Updated Theta Mainnet 3.0 launch schedule — June 30, 2021

Theta development team has been heads down on work for Theta Mainnet 3.0 for some months now, and great progress has been made toward the release of Elite Edge Nodes and TFUEL staking and burning on mainnet. However, to ensure the edge network functions efficiently as it scales to 100K+ Elite Edge Nodes and to incorporate some building blocks for our longer-term NFT vision, we decided that additional time to conduct a more thorough code review and testing was important.

Due to this, the Theta Mainnet 3.0 launch date will be moved from April 21st to June 30th, 2021. While delays are never ideal, we think this change is the prudent way forward to ensuring a successful Mainnet 3.0 launch.

Our development team has always taken a conservative approach to onchain upgrades, and are proud that in 2+ years the Theta blockchain has never experienced any chain halts or other major core issues. A similar delay to Mainnet 2.0 in the spring of 2020 led to a successful launch without technical problems, so the team is confident this is the right choice for the long term.

Additionally, key partnership opportunities in the NFT space have required us to devote resources to building out the upcoming Theta NFT marketplace in a broader approach, and incorporating some of these foundational elements into Mainnet 3.0 core. While we know the native Theta blockchain is lightning fast with effectively 0 transaction fees, our proof-of-stake protocol purpose-built for media becomes even more important as the cost of minting and transacting NFTs on Ethereum, for example, keeps increasing. It becomes highly impractical for buyers and sellers to transact $5–10 NFTs if the transaction fee is $2. In the longer term, we believe that Theta’s Elite Edge Nodes can become a true, universal decentralized edge storage for all NFTs and does not rely on any centralized platform. To enable this, in the future we will be building out cross-chain bridges between Theta, Ethereum and other networks to enable seamless transfer, storage and ownership of all digital assets.

For more information on what to expect for the upcoming Mainnet 3.0 release see here or our Theta discussion server on Discord.

Cheers,

The Theta Team