Theta Network — An essential infrastructure for metaverse development
Metaverses, virtual worlds where large numbers of users can interact with each other, weren’t created last month when Facebook renamed itself ‘Meta’. The concept originally comes from Neal Stephensen’s cyberpunk classic “Snow Crash’’, broke new ground in the early 2000s in the game Second Life, and has been a significant focus of the blockchain space for several years now. From Decentraland to The Sandbox, blockchain has allowed metaverses to become more decentralized with transactions, video and data transfer and delivery outside of centralized rails.
As metaverses and metaverse-based “virtual live” events and gaming continue to grow, Theta is positioned as the key infrastructure to power them across the technology stack. Their high concurrent user counts are a perfect fit for P2P video and data delivery and showcase the need for Theta protocol. Since metaverses are where much of the future of media and entertainment including gaming will happen, they are a key frontier for expansion of the Theta ecosystem as well.
Many of the technologies the Theta team has developed over the years are key components in the coming metaverses being built today:
- Rendering VR worlds in real time for VR-based metaverses
- Theta Video API as the building block for devs to integrate video into metaverses
- Decentralized video distribution to relay in-metaverse video between users
- Video-based NFTs that can capture meaningful moments in the metaverse
By combining these elements into one suite of decentralized services, Theta Network will become an essential building block for metaverse development.
Last month, Theta partnered with Decentral Games to host the livestream of their metaverse nightclub hosted by Ibiza’s Amnesia nightclub, the biggest virtual club night ever featuring world-famous DJs like Benny Benassi and Luciano. Future live events can expand this concept to use Theta P2P distribution, so that users can earn TFUEL just for showing up at the party and sharing their bandwidth for data, video, computation and more. Plus, Theta’s patented NFT DRM technology, soon to be built into the ThetaPass ticketing system, will let users use NFTs as their unique tickets to enter exclusive virtual live events. Verifiably authentic and easily transferred between people around the world, a Theta NFT-based ticket is superior to the offline version in every way. As these seamless virtual worlds grow in size and complexity, these are just some of the ways that Theta will be a foundational technology for data and value transfer within them.
“We’re thrilled to have Theta Network onboard as an official partner to power all video content within Decentral Games. Theta has proven themselves as the best solution for our needs and we can’t wait to reveal more exciting developments in the works from our multi-phase rollout with THETA.” — Decentral Games’ CEO Miles Anthony
Now we are continuing work with Decentral Games on several other projects to expand Theta’s role as essential infrastructure in the metaverse — from Theta video displays in Decentraland to broadcasting and sharing the metaverse experience to users around the world. Using Theta Video API developers can use a simple Theta ingest endpoint and just a few lines of JavaScript code to place Theta videos in their metaverse, which are then relayed over Theta’s decentralized Edge Network. This easy integration process is key to developer adoption and because it’s permissionless, any developer can use it to add any video they want to their metaverse. Just as metaverses need decentralized money that can be used seamlessly around the globe, the inevitable choice for video and data delivery in the metaverse will be Theta Network — decentralized, blockchain-based, and permissionless. Just like you can use Theta now to relay videos on websites and apps, you will be able to do the same for video inside metaverses as well!
While it’s not clear how much a Facebook metaverse will reflect the crypto ethos and decentralization, we do see it as a telling sign that even the largest tech companies in the world are starting to embrace the metaverse concept and realize its enormous potential. As metaverses transform entertainment in the years to come, Theta’s blockchain technology stack and video/entertainment focus put it in prime position to become the core infrastructure for metaverse development.
“Before we launched Theta network, back in 2016 Jieyi and I envisioned a ‘meta place’ where gaming fans and esports spectators could immerse themselves in the virtual world of League of Legends, CS:GO and DOTA2. — to be able to render these virtual game worlds in full 360 video, with a VR headset, and put yourself right on the battleground with the action happening around you. I’m super excited that vision is becoming a step closer to reality with new and emerging metaverse environments where live virtual media, entertainment, gaming, communication, avatar and presence becomes real. We may be looking at a half trillion dollar market opportunity in the next decade, all powered by Theta decentralized protocol and technologies.” — Theta Labs’ CEO Mitch Liu
