Dec 24, 2019
$THETA AMA Summary with Decentralized Club✔️
Dear, Community,
Welcome to our community on t.me/decentralized_club Telegram group’s AMA. We really appreciate all your support. There were really good and thoughtful questions that were asked. For those who missed our AMA, this blog post is for you :)
✔️Introduction with Theta Labs:👉
Wes Levitt:
Theta Network is a decentralized video delivery protocol, designed to allow users to relay video streams to other local peers that are watching the same video. For contributing their bandwidth to relay these videos they earn tokens as a reward. For the video platforms that integrate the Theta protocol, they benefit by reducing the content delivery costs, and gaining a more engaged, loyal user base via token rewards.
As Head of Strategy for the project I handle business operations, marketing/PR, and crypto relationships for the project
Trader(BILLY):
So is it similar to Bitorrent which we are all familiar with?
Wes Levitt:
It is a peer-to-peer network, so in that sense yes, but there are some key differences. Theta Network is integrated at the video platform level, either via Javascript/WebRTC on desktop, or via a custom SDK for mobile and smart TV apps. We work the content owners/platforms to help them deliver video more efficiently, compared to BitTorrent where anyone can share any content whether it’s legal or not
Trader(BILLY):
So how difficult or easy is the SDK for a seasoned developer?
Wes Levitt:
The introducttion of token rewards also creates a more reliable network of contributors, since unlike BT you don’t just shut off your connections once you have the content you want (there’s more incentive to keep seeding)
The SDKs we’ve built so far, for example with Samsung VD team for their smart TVs (https://medium.com/theta-network/theta-network-featured-at-the-samsung-developer-conference-to-demo-integration-in-smart-tvs-4a5c4bdc42bd), have been pretty straightforward. In 2020 we’ll be moving from the custom integrations we’ve done with each partner to a more standardized, “off the shelf” SDK that will be easier for anyone to use
Trader(BILLY):
So, what significant progress Theta made in 2019?
Wes Levitt:
Thanks, yes we’re excited to keep working with Samsung and aiming to turn that into a contract for commercial integration soon.
In 2019, on the technical front there was a great deal of progress with the Theta mainnet launching on March 15, 2019 and our community-run Guardian Nodes going live just last week on the testnet. We’ll test those for the next couple months before the GNs launch on mainnet, which will be a big step toward decentralizing governance of the Theta protocol
On the product side, we launched the beta version of our Edge Cacher relaying client, and have signed MOUs with several video platforms to adopt the Theta protocol. These include DLive, Bitmovio, and CJ Hello which is currently being acquired by LG. We’re focused now on getting those integrations off the ground. And of course we continue to work closely with Samsung, which invested in Theta earlier this year
🐧Community ask Questions by Twitter ✔️
Twitter Question No :1
Username : @dangsaoha2
#THETA: Inactive and useless states are the biggest issues that are happening with Dapps. Seems to have very
Many DApps have few use cases, not even use cases. What did the team do to solve problems like this happening on the Theta platform?
We’re focused on onboarding dapps with the use case of making video (and all data) delivery more efficient and cheaper for platforms, while giving users the opportunity to earn token rewards for their contributions of bandwidth/computer resources. As data delivery increase with 4k and 8k video and beyond (increasing 5x in just a few years https://www.statista.com/statistics/267184/content-delivery-network-internet-traffic-worldwide/), this will become more and more important and position Theta to solve this problem.
I think inactive dapps are probably not the issue as much as lack of useful dapps. So as long as we can ensure Theta is integrated with enough major platforms and provides real value to them, that will outweigh any question of inactive dapps. There are plenty of useless internet sites, but it doesn’t distract me from the ones I find vital everyday
Twitter Question No :2
Username : @Parle_Thekao
Have you started talking with YouTube or other video content services that may use the Theta network?
#THETA: We are in ongoing discussions with several major video platforms, but I can’t get into specifics about those until there is a public agreement reached. We are currently working on integrating with platforms like Bitmovio, Dlive, CJ Hello, and Samsung VR
Twitter Question No :3
Username : @Cryptoboy235
You recently successfully tested the Theta protocol in smart TVs like the Samsung. Tell me, are you going to integrate your technology into all smart TVs in the future?
