Theta Token (THETA)

What is Theta Token

DSN and the Theta protocol solve various challenges the video streaming industry faces today. First, Theta tokens are used as an incentive to encourage individual users to share their redundant memory and bandwidth resources as caching nodes for video streams. This improves the quality of stream delivery and solves the “last-mile” delivery problem, the main bottleneck for traditional stream delivery pipelines, especially for high resolution high bitrate 360° virtual reality (VR) streams. Second, with sufficient amount of caching nodes, the majority of viewers will pull streams from peering caching nodes. This significantly reduces content delivery network (CDN) bandwidth costs, which is a major concern for video streaming sites. Lastly, the Theta network greatly improves the streaming market efficiency by streamlining the video delivery process. For example, advertisers can target end viewers at a lower cost and reward influencers more transparently.

The Theta blockchain introduces three novel concepts:

The company’s mission is to leverage the decentralized blockchain structure to create the first Decentralized Streaming Network (DSN) whereby video viewers are incentivized to share redundant memory and bandwidth resources to address today’s video streaming challenges. Using the Ethereum EVM “World Computer” metaphor, the DSN can be viewed as the “World Cache” formed by the memory and bandwidth resources contributed by viewers.

Specifically, viewers around the globe can contribute their computers as “caching nodes” whereby they form a video delivery infrastructure that is responsible for delivering any given video stream to viewers anywhere around the world. The DSN can effectively address the technical challenges discussed in the previous section. First, viewers’ computers are geographically much closer to each other than to the CDN POPs. This reduces packet round-trip time and improves the stream delivery quality, and thus addresses the “last-mile” delivery issue. Second, with sufficient amount of caching nodes, most viewers will receive the stream from caching nodes, this will help streaming sites reduce their CDN bandwidth cost. Third, caching nodes also reduce round-trip time making foveated streaming technology practical.

To encourage viewers to contribute their memory and bandwidth resources, we introduce the Theta protocol as an incentive mechanism. The caching nodes can mine new tokens as they relay video streams to other viewers. Not only does Theta tokens motivate viewers to join the network as caching nodes, but it also greatly improves the streaming market efficiency by streamlining the video delivery process. We will discuss more details later in the paper, but within the Theta network, advertisers can directly target viewers at a lower cost, viewers earn Theta tokens for their attention and engagement with video streams, and influencers earn Theta token as gifts directly from viewers.

The full launch of the Theta protocol in phase II introduces a new blockchain and a native token structure where:

The Theta protocol builds upon the following novel concepts: