Can You Mine Theta Coin?
Theta offers a unique and innovative way to improve the live streaming industry. It uses blockchain as the underlying technology. The project was created in 2017, and the main idea was to make video streaming more effortless for users around the globe by decentralizing it and making it more effective and affordable.
If you’re interested in earning Theta and wondering if you can mine it, stick with us and learn all there is to know about the coin.
How Theta works
The software aims to incentivize every network participant who takes part in video streaming by offering a portion of their bandwidth or other computing resources. In other words, everyone who becomes part of the network and makes streaming easier gets a reward for their endeavor.
After the author of a video uploads it to Theta, users who are part of the network provide free computing power to those interested in watching it anywhere on the planet. Content is basically transferred on a peer-to-peer basis, meaning it doesn’t require an intermediary, such as YouTube.
Three groups of Theta nodes
There are three types of nodes: Enterprise Validator Nodes, Guardian Nodes, and Edge Nodes. Here’s a quick overview of each.
- Validator Nodes — This type is represented by large companies, but ordinary users might be able to be a validator node, too. They’ll just need a lot of money. Google, Samsung, Sony — these are just some of the big players who act as Validator Nodes. They have to stake 1,000,000 THETA to produce new blocks and process transactions happening on the network.
- Guardian Nodes — These nodes are not companies but individuals (most of the time), and they must contribute 1,000 THETA to operate as a node. Their job is to assure all transactions that are approved by Enterprise Validator Nodes are valid. They are an essential part of Theta security.
- Edge Nodes — These are users who contribute to the network in other ways. For example, they can share their bandwidth to make streaming easier for other users on the network or stream videos on the Theta platform and get paid for it.
Two cryptocurrencies — TFUEL and THETA
The Theta network uses three different coins:
- Theta (THETA) is the main token that powers the network and is used for staking, which will give you a chance to become a node. There’s a total of 1 billion THETA.
- Theta Fuel (TFUEL) is similar to Ethereum’s gas money, meaning it’s used as a micropayment crypto inside the network, making transactions easier. There’s a total of five billion TFUEL.
- Gamma is currently only used for governance functions.
Staking at Theta
In case you haven’t noticed, Theta operates on the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, meaning to become one of the nodes, you’ll have to stake a certain amount of THETA on the platform. Once that happens, you’ll be able to earn the token by participating in the consensus system, similar to other PoS blockchains.
All you have to do is stake 1,000 THETA to run a guardian node. That way, you’ll be able to control the validator nodes and increase the network’s security.
Since it is not the Proof-of-Work mechanism, you don’t need to have huge computing power to run a node. In fact, you need at least 5 Mbps download and upload speed, 8 GB RAM, and ideally a processor with four or more cores.
Please take into account that you’ll actually earn TFUEL as a node.
Other methods of earning Theta
Apart from staking, you can stream all sorts of videos with the help of Theta and get rewarded for that. You’ll have to run the so-called Edge Node, which will use a portion of your bandwidth for streaming content on Theta.tv. You can also earn TFUEL by watching available videos on the network.
Exchanging THETA and TFUEL
You can easily store THETA and TFUEL in the official Theta wallet application. However, if you want to swap Theta for other tokens or even buy it using other popular cryptocurrencies, you need to use one of the exchanges available on the web.
Ideally, it should be a decentralized exchange that features several THETA trading pairs. One such crypto exchange is Godex, which also accepts a wide array of other cryptocurrencies. For example, if you want to conduct an LTC to THETA exchange, you can do it in a few simple steps.
Final thoughts
To sum up, Theta is a very popular platform, with the number of users and Theta token holders increasing every day. There are several ways to profit from it, and one of them is to run a node on the Theta Network. You cannot literally mine Theta, but you can stake it and earn TFUEL in exchange.