History does not repeat itself but it often rhymes - Mark Twain
In a repeat of the browser wars in the middle of 1990s, there seems to be another kind of war brewing in the horizon. This time in the area of Decentralize Finance (DeFi), specifically on the Decentralize Exchanges (DEX). It seems DeFi and DEX will continue to grow in 2021 and beyond and these will be one of the triggers for the diffusion of crypto currency and blockchain technology in society.
For those who are not yet familiar with crypto terminologies, Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) are a type of cryptocurrency exchange which allows for direct peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions to take place online securely and without the need for an intermediary. It is similar to your forex exchange where you convert your US Dollar with your local currency. The only difference is that there is no middle man who will facilitate the exchange. Decentralize Exchange happens online and peer-to-peer.
The THETA Factor
According to the its website, the Theta Network is the "leading video delivery network powered by blockchain technology. Theta allows users to simultaneously watch video content and earn token rewards for relaying video to other users who are also watching the same content." The problem Theta Network aims to solve is the poor quality of videos in "last mile" sites. Through its blockchain technology, there will be a reduction of the video delivery cost, deepen viewer engagement, and drive incremental revenues. If the technology is still confusing, think of it as the Bittorrent in video streaming.
(Source: Youtube.com)
Theta Tokens
The network has issued two coins: Theta and TFuel
1. Theta - This token is the governance token of the Theta protocol. Theta is used to stake as a Validator or Guardian node, contributing to block production and the protocol governance of the Theta Network. Theta has finite supply of 1 Billion tokens.
2. TFuel - If Ethereum has gas, TFuel is the blood the powers the Theta Network. TFuel provides incentive and encourages individual users to share their redundant computing and bandwidth resources as caching or relay nodes for video streams. To earn TFuel, it is almost zero-effort. Just create an account in Theta.tv and watch streamers or the more efficient way is to install a Theta Edge Node which allows you to earn coins by running the node.
ThetaSwap Version 1
ThetaSwap is the first decentralized exchange built on Theta blockchain, using an open-source smart contract system built based on Automated Market Maker. ThetaSwap allows users to exchange their newly-created TNT20 tokens built on Theta blockchain in a trustless, non-custodial way. This is a big milestone for Theta because it allows the two tokens to be exchange to other crypto currencies making its usage more prevalent. I foresee this will further create demand for these tokens of Theta Blockchain. To use the ThetaSwap, you need to install also a Theta Wallet.
This DEX can be found via this site https://swap.thetatoken.org/.
Since this is just the Version 1, the functionalities are still very basic. This Version 1 of ThetaSwap allows trading of TFUEL and user generated tokens, but future versions will add functionality for Theta trading. Several stablecoins issuers have also expressed interest in bringing their assets to Theta blockchain making it even easier to trade on ThetaSwap.
