Theta, the cryptocurrency designed for video streaming made an absolutely smashing entry into the top 10 cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalisation last week! In fact, the young cryptocurrency founded in 2018 is currently ranked 9th among cryptocurrencies with a total market capitalisation of €11,523,669,407. These figures are all the more impressive given that Theta is ultimately fairly unknown.
So why the rise?
Theta, the video streaming specialist
The Theta cryptocurrency was launched in 2019 by Theta Labs, founded by Mitch Liu and Jieyi Long, who both have extensive experience in the gaming sector. Theta is a decentralised network that allows its users to share data on a peer-to-peer basis. This cryptocurrency specialises in video streaming. The personalities of its founders suggest that it will be a high-quality platform in its field once the project is complete. Mitch Liu co-founded Gameview (a gaming studio) and Sliver.tv (an e-sports platform). Jieyi Long co-founded Sliver.tv alongside him. But the two men are also advised by key figures such as Steve Chen, the co-founder of Youtube, and Justin Kan, the co-founder of Twitch. The team around the Theta project is therefore specialised in this sector.
How the Theta network works
Theta works with proof of stake. It is an open source platform. There are two levels of consensus. A validation committee validates the nodes in the first instance. Its members are known as "validator nodes" and include major web companies such as Google and Samsung, as well as cryptocurrency giant Binance. All the other participants in the blockchain are called "guardians" and are responsible for the second level of validation. Holders of these tokens can participate in the governance of the platform. Theta has three different tokens with very specific activities:
The Theta (THETA), which is the main token and of which 1,000,000,000 are currently in circulation.
The Theta Fuel (TFUEL), which feeds transaction fees and enables smart contracts to be made.
Gamma, the governance token.
Theta also enables developers to launch DApps, decentralised applications. It is generally very popular for this feature.
Theta, a cryptocurrency with concrete applications
The ambition of the young Theta is to revolutionise the video streaming industry by making it more efficient and less expensive. Thanks to its peer-to-peer network, Theta users can share their bandwidth. And by sharing content, they can earn Theta tokens. This solves the financial problems caused by video streaming. Streaming platforms face absolutely colossal expenses to finance their bandwidth. By sharing the bandwidth, Theta users enable distributors to reduce the cost of broadcasting. What's more, the Theta blockchain is also a solution to the poor image quality currently experienced by users as soon as the networks are saturated. This reduction in the quality of their video is all the more noticeable on high-resolution streams.
So Theta is not just a trading currency: the platform is developing a number of projects designed to address the problems of streaming. The last concrete project developed by Theta Labs was the Windows and Mac application "Theta Edge Node", in 2020. This application enables users to relay video streams in exchange for TFUEL.
Theta is highly attractive for all the players involved in streaming: content creators are better remunerated, video platforms save on the infrastructure deployed to enable delivery and viewers benefit from better-quality video.
Theta outperforms Bitcoin
At a time when Bitcoin is in the midst of a bull run and its price reached an all-time high of 49,360 euros (58,274.257 US dollars) on 19 March 2021, representing a gain of around 40,000 euros since October 2020, Theta is beating its performance. Bitcoin rose by around 895% between March 2020 and March 2021.
Theta, on the other hand, can boast a price explosion of 17,000% over the same period! The price of Theta is still a long way behind Bitcoin, with one Theta currently costing €11.49. However, the rise in its price remains impressive. It reached its all-time high last Wednesday, 24 March, with a price of 12.11 euros.
Today, Theta ranks 9th among cryptocurrencies with a total market capitalisation of €11,523,669,407.
So should you invest in Theta? Here's our opinion!
Theta looks to be a cryptocurrency with a very promising future. Its annual performance is spectacular and forecasts for Theta's price are, at the moment, pretty good. Its project is extremely interesting and would benefit all players in the streaming industry: creators, distributors and consumers.
The personalities of its developers, who already have extensive experience in the video game industry; their advisers, including the founders of Twitch and YouTube; and the identity of the members of the validation committee for its nodes, on which companies such as Google and Samsung have their seats, promise a bright future for Theta. The grouping around this young cryptocurrency also testifies to the confidence that some of the Web's biggest players are placing in this platform.
On its blog, Theta has announced the launch of Theta 3.0, its new version, in spring 2021. The two major advances in this version will be the possibility of staking and TFUEL burning. Staking enables users to lock up some of their coins in a crypto wallet within the blockchain in order to make a profit. Burning, on the other hand, involves destroying Theta coins in order to reduce their supply on the market. Theta is also looking to improve its smart contracts platform and develop use cases for its various functionalities. Theta's roadmap for 2021 is therefore full of projects.
We shall see if Theta Labs can live up to its ambitions. If it does, and if its new projects are indeed developed on schedule, there's no doubt that Theta's share price will soar in 2021. So keep an eye on this cryptocurrency!
