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I was scrolling through Reddit last night when I came across this gem. And to be honest at first I was just like "oh okay they got another patent cool". But it wasn't until I found out what it did that I realized how much of a game changer it is.
On March 31st, 2021 THETA submitted THETA-1003 to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. They paid their $600 fee and off the super nerds went on decided to grant the patent or not. On June 23rs, 2021 the USPTO e-mailed them back with their approved patent. Patent №17/218,245 or Theta-1003.
I can already hear it now guys, "But TPL what does Theta-1003 even do and why should we care?". Well I got you guys. Get ready for your minds to be blown. At this point we all know what NFT's are right? Those digital assets that are on the blockchain that give us rights to whatever they represent in a game or if it's an artwork, etc etc. Well Theta-1003 takes NFT's and covers it in gold leaf and changes everything. You can think of their new patent as basically DRM for NFT's.
I know, I know, we all hate DRM (I mean as upstanding citizens we support DRM to stop pirating......). But DRM is desperately needed in NFT's. What has always confused me about NFT's so far is that if I buy a 1 million dollar piece of artwork as a NFT then anyone can search the blockchain and see my NFT and there by they didn't need to buy it to look at it at any point in time. It's stupid. Having no DRM makes sense in like Alien Worlds where you are playing a game and the NFT's are the cards you use in the game and no 'secrecy' is needed.
Think about this though. Say I got this NFT for an upcoming concert.
(I know it's amazing, lets just keep moving)
Since that is a normal NFT everyone can explore their block explorer and see the image of my NFT. In order to properly use it the Concert would have to check my wallet to make sure I had a Concert ticket in my wallet in order for me to enter. Which could work to a degree but what if it had a specific URL link to livestream the concert instead? It gets complicated.
I have said this for a long time but blockchains are not as secure as well all think. Sure payments and what not are anonymous right? NOPE! Say you use METAMASK to hold your Ethereum. You buy things online with ETH and you send ETH from your MetaMask address. Then you go on the dark web and buy bad things illegally with your Ethereum from your MetaMask. Well Google Chrome could in theory already apply your Ethereum address to you so that when the Feds raid whatever darkweb business you bought from they could track your purchase back to you. I am not saying they do this now but it's 100% possible.
DRM adds another layer to that. I could buy that same Concert Ticket and if it had DRM on it then the "image" that showed up for anyone exploring the blockchain would only see that static image but if the NFT holder opened up the NFT they would see the behind the scenes secret content like the livestream URL to the concert and nobody else would.
How this pertains to Theta and the Patent is that this new Patent lets Nodes authenticate viewers by a NFT they hold that grants them a data key to decrypt the data stream to view the premium content. This could be like a premium service for streamers as well. Say there is VideoGame Streamer BOB. Bob streams every Wednesday and Friday. But he sells a NFT for $20 and it let's you view his premium streams on Saturday. So if you are logged into the service with the wallet that holds the NFT then the nodes relaying the data stream would allow you to decrypt it to watch it if you bought the $20 NFT. It truly is a game changer.
Here is how Theta explains it. (Image credit Theta)
