Theta Fuel (TFUEL) is one of Theta’s two native tokens. TFUEL should not be confused with Theta Token (THETA), the governance token on the Theta blockchain, which is supported by hundreds of collaborative guardian nodes and corporate validators such as Google, Binance, Blockchain Ventures, Gumi and Samsung.

TFUEL is the second currency on the Theta blockchain and serves as a gas token, as well as a decentralised video and data transfer. This means that it is used for all activities on the Theta Blockchain, including payments to relays for sharing a video stream, distribution and interaction with smart contracts, and transaction fees for NTFs and DeFi applications.

It also serves as an incentive for ecosystem participants who provide free computing power as edge computing nodes for video streams and other data, and bandwidth resources as edge caching nodes.

Who Are Theta Fuel’s Founders?

In 2017, Mitch Liu and Jieyi Long co-founded Theta Fuel and the entire Theta ecosystem. Liu has extensive experience in the gaming, video and virtual reality industries. He co-founded video advertising company Tapjoy, mobile social gaming startup Gameview Studios, and THETA.tv, the first live-streaming network based on the Theta protocol.

Jieyi Long, Theta’s second co-founder, and Chief Technology Officer, has extensive experience in design automation, gaming, virtual reality, and large-scale distributed systems. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers and holds several patents in the areas of video streaming, blockchain technology, and virtual reality.

Theta’s official website lists major institutional backers such as Samsung NEXT, Sony Innovation Fund, media investors BDMI Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, CAA Creative Artists Agency, and traditional Silicon Valley VCs such as DCM, Sierra Ventures and VR Fund.

How is Different?

Theta’s primary use case is to decentralize video streaming, data transmission, and edge computing to make it more efficient, economical, and equitable for industry players. The internal economy is driven by two native tokens known as Theta (THETA) and Theta Fuel (TFUEL).

Theta is attractive in three ways: users are rewarded with a higher quality streaming service, content producers make more money, and video platforms save on infrastructure and increase advertising and subscription revenues. TFUEL tokens incentivize users to watch network content and contribute network resources because these actions are rewarded.

As with many proof-of-stake (PoS)-based blockchain ecosystems, the platform is open source and token holders have management rights. In addition to video, data and compute services, Theta offers a wide range of features for developers looking to deploy decentralized applications (DApps) such as DeFi and NFTs on a full-featured EVM-compatible smart contract platform.

In conclusion, Theta Fuel (TFUEL) and Theta Token (THETA) are two closely related digital assets that operate within the Theta Network. While both tokens serve important functions within the ecosystem, they have distinct roles and characteristics.

Theta Token is the governance token of the Theta Network, used to stake and secure the network, and govern its development and direction. It is also used to pay transaction fees and to reward nodes that contribute to the network’s performance.

On the other hand, Theta Fuel is the operational token of the Theta Network, used to facilitate the smooth running of the network by processing transactions and executing smart contracts. It is also used to incentivize users to share their bandwidth and resources to improve network performance and to reward validators for their work in securing the network.

Overall, while both Theta Token and Theta Fuel play important roles in the Theta Network, they serve different functions and operate on different levels. Theta Token is the backbone of the network, providing governance and security, while Theta Fuel is the fuel that powers the network’s day-to-day operations.