I recently shared why I don’t recommend the Theta network or using their platforms. Many Theta enthusiasts were understandably upset. I wanted to make sure I corrected a few things, but if you can’t withdraw your tokens as a regular user I would stay away.
*Edit*
GFuel doesn't have a token, but any platform associating with this I still find it to be shameful. The only tokens are TFuel and Theta token. Theta is only good for the miners and holders outside the platforms. Apparently, affiliate and partner streamers can also withdraw funds, but I don’t think your access to your crypto should be based upon your relationship with a platform. Some people also made it seem like I didn’t understand the difference between Theta and Theta.TV. I fully recognize Theta network could be a great network and a great blockchain, but their platforms are sketchy and deceptive. They are associated and their reputations obviously affect each other. It’s much different from the likes of Hive where platforms are completely independent. Whether or not we are talking about Theta or TFuel, they are tied together, and so their values and actions reflect on both. To be exact, TFuel is the gas for Theta and is part of its network. So semantics over whether or not it's TFuel or Theta being used currently (before they used Theta) or affiliate & partner streamers, the basic criticisms still stand when we are talking about the normal users being affected.
The Theta Network
Call the Theta network what you want, but I’m going to show you why I don’t recommend using their platforms, anything that is associated with them or investing in their cryptocurrencies.
If anyone thinks I’ve mischaracterized Theta or made a mistake somewhere, feel free to correct it in the comments as I will read every one.
This page has a lot of the explanations you need so while they are straight forward, I don’t know how obvious it is to everyone what they actually imply: https://community.theta.tv/tfuel-on-sliver-faq/?utm_campaign=tfuel
At first, it seems awesome. The more internet bandwidth they take from you while you consume content, the more you earn so you can get tons of crypto while you enjoy yourself. Until you read enough to realize that you can only spend it within the platform on specific items and depositing anything to the platform is non-refundable. So, what’s really happening is they are using everyone’s internet bandwidth for free and giving you back a tiny