With THETA recently on the rise we will dive into a brief explanation of Theta Network, highlighting the difference between its two tokens, how you can contribute in this network and get little gains, and ultimately the case for the future.
Theta Network aims to be a highly scalable, integratable and decentralized peer-to-peer content delivery network.
With both Theta Network and Theta Fuel being an ERC-20 based tokens there are some fundamental differences between the purpose each serves in the Theta ecosystem. Theta Network is the primary token allowing staking and governance to secure the network, whilst Theta Fuel is the token providing liquidity and fueling the microtransactions with millions of transactions expected on daily basis for the media & content relaying in the near future.
The Network first of all is fuelled by Media & Content platforms which purchase the Theta Fuel. Those platforms do so in expectations of reduced costs on their current CDN (Content Delivery Network) solutions.
The purchased Theta Fuel is used to pay for each segment of the content being delivered to its viewer, hence the strong case for the high liquidity and microtransactions on the network.
Note: Platforms can also stake their Theta Network tokens to generate Theta Fuel tokens
The relayer is typically someone like me and you, a person with a little excess of internet bandwith and a little of computing power willing to share and contribute to the network in return for the Theta Fuel being paid for the services provided.
You can currently start being a relayer on Theta Network by becoming an edge cacher through the Theta Edge Node tool which is still in beta. Currently rewards are distributed to the relayers on monthly basis with Theta Fuel payments directly to their wallets (i.e. your priv keys, your coins).
You can also sometimes become a relayer on the Theta Network without a clear awareness, for example the Video Platform you would be viewing the videos on could (and in most cases will) implicitly opt you in as a relayer. A good example of this is theta.tv where viewers are also implicitly acting as relayers, in theta.tv's case it at least attempts to make the user's awareness clear upfront that by doing so they will gain Theta Fuels in return. Beware though, the tokens you earn on theta.tv are unwithdrawable and are locked in the platform (i.e. not your keys not your coins) for purposes like donations to streamers & shopping.
To be perfectly honest as of today one should not expect the gains to be anything significant, I suppose there is also a strong correlation to the location you are relaying from and the rewards, with more populated cities being more beneficial.
The future of Theta
One could present arguments against Theta such as; theta.tv has failed to gain popularity and there are no many streamers/viewers, there aren't yet so many transactions on the network hence I am not being rewarded well enough, and more..
The eye opener for me was realising that theta.tv is just a really great product show case of what is achieveable on the Theta Network as of today. I believe Theta's current priority isn't much related to making theta.tv a popular platform, but instead promoting Theta Network and having other Platforms building and/or integrating their solutions on top of its network. Another words, I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future there will be a far more outstanding streaming platform built on top of Theta Network which will drive the user base of theta.tv to the brink and this I believe is something that Theta would be really happy with, as ultimately the goal is about the success of the Network.
Hence the need for adoption, with some big players being announced this year including giants like Google & Samsung what we are now waiting for is the integration of their current or new solutions with the Theta Network and bringing more traffic to the Network, hence increasing transactions and securing the network further.
An expected increase of transactions is expected to come towards the end of this year with ultra.io integrating Theta Network into their full blown platform including live-streaming which may spike the traffic significantly and the adoption of Theta Network.
