Introduction to Theta Network

Hosting and sharing video content is a tricky task. The issue is that if all of the content is stored in one location, it might be incredibly slow for people all over the world to access it. As a result, video sharing services will use several servers around the world to distribute content much more quickly—this is known as a content delivery network (CDN).

However, paying for a CDN is costly. These providers normally charge based on the amount of data utilized, which means that as a video streaming site grows in popularity, its expenses will rise.

This is where Theta Network wants to make a difference.

What is Theta Network??

Theta Network aims to reduce the operating costs of video streaming services such as YouTube. It works by offloading some of the load from the content distribution network to Theta's peer-to-peer network. It is similar to BitTorrent in that users share video content with one another, but it actually rewards its users for doing so.

Theta Network is not attempting to compete with YouTube or the live streaming site Twitch. Instead, it is attempting to build new infrastructure for such enterprises that is not only decentralized but also far less expensive.

When you try to watch a video on a video streaming site that uses the Theta Network, you will receive data in one of two ways. Some of the video will be streamed directly from the site's hosting platform, but some will be delivered by local peers via the Theta Network.

While Theta Network claims to be less expensive than centralized options, there are still certain costs involved, which is why Theta tokens are required.

How Theta Network makes use of two tokens:

Participants in the Theta Network are compensated for distributing video content to other users. This service is paid for by the video sites themselves, not by the end user.

The network employs a token called TFUEL to pay for the data being streamed. When someone forwards the video content to someone else who is attempting to watch it, the streaming site compensates them in TFUEL tokens. It is worth noting that these users do not broadcast entire clips, but rather little quantities of data for each video—so the end-user will receive video data fragments from different users and piece it together themselves.?

Theta Network also has a second token, named THETA. This is a governance token meant to assist the community in managing the Theta blockchain and controlling its future path. The governance part is currently in its infancy, but the project hopes to hand over more responsibility to THETA holders in the future.

THETA tokens have a fixed quantity of one billion tokens with no inflation. TFUEL, which has a quantity of 5.2 billion tokens and a set inflation rate of 5%, can be obtained by staking THETA tokens.

What is the Theta Blockchain??

The Theta blockchain is optimized for small payments and is fast. This enables it to provide real-time payments to content distributors in exchange for their efforts.

This is accomplished by a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism based on the Tendermint blockchain code. Staking is a procedure in which people lock up huge amounts of THETA. After that, they process blocks; if they process malicious blocks, they may lose some of their staked tokens.

However, the blockchain has two levels. For starters, it has validator nodes. These entail powerful computers processing a large number of transactions in a short period of time. There are fewer of these, and they are usually operated by corporations that support the network, such as Samsung and Sony. They are the network's first line of defense in terms of security. Validator node operators must stake 1 million THETA tokens.

Second, there are nodes that serve as community hubs. These are run by thousands of community members who review and validate the validity of the validator nodes. If a malicious block was somehow approved by all validator nodes, these community nodes would halt it. These nodes simply require 1,000 THETA tokens to be staked.

How does Theta prevent system tampering?

One potential difficulty with Theta Network is the idea that someone might simply utilize two computers to share video over the network and get compensated for it. There are, however, a few safeguards in place to prevent this.

For a start, the network does not let several users stream content to the same IP address. This avoids the basic example from occurring. The network also includes a few additional comparable constraints that the video streaming company can fine-tune depending on how rigorous they want to be.?

Another important aspect is that individuals who share video footage do not have control over who they share it with. As a result, if someone attempted to game the system and share content to themselves, they would inadvertently share content with possibly thousands of other individuals.?

What awaits us in the future?

Theta Network will be upgrading to Mainnet 2.0 in the near future. This will improve the network and bring a few advantages.

Edge nodes will be better supported as a result of the upgrade. These are nodes that download and exchange video content without requiring the user to watch it. This is for anyone who wants to help the network while earning TFUEL.?

Theta Labs also plans to launch a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs are one-of-a-kind digital tokens that represent a piece of digital content like art or music. Theta TV content creators will be able to issue their own NFTs and use them to communicate with their viewing audience through the marketplace.