smart contracts as layers to the EVM. This layering allows Theta to take advantage of the EVM while managing its own blockchain, transaction fees, and external mechanisms.
Why The Theta Network?
The Theta Network debatably has no true competitors as any perceived projects lack the same visions for utilities. With Theta’s focuses being on Web 3.0, decentralization through P2P nodes, and a democratic approach to self-governance, focusing only on the project’s desire to make video streaming a new frontier is short-sighted, despite highly exciting and lucrative profits to be had from that venture alone. Theta has backing from their parent company which is devoted to virtual reality systems and has major connections with prominent tech companies such as YouTube and Twitch, giants in the field of video content creation and streaming.
Theta Labs, Inc. Project Overview
Theta Labs and the Theta Token are taking the forefront of decentralized, P2P (Peer to Peer) video streaming and virtual reality. Theta Labs, Inc. was founded in 2017 as a subsidiary of Sliver VR Technologies, Inc. Now, after years of development and testing mainnet functionality, in addition to supplying a large amount of capital to boost project scalability, Theta can confidently proceed after their recent mainnet 3.0 launch. Steps required to make this happen include the development of Theta Fuel (TFUEL), Theta’s native platform token, which is used to reward viewers of videos on their platform similar to the ad rewards included with Brave Browser in BAT (Basic Attention Token).
Theta is operated by Co-founders Mitch Liu (CEO) and Jieyi Long (CTO), as well as Ryan Nichols (Chief Product Officer). Liu holds a B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering from MIT, as well as an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Long is also well accomplished in academics with a B.S. in Microelectronics from Peking University and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Northwestern University, in addition to developing patents in virtual reality live streaming and instant replays for video games. Nichols is renowned for his experience in virtual currencies and various tech platforms and is a director at Tencent for the Wechat App.
Steve Chen, the Co-Founder of YouTube, is quoted as saying, “Theta’s innovation is set to disrupt today’s online video industry much in the same way that the YouTube platform did to traditional video back in 2005. One of our biggest challenges had been the high costs of delivering video to various parts of the world, and this problem is only getting bigger with HD, 4K, and higher quality video streams.”
Chen followed up this statement of summarized challenges by saying, “I’m excited to be part of the next evolution of the streaming space, helping Theta create a decentralized peer-to-peer network that can offer improved video delivery at lower costs.”
Exodus released this video on the Theta Network, Theta Token, and TFUEL for beginner information via YouTube:
The Theta Network has no notable flaws with management, operations, project history or transparency, functionality, scalability, and financial/social support. Therefore, Theta is on the brink of something big with little to slow it down.
Technical Aspects
The Theta Network is extremely focused on becoming the number one content delivery network for streaming services and expanding its utility and applications along the way. Theta is a project that will quickly move from streaming social media mass adoption to new applications such as virtual reality media integration.
As a result, there will likely be a more rapid expansion in blockchain development and onboarding of users and those in desire of running nodes. Theta offers the option to run a Theta Guardian Node, which earns TFUEL tokens by staking THETA tokens. There is also the option to run a Theta Edge Node, which earns TFUEL tokens by watching popular streaming videos.
Notable Projects & Partnerships
The Theta Network maintains Theta.tv but is host to many projects & partnerships discussed above with node participation and some listed below in business partnerships, not to mention potential partnerships in the future.
The Theta Network is working on partnerships with Samsung VR, Cinedigm, Shout Factory, and GFUEL. They also have enterprise validator nodes connected with Google, Sony, Samsung, CAA, Binance, and more. The Theta Advisory Board includes Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, and Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch.tv.
Project Issues
The Theta Network has mainly been confronted with the rapid development required to reach Web 3.0 mainnet stability, but overall has not had any serious security breaches or anything significantly negative to note. Of course, their nodes can take a little while to sync, but that is hardly worth complaining about if it ensures network security and doesn’t have to be performed routinely.
Theta Network’s Roadmap
The Theta Network’s roadmap is right on track as they went live with their Web 3.0 mainnet on June 30th, 2021, to jump off 2021’s Q2. The Web 3.0 mainnet launch comes after a series of developments, including TNT-20 or the “Theta Network Token” minter, which was expanded upon for NFT (Non-Fungible Token) use, TFUEL staking testing, launching a DEX (Decentralized Exchange), and an NFT marketplace on the Theta blockchain.
Theta survived their second Theta Hackaton with flying colors and are now pursuing hardware wallet support through Trezor and Ledger. In the near Q3, Theta is exploring new use cases for their chain, such as game and software patches, machine learning & artificial intelligence, and rendering their Edgecast v2 a fully decentralized streaming application. Q4 projects to include IPFS integration along with a more advanced smart contract developer platform.
Theta & TFUEL Price Movements
The Theta Network Token (THETA) currently holds a mid-market price of $4.40 USD with a #23 coin ranking and a current market cap of $4,416,656,120 USD, which marks a loss of 50.2% in the last month and a gain of 1,780% in the last year. Theta Fuel (TFUEL), Theta’s native token, is sitting at $0.26 US cents, which is down 27.5% in the last 30 days, and up 3,130% in the last year. TFUEL has a current market cap of $1,420,088,415, giving the token a #61 ranking on CoinGecko.
A Competitor Analysis - The AIOZ Network, an Overview
The AIOZ Network has some things in common with Theta, but its tactics are focused almost entirely on video streaming services. AIOZ is also an open-source P2P platform built with Ethereum and extending its reach into Binance’s smart chain. The chain claims to be secure, efficient, and superior to competitors and boasts unlimited nodes. Users are rewarded with coins, but the project emphasizes cost efficiency, infinite scalability, no “middlemen” to take fees between contracts and wallets, fast speeds, great high definition, and more.
