Elite Edge Node BETA now live on Testnet with Uptime Mining — announcing 4% TFUEL inflation on April 21

You may have noticed a recent update to your Theta Edge Node — Uptime Mining is now being tested on testnet_sapphire in the background! For the first time, the Theta community can participate in the revolutionary Uptime Mining mechanism to tokenize Internet bandwidth. This beta release is a major milestone in the lead up to Theta Mainnet 3.0 which is scheduled to launch on April 21st, 2021. Users can take part in testing by downloading and running the Theta Edge Node now.

This early version of the Elite Edge Node allows users to simulate TFuel uptime mining on Theta’s Testnet_Sapphire. As with the extensive testing done on testnet before Theta staking launched in the Spring of 2020, this is a valuable testing period for Theta devs to test the performance and reliability of Edge Nodes at scale. TFuel staked will also provide data on what to expect when mainnet TFuel staking goes live in April.

With the release of Mainnet 3.0, Elite Edge Nodes will enable “Uptime Mining”, the tokenization of Internet bandwidth and availability. Users will be able to stake TFuel to an edge node to upgrade it to become an Elite Edge Node. Elite Edge Nodes can 1) earn TFuel through their staked TFuel, and 2) earn additional TFuel from video platforms for delivering higher performance. New 4% TFuel inflation for uptime mining for edge nodes will be introduced in addition to the existing 5% TFuel rewards for validators and guardians. This innovation is a key driver for building a global edge delivery network that can scale to tens and hundreds of thousands of nodes worldwide to deliver premium service levels, uptime and performance across all types of devices.

Additionally, starting with Mainnet 3.0 a minimum of 25% of each TFuel payment to the edge network will be burned at the protocol level, effectively becoming a cost for using the network. In the long-run as Theta’s edge network becomes more widely adopted, this could meaningfully reduce the supply of TFuel.

You can start earning TFuel and testing out Uptime Mining by running the Theta Edge Node app. For the full detail of Theta Mainnet 3.0, please read the Theta Mainnet 3.0 whitepaper available here. Updates on Mainnet 3.0 progress will continue through the protocol upgrade process as we prepare for the April 21st launch. We look forward to having you join in the development of the protocol and providing us with valuable feedback and support along the way.