Edgecast Overview

Since the Theta Network whitepaper was released in late 2017, our core thesis was to build a fully decentralized video infrastructure that would drive benefit to each key stakeholder in the video streaming value chain:

End-users should be rewarded for sharing their excess bandwidth to relay video to others in the community
Content creators should earn more for creating original content and free to choose whichever platform they like
Video platforms should be able to lower CDN costs from using Theta’s peer-to-peer infrastructure, increase user engagement and ultimately revenues

To bring this vision to market, we believe that content creators and consumers should have the choice to use whichever video platform they feel they benefit the most from. This includes all existing advertiser-supported platforms such as YouTube, Twitch etc., subscription-based services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and many others, as well as new decentralized video platforms which are built from the ground-up on distributed computing and ledger technology.

Built with this vision, Theta Edgecast is the first fully decentralized video streaming DApp that is 100% built on Theta’s native blockchain technology with smart contracts. This technology stack includes the ability to capture video, transcode it in real-time, cache and relay to users globally all through Theta’s peer-to-peer edge network composed of over 2,000 edge nodes today. This means not a single central server or service is used.

Theta Edgecast is currently a tab on the Edge Node. After downloading and installing the Edge Node, the default tab will be the EdgeCast "Discover" page which shows a list of currently active streams, as shown in the screenshot below.

Clicking on any of the active streams, for example the "Big Buck Bunny" stream, will open the following player page. Wait for a few seconds, and the stream should load. You can also chat with other viewers using the chat panel on the right. All the video stream data and chat messages are delivered in real time without using a single central server.

If you are not satisfied with just sitting there and watching the streams, you can become a streamer in a minute by following the steps here.