What is Theta Fuel (TFUEL)?
Theta Fuel (TFUEL) is the utility token on the Theta blockchain. Alongside THETA, it’s one of the two tokens used on the network. Theta is an entertainment blockchain that provides end-to-end video streaming infrastructure.
The Theta Fuel token is used to enable all operations and services on the network, including transactions, smart contract development, and staking rewards among others. The blockchain also offers its own token standards, TNT20 and TNT721, allowing users to build their own fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The current and historical TFUEL price information is available above.
How Was Theta Fuel Developed?
Theta Labs, the company behind the Theta blockchain, was co-founded by Mitch Liu and Jieyi Long in 2017. Liu is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Theta Labs. He’s a computer scientist that has been involved in tech and entertainment for over a decade.
Long is a computer engineer and CTO. He’s behind various technologies that enhance user experience in entertainment, including VR live streaming and instant video game replays.
The idea behind Theta was to carve a new niche for blockchain-based entertainment. While blockchain technology is widely used for decentralized finance (DeFi), the opportunities for relaying media, such as live streaming or video games, haven’t been widely explored. Liu has brought his background in the gaming industry to the Theta project.
The Theta Fuel token was launched in March 2019. Its initial supply was 5 billion, at a 51: ratio with THETA. At the time of the launch, the TFUEL price was valued at around $0.16. The asset showed low volatility in its first two years post-launch and did not exceed the $0.02 mark.
Since its launch, the Theta Network has grown exponentially. Its node network has expanded to include enterprise-level blockchain validators. Theta is affiliated with globally renowned companies, including Binance, Sony, and Google.
In 2021, TFUEL started seeing some significant growth. That year, it peaked in June, with the Theta Fuel price reaching $0.68. 2021 also saw the asset’s market performance go from mildly to very volatile, with more frequent price fluctuations. Similar trends were followed by the THETA governance token which saw its 2021 peak in April.
How Can You Use Theta Fuel?
There are two cryptocurrencies used on the Theta Network – THETA and TFUEL. Both of them have different uses and tokenomics. THETA has a maximum supply of 1 billion tokens. This amount cannot be altered, making it an anti-inflationary asset. This also means that the Theta Fuel price is expected to increase as the supply diminishes.
The Theta Network provides decentralized video streaming services. TFUEL is utilized on the Theta Network for relay node payments, streaming transaction fees, smart contract and token development, the use of Theta-based apps, and other functions.
The supply of Theta Fuel coins, on the other hand, is unlimited. It’s developed to continuously generate rewards for the stakeholders. The TFUEL price is not directly dependent on THETA, although the two assets generally follow similar market trends.
According to the team, Theta aims to provide a higher-quality streaming service that consumes less data than centralized content delivery networks and offers access to content, including movies, gaming, and other audiovisual content at lower costs.
Viewers on the Theta streaming platform share their excess bandwidth, developing a global peer-to-peer network. Each viewer contributes some of their bandwidth to the network as they actively consume content. By actively watching live streams and sharing the network’s data load, viewers are eligible to receive TFUEL rewards.
The rewarded Theta Fuel price value is calculated per relayed video stream. The incentivized rewards are taken out of the network service fees. Annually, 5% more TFUEL is added to the circulation to increase the available network rewards.
Thea describes itself as a platform that’s open to developers. The protocol is open-source, allowing users to build their own decentralized apps. The Theta protocol enables users to create decentralized media solutions for gaming & esports, music, education, and virtual reality technology.
Similar to Ethereum (ETH), Theta offers its own token standards that developers can use to build their own assets on top of the chain. These are TNT20, an equivalent of ERC-20, and TNT721, which is similar to ERC-721. The goal of Theta’s NFT technology is to help creators maintain full rights to their content via tokenized digital rights management.
In 2022, the network introduced Theta Metachain. It’s an innovative technology that connects multiple blockchains into a single interconnected network. It’s often called “a chain of chains”. The goal of introducing the Theta Metachain is to improve network scalability, achieve a near-unlimited throughput of transactions, and increase block validation time.
There are three types of nodes supporting the Theta protocol:
- Edge Nodes – nodes that relay video streams throughout the Theta blockchain. They run the Theta Edge Node app and aren’t required to stake any assets;
- Guardian Nodes – network nodes that provide network security and participate in the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. They must stake a minimum of 1,000 THETA to participate and can earn TFUEL tokens in return;
- Validator Nodes – nodes that produce new blocks on the Theta chain. They must stake at least 200,000 THETA. No more than 31 validator nodes can run at the same time.
The roles of Guardian and Validator nodes appear similar as both of them deal with the blocks. The key difference is that Validator Nodes produce new blocks while Guardian Nodes seal them, providing them with additional security. Guardian Nodes are also responsible for checking on suspicious and inactive Validator Nodes.
All types of nodes are eligible for TFUEL rewards. The Theta Fuel price rate earned by both Validator and Guardian nodes does not differ if the same amount of THETA is staked.
The Theta Fuel crypto asset is not used in network governance. Instead, THETA is used by the network’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to vote on proposed protocol changes. THETA stakeholders that participate in the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism are eligible to receive voting rights.
The network uses Theta Fuel tokens not for staking itself but as stakeholding rewards. The Theta Fuel price value that the stakeholders receive for their contributions depends on the type of node they run, their staked THETA amount, and how long they’ve been actively participating in the network.