The AIOZ Network Project’s team is comprised of Erman Tjiputra (CEO), Hien Nguyen (Head of Blockchain), Trieu Nguyen (CTO), Hung Nguyen (Project Manager), and Quang Tran (Head of Artificial Intelligence). Tjiputra earned his B.S. in Banking, Corporate, Finance, and Securities Law from Boston College. Hien Nguyen achieved his B.S. in Computer Science, and Trieu Nguyen walked a similar path through VNUHCM’s University of Science, earning his B.S. with honors in Computer Software Engineering.
Furthermore, Hung Nguyen also earned his B.S. in Computer Science from the VNUHCM’s University of Science. Tran presents more of an eclectic educational background that holds no typical degree program accolades but does bring more to the table with various tech-related jobs accompanied by academic proficiency tests ranging from Stanford to Berkeley, and lastly, a license in Structuring Machine Learning Projects.
The AIOZ Network was founded several years ago in 2013, which should have offered them ample time to deploy themselves as a primary CDN (Content Delivery Network). Instead, it would appear they have been largely tied up in development and marketing with minimal pairing from the major names and brands in the tech business that will carry them above the rest, which has caused the project to fall behind in a crucial time for Web 3.0 onboarding.
AIOZ made some traction in the dCDNs (Decentralized Content Delivery Networks) but quickly fell low after April of 2021, which suggests they may have gone too big, too fast, and now they are paying the price while more prepared projects continue to advance. Moreover, even with accomplishing 20,000 active nodes, they stand in the wake of The Theta Network, which has over five times that amount of active nodes. Some have gone as far as to say that The AIOZ Network is too centralized to meet its intended goal, but they were met with heavy criticism.
AIOZ, unlike Theta, currently uses artificial intelligence for node optimization, which may or may not be a positive depending on your position with AI vs. smart contracts and P2P blockchain security, and AIOZ has already sustained “malicious actors” who have harmed the AIOZ Network.
The AIOZ Network is heavily focused on being a prime candidate for streaming services, and they have the minds for it. However, with the project showing little traction in the CDN market after a collapse in productivity and ROI (return on investment) since April of 2021, when they briefly announced themselves as the most successful blockchain project in 2021, which does not appear to have held up to the test of time.
Lack of outside support and popularity may have led to their financial downfall; though this isn’t the only measure of a project’s success, it is hard to deny that the best-equipped platform to solve problems with the most exposure will lead the race. Unfortunately for AIOZ, while their goal is to help services like YouTube seamlessly switch over to their network, their competition has beaten them to it. Thus, while one can earn AIOZ through participation, their efforts may very well result in a low yield of valuable tokens.
AIOZ Network Projects & Partnerships
The AIOZ Network is noted for AIOZ Tube, a video sharing platform, AIOZ OTT, a subscription video service operated by the AIOZ network and paid for via AIOZ tokens, and lastly, AIOZ TV, which is a live-streaming app with a focus on paying individuals to stream their personal activities for monetary gain.
The AIOZ Network has partnered with the OMNI social media app and the MILC platform, which is dubbed “Media Industry Licensing Content.” However, their website fails to list much of any third-party participation, and the company seems to be more socially active on Twitter.
AIOZ Network Roadmap
AIOZ Network published its whitepaper in 2017 and obtained three blockchain streaming patents and one fiat-to-crypto patent, which were obtained in 2020 and 2021. From there, they tried out their test net, which resulted in a large bump in ROI (Return on Investment) of 34,956%, marking the highest public ROI in all of cryptocurrency sales - though this was short-lived. In addition, AIOZ produced a DEX for tokens and NFTs. As of now, the AIOZ network appears to be in the midst of a developer circle in testnet before they can launch their mainnet.
AIOZ Price Movements
The AIOZ Network token scrapes in at a token rank of #610 with a mid-market price of a mere $0.20 US cents and a market cap of $18,407,610. AIOZ has seen a 57.7% decrease in price in the last 30 days and holds no weight in an annual comparison. However, it’s easy to observe a dramatic drop in price from $2.20 USD in early April of 2021, which was only a few months ago and cannot be blamed on the recent Bitcoin (BTC) crash as the majority of AIOZ’s losses came before the crash occurred.
As always, comments, suggestions, and friendly debates are highly encouraged.
Stay smart & Stay safe.
-Thomas Wolf
Pronouns: He/Him/His
DISCLAIMER
I am not a certified financial, tax, or legal advisor, analyst, or planner. The above information should not be considered advice but as an opinion intended to share information and ideas for entertainment and independent research purposes. I am not responsible for any losses or damages incurred due to misinterpreting my personal opinions for professional advice.
Sources:
https://www.kraken.com/en-us/learn/what-is-theta
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/is-theta-token-the-next-ethereum-or-the-next-dogecoin-2021-05-16
https://craft.co/theta-labs/competitors
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/theta-network
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/theta-fuel
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/aioz-network
https://www.thetatoken.org/
https://medium.com/mycrypto/the-ethereum-virtual-machine-how-does-it-work-9abac2b7c9e
https://twitter.com/AIOZNetwork/status/1387018484895256582
- AIOZNetwork
https://bitcoinist.com/a-new-era-in-content-distribution-the-aioz-network-reaches-20000-nodes/
https://cryptodiffer.com/news/aioz-ama-recap/
https://medium.com/aioz-network/the-aioz-network-partners-with-milc-84eed3886138