#THETA: Yes, that’s our goal! We are working with Samsung’s Visual Display group now and are aiming to form a commercial agreement to roll out Theta in all Samsung Smart TVs, and have spoken to other TV manufacturers as well. It’s a natural fit since TV watching is moving more and more to IPTV / streaming, and as 4k/8k TVs take up more and more bandwidth, there’s a reason to use Theta to reduce video delivery costs
Twitter Question No :4
Username : @cradled_in
Blockchain adoption is tough, many companies are scared of legal, custody issues, regulatory etc.
How will Theta Network help the enterprises with these?
#THETA: It will take time for enterprises to work through these issues. This is why we are spending a lot of time working with Samsung, CJ, and other Korean companies because they are further along in understanding these issues and getting comfortable with them, and we feel like Korean regulators are taking it more seriously to get to a legal framework (many U.S. companies are in holding pattern until they get regulatory clarity). We do work closely with our partners to help develop custody solutions and understand their pain points, which helps us get to deployment, and also gives us great insight into what works and how to to approach the next enterprise partners.
✍️ Telegram live Questions answered by Theta Labs ✔️
Q. Why Theta need decentralize, how would be Theta looking like when Theta will become fully decentralised and how would it work i.e. who’ll be your helping hand ??? Something like bitcoin miners ??? Or some other guys will be introduced???
#THETA: It needs to be decentralized because we are trying to build a protocol that can be used by any video platform, so it must be neutral. Think of it as a marketplace for bandwidth/computing, with the users as the suppliers and the video platforms as the customers. It needs to be fair to each platform if we want them to use it.
Also, our vision of Theta is for millions of users to be relaying their video and earning tokens via microtransactions. That can’t be coordinated by a centralized entity in an efficient way, and most users don’t want to be beholden to a centralized entity anyway
Q. How difficult was it to convince SAMSUNG to partner with THETA?
#THETA: It’s always hard to convince a big company to work with blockchain, since it’s a new and untested technology compared to what they are used to. It helped that Samsung invested in Sliver.tv back in 2016, so we had a good relationship with them already. We spent a lot of time (and continue to) understanding their pain points and how we can help those. It also helps that compared to most large companies, Samsung has a very pro-blockchain stance and clearly sees that tech as strategic for the long-term
Q. I saw your biggest challenges had been the high costs of delivering video to various parts of the world, and this problem will only getting bigger with HD, 4K and higher quality videos, What are you planning to solve this problem?
#THETA: We are continuing to improve the efficiency of the Theta p2p network, because the more video that can be moved to the network the less will need to be paid to CDNs. If 50% offload to the p2p network is good, 80% is even better and helps ease the burden of those rising costs
Q. What is the difference between $THETA tokens and $THETA fuel in terms of usage ?? Why are there two different $THETA? @wlevitt
#THETA : THETA is used for staking and governance of the protocol, while TFUEL is the payment token used for micropayments between a relayer and user. We split the functions into two tokens because it didn’t make sense to have a single token for staking that is intended to be locked up at the protocol level, but also a payment token that should be very liquid
Q. As a Head of Strategy of THETA, in your opinions, what will THETA need to do to promote its brand and attract users while blockchain industry is now full of projects that claim to solve existing problems in Video Streaming and IoT?
#THETA: I think it comes down to working directly with the video platforms and showing that they can benefit from the protocol. I see many blockchains that just build something and assume it will get used, they have no sense of a go-to-market strategy. We talk to the video platforms first, and are building what works for them
Sliver.tv (rebranding as Theta.tv) has fully integrated the protocol, while otherrs like Samsung VR are running pilot programs (https://samsungvr.com/view/agtgq6zMvoq). We are currently deep in integration with others like Bitmovio and Dlive
Q. Q1.I was reading about the Theta project and I saw that one of its challenges is to admit an ultra high transaction performance, what strategies do you plan to implement to achieve this?
Q.2 As your first Theta integration with Smart TVs focuses on TVs running on Android and Samsung’s Tizen operating system so when can i see THETA in IOS operating system?
#THETA: 1. Primarily by moving much of the microtransactions offchain and using Layer 1 for settlement, larger transfers, staking, etc.
2. We are working on iOS too, but it’s more restrictive so we started with Android
