To take the Theta blockchain to the next level, the team thinks they must give the Theta community the tools to innovate and build upon their foundation. The community needs to govern the Theta blockchain with Guardian Nodes in addition to the Enterprise Validator Nodes, create new Theta use cases with full smart contract support, and have a robust block explorer with real-time analytics to monitor the blockchain. Altogether, these community-focused updates make up Theta vision for the next phase of its growth — Theta Mainnet 2.0.
Dear Theta followers, if you want to see the Theta Network live in action, you can see the distribution of Pre-Guardian Nodes, Edge Cachers, and Enterprise Validator Nodes in real-time at Theta website! We love keeping track of the consistent growth of the network. The numbers are impressive. At the time of writing, there are 807 Pre-Guardian Nodes / Edge Cachers (in comparison with 750 two weeks ago!) and 8 Enterprise Validators. For more information on Theta Guardian Nodes and how to join, check out the announcement blog.
As the team moves toward the release of Theta Mainnet 2.0 in Q1 2020, they’ll be increasing their global marketing with a series of Theta meetups, blockchain conferences, and other initiatives to raise awareness. The “Road to Theta Mainnet 2.0” campaign will showcase innovative features of the Theta blockchain and how it will achieve mass user adoption to the broader community, so stay tuned for more details!
Development
GitHub metrics:
THETA has 8 public repositories and 15 private repositories. Overall, the Project has frequent commits to the collection of repositories.
Developer activity (from Coinlib.io):
Theta Mainnet 2.0:
Why is the team creating the Theta blockchain?
The team’s long-term vision for the Theta Network is a decentralized end-to-end protocol for processing and delivering data, not just video but all types of data. Decentralized data delivery, at the edge, powered by you. That vision encompasses three main components that are to be powered by Theta edge nodes, run by the community:
Data Delivery — Initially focused on video delivery, and implemented on SLIVER.tv and multiple other video platforms coming soon. But the scope of decentralized data delivery goes beyond video into file updates, game patches, OS and app updates, web content, and any other form of data delivery.
Data Storage — As Theta expands from livestreaming applications to Video-on-Demand (VoD), app updates, and game patches, it becomes necessary to have a decentralized solution to data storage. Theta nodes can cache the most in-demand live and static content and files to ensure they are able to contribute to the network and earn TFUEL.
Data Encoding — By allowing Theta nodes to perform ingest/encoding of raw video and data as close to the source as possible, particularly for live events (professional sports, concerts, conferences, for example), the Theta Network will truly become an end-to-end solution for video and data. Building out this functionality is a natural extension for the Theta team, based on the team’s experience encoding live VR events in 2016 for SamsungVR, Intel IEM, ESL, and others.
For performing each of these three services (or all three at once), users earn TFUEL as a reward, incentivizing them to support and grow the Theta Network. If you are one of the 2,690 users running the PGN / Beta Edge Cacher client now, you are part of the very beginning of this edge network encompassing end-to-end data transfer. Contributing your excess bandwidth to SLIVER.tv is just the beginning!
Live Network Statistics:
November 22nd, 2019
You can now see the distribution of Pre-Guardian Nodes, Edge Cachers, and Enterprise Validator Nodes in real-time at thetatoken.org ! Scroll down to “Live Network Stats”, which will update each time you refresh the page.
Pre-Guardian Nodes / Edge Cachers: 750 807
Enterprise Validator Nodes: 8
For information on Theta Guardian Nodes and how to join, see the announcement blog.
Last week the first 100 Theta PGN users to run Guardian Nodes on Theta testnet have been set
Notifications have been sent through the PGN app. Thanks to all Theta community for participating — the next 100 will come soon!
Mac/Linux user looking to run a GN? email support@thetatoken.org
Social encounters
November 8th, 2019: Theta Network and Cryptoverse AMA
Roadmap
An updated Theta Roadmap:
Q4 2019
- Guardian Node selection and launch on testnet
- Edge Cacher beta client improvements
- Concurrent Video-on-Demand (VoD) support on SLIVER.tv
- Theta Explorer upgrades — analytics, visualizations, staking information
Q1 2020
- Theta Mainnet 2.0 goes live with Multi-BFT consensus mechanism and growing number of enterprise validator nodes
- Guardian Nodes launch on Theta Mainnet 2.0
- Release of specialized smart contract support
- Theta streaming protocol supports full Video-on-Demand (VoD)
Q2 2020
- Beta launch of decentralized data storage
- Beta launch of decentralized file delivery of any content type, such as game patches, applications, OS updates
- Beta launch of Theta protocol adapted to Smart TVs and IoT devices
H2 2020
- Release of generalized Turing-complete smart contract support
- Beta launch of decentralized encoding protocol
- Production release of the end-to-end Universal Edge Cacher
The most significant change from the previous Theta roadmap is extending the launch date of Guardian Nodes, which they know the Theta community is eager to run, but the process for the first users to get onboarded will happen shortly. In Q4, they will release the full Guardian Node software for use on Theta testnet, and a small group of users (likely starting with 100 nodes, with a second batch of 100 to follow a few weeks later) will be able to run these nodes that will fully participate in Theta’s Multi-BFT consensus. These Guardian Nodes on testnet will generate Theta Fuel (TFUEL) at the normal rate they will on mainnet (initially, new TFUEL generation at 5% annual of total supply). For any TFUEL a user earns by running a Guardian Node on the testnet, they will get the same amount of actual TFUEL on the Theta mainnet, even during this testing period before Guardian Nodes move to mainnet. It is extremely valuable to have real users testing the Guardian Nodes, both to test the software and evaluate user behavior. To do that the right way, users need to have real economic incentives!
The final criteria for selection of the first 100 Guardian Nodes to participate on testnet will be released shortly. The most likely process will be to start with all the PGN participants who meet the hardware requirements to run a Guardian Node and have staked the minimum 100K THETA. Then, both the number of THETA staked and uptime history will be weighted to get to a final ranking of the top 100. The team is still fine tuning that formula to ensure it is as fair as possible and will share that soon. Note — since the PGN has only been released for Windows, they will reserve a portion of the spaces for Mac/Linux users out there! Also, remember that just because you are selected in the first 100 doesn’t mean it’s permanent; you do still need to be a responsible and consistent Guardian Node, and if you are included in the first 100 and run the node unreliably or maliciously on the testnet, your node will be removed from the Guardian Node set and another user will get the chance to step up.
Check out the latest updates on TFUEL integration with SLIVER.tv at the TFUEL streaming roadmap — this will continue to be updated as new features are completed and added to roadmap.
SLIVER.tv Roadmap:
Partnerships and team members
No updates.
Rumors
Twitter:
Other:
Be aware of scammers! Admins of Official Theta Telegram chat will never DM you or ask for private info / keys / seed phrases!
Social media metrics
Social media activity:
Social media dynamics:
Theta community continues to grow. There is a slight increase in the number of subscribers of Theta social media channels these weeks.
Official Telegram group — Discussions on price, possible partnerships, etc.
Facebook — 15–25 likes per publication, 1–5 hares.
Twitter — The average number of retweets is 35–40 for one post.
Bitcointalk.org — since November 23rd, 2017. Discussion on mainnet launch, price, roadmap.
There is a slight growth in Theta community over time. The graph above shows the dynamics of changes in the number of Theta Reddit subscribers, Twitter followers and Facebook likes. The information is taken from Coingecko.com.
