Down The Rabbit Hole Part 2 - Are We There Yet?
This is a continuation of my previous post. If this is the first time you are here, feel free to check my previous article here.
Let's take a few steps back and look back on the news piece that initially brought me to the Theta Network. Google Cloud had recently just signed on as a Network Validator, joining the ranks along with Binance, Blockchain Ventures and gumi cryptos, a company with access to the cryptocurrency market in Japan. Though it may seem that, other than Google Cloud, none of the other external validators do not seem to have a significant presence for a content delivery network other than its use in their own services. Many ,if not all of the companies, have significant benefits with Theta Network succeeding ,that we shall explore briefly below.
Image source: Theta Token Website
Binance , Blockchain Ventures and Gumi Cryptos:
Both Blockchain Ventures and Gumi Cryptos are Blockchain investment companies that have invested in various cryptos with promising real-world applications like in Enjin, which facilitates transactions between players in games and much more. Their investments is no surprise , as the concept on which the Theta Network is based upon is something that is bound to happen one way or another.
The benefits that Binance gets from this, is the addition of another promising token being traded on their exchange and the associated press coverage that it and all the other partners receive from this investment. Another point that must be noted is that, just before this the Google announcement, Binance, increased the leverage of the Theta/USDT contracts upto 50x , indicating close communication between Binance and Theta Labs.
Despite all of this, the value of Theta token seems to have experienced a typical crypto pump, but soon fell after reaching its all time high. This was followed by Binance reducing the leverage to 20x, immediately. A point to be noted is, when the Tfuel prices were compared, there was no significant price rise , despite being part of the same ecosystem. We shall come back to this soon.
Image source Theta Token Website
Google (Cloud):
Google has a lot to gain from this venture. CDN are a major component of a majority of Google products but the most important one of them all is YouTube. The LBRY is a similar network that aims to provide freedom to content creators and preventing others from demonetizing publishers content. Despite being similar to the Theta network, does not seem to be supported by Google. This must make one wonder, if decentralized content is the main goal, does freedom of content make such a difference to Google? Google Cloud does offer their own CDN, so shouldn't this make them competitors? Well not exactly, their pricing depends on the region and varies based on usage. But most importantly, their prices are fixed. To remain competitive and profitable, they must severely optimize their systems to be cost effective. But on the other hand, if they can use the Theta Network, they do not have maintenance costs which is shifted to those running nodes and are paid varying amount of a fluctuating token. This will allow them to remain competitive and significantly more profitable than before.
Theta Network:
So what do they gain out of all this? Well their main goal is to spread the user base of their network and their eyes are on YouTube. YouTube has a vast user base and is used by millions if not billions all over the world every day. If Google starts using their CDN, it will improve their user base and this will consequently lead to significant coverage. This coverage will lead to more people running nodes and leads to a vicious cycle. What direct profits does the Theta network get is currently unknown, but there sure is something. The image below was found in one of their Medium posts.
Image source Theta Network Medium Post
The Endgame (Great movie right?)
So, this is how the table is set, users are meant to run nodes and allow it to use their space and bandwidth, in return for a token with a value that fluctuates significantly and can eventually be worthless. An example of this can be seen in the theta_network sub-reddit. The last post was about a month ago, and redditors are giving out Tfuel for verification of nodes. And lets not get started on the nodes! They are are the only effective way to mine Tfuel through PoS, but they are closed source and not directly mentioned on their website. This is totally against the regular trend that I have seen in the world of crypto. Though they may not have any malicious intent, this is a concern in a world where privacy matters to many.
In conclusion, the whole Theta Netwrok has a lot of players involved that seek to gain from this project. The sheer volume of Big Wigs involved might lead to the user getting caught, and hence give the user a warning before giving up your device to be a node on the network. And as always I request you all to take this on a lighter note and feel free to comment down below. If you like the post feel free to give it a Thumbs up and leave a tip.