Will there be a miracle in the DePIN track in 2024? Some projects have officially announced that a major product is about to be launched

Author: DeMan

In 2024, the DePIN track still has many projects and gameplay worth looking forward to. With the market warming up, new value opportunities may arise.

At the end of January, the decentralized video streaming platform Theta Network, based on blockchain, announced its 2024 roadmap, stating that it will launch Theta EdgeCloud (Phase 1) in the first half of 2024. This is a hybrid cloud computing platform based on a distributed edge architecture. Theta EdgeCloud combines the functionalities of cloud and edge architectures to serve emerging AI use cases in the video, media, and entertainment sectors.

So, can the seemingly grand hybrid cloud computing platform of Theta Network bring many positive changes to the Web3 world after its release in 2024? The following is a brief introduction.

Understanding the Past and Present of Theta Network: Born in 2017, it gained popularity during the last bull market through staking mining services

Before introducing Theta Network, we can first understand its parent company, Theta Labs. Theta Labs was founded in 2017 by Mitch Liu and Jieyi Long, headquartered in San Francisco, USA. The company claims that all its members graduated from world-renowned universities. Public information shows that Theta Labs raised over $10 million during the ICO boom in 2017, with investors including Samsung NEXT, Sony Innovation Fund, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and Silicon Valley venture capital firms such as DCM and Sierra Ventures.

As a decentralized video streaming platform based on native blockchain technology, Theta Network rewards content viewers who share bandwidth with THETA tokens, providing high-definition video content and reducing video distribution costs. Theta Network aims to develop more efficient methods to distribute any type of content and data globally through a paid peer-to-peer network.

Unlike traditional centralized servers, THETA uses a node network model to achieve peer-to-peer connections between viewers and nodes. While watching video content on the Theta network, users can voluntarily provide their spare bandwidth and computing resources to become a caching node on the network. This setup not only reduces bandwidth costs for video content distributors but also improves streaming quality through the principle of nearby nodes.

During the last bull market, Theta Labs launched staking mining services, gaining widespread attention in the industry, but it was also questioned as a Ponzi scheme, receiving mixed reviews. In recent years, it has accelerated cooperation with traditional Web2 companies in the areas of NFTs and Web3 games, including the milk cap game company Pogs, Sony Electronics, the talent show "American Idol," and Las Vegas landmarks.

Technical Solution Interpretation of Theta EdgeCloud: A seamless task platform for AI video and image service providers and demanders

After understanding the background of Theta Labs, we have roughly organized the technical solution overview of Theta EdgeCloud based on information from Theta Network's official channels.

Theta EdgeCloud, as the next-generation Theta edge network, is operated by cloud-hosted nodes from Theta Labs. These nodes will run AI video and image generation models and other AI modeling-related tasks, providing a range of AI technology application values for its partners and the Theta community. According to Theta Network, if high-tier node users stake more than 500,000 TFUEL (the second asset on Theta Network, which can pay gas fees), they can choose to run the new "Elite+ Booster" module to execute computing tasks for EdgeCloud, which may correspondingly yield higher returns and create more market-valuable AI video or image model products.

In the second half of 2024, the second-generation version of Theta EdgeCloud will be launched, allowing partners and end-users to run their personal EdgeCloud nodes in personal data centers or cloud infrastructure. This will provide more flexibility for nodes, such as prioritizing or exiting corresponding tasks, as well as a broader range of options for processing high-quality asset tasks. Of course, this is an intermediate version that prepares for a fully decentralized EdgeCloud model, where community-operated edge nodes can participate in the hybrid cloud architecture.

By 2025, the fully decentralized Theta EdgeCloud will be officially released, and this product will also have richer functionalities, enabling community nodes in Theta Network to seamlessly integrate with its cloud operating infrastructure. In simple terms, this Theta EdgeCloud will truly optimize the supply and demand between video production and the market, allowing seamless asset transactions between video producers and demanders on the Theta EdgeCloud platform, where the latter publishes tasks, and the former accepts orders, with all asset transfers settled in TFUEL tokens after delivery. Additionally, Theta EdgeCloud will open a unique API interface to facilitate developers, node operators, and ordinary users to complete technical tasks on the platform at the lowest cost, which will not only prosper the market but also increase revenue for participants.

It is worth mentioning that Theta Labs' enterprise validators and governance committee include well-known Web2 companies such as Google, Samsung, Sony, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Binance, Blockchain Ventures, DHVC, and gumi, which provides a good endorsement and brand effect. Based on this, Theta Network leverages its user base of millions of viewers to expand its peer-to-peer video network and strengthens it through partnerships with quality content providers such as Lionsgate, MGM Studios, and NASA. Popular video platforms integrated with Theta infrastructure include CONtv Anime, Party Poker, World Poker Tour, Cinedigm, Samsung VR, GameTalkTalk, MovieBloc, Ultra, GFUEL, and other OTT media, entertainment, and live streaming services.

Additionally, Theta Network's plans for the first half of 2024 include the Theta Hackathon, new adoption metrics and sub-chain statistics, support for ecosystem projects, TNT20 staking, and optimization of the Theta Video API; plans for the second half of the year include a fully decentralized Theta Video API, Theta Web3 Theater, and extending TDROP use cases. These plans aim to bring more technological changes and ecological advantages to Theta Network through an open ecosystem.

Whether the DePIN market will explode in 2024 remains uncertain, but this is the core of Theta EdgeCloud's development

In simple terms, Theta EdgeCloud anchors the most popular applications in AI large models such as streaming video and AI images. With the development of the global entertainment industry, the market demand in this area will gradually increase. Through a decentralized cloud hosting approach and a token economic incentive model, Theta EdgeCloud can indeed attract a large number of users to participate within a specific period, and its annual plan also shows its preparations in technological research and development. Of course, Theta Labs is also considered an established company in the industry, with strong support in technology, resources, and business. We look forward to seeing Theta EdgeCloud lead the technological innovation model iteration of DePIN in 2024 and beyond.

However, Theta Network itself also carries certain risks and historical burdens, which constitute unfavorable factors for the project. Firstly, after the previous staking mining activities, the performance of its asset prices was poor, greatly damaging the project's reputation and undermining community consensus and trust. Secondly, in the dual-token model, how to better achieve value circulation and risk control between the two assets may not be the project's strong point. Lastly, there are certain difficulties in realizing the technical vision of Theta EdgeCloud, requiring a certain period of research and trial-and-error to ensure the smooth implementation of the plan. The macro factor that cannot be ignored is whether the enthusiasm for the DePIN track has dissipated and when the volatile market will end, which may bring fatal uncertainty to the project's development.

Therefore, for the applications in the DePIN track, we also need to maintain a cautious attitude, weighing its multidimensional information as a whole and doing our best to control potential risks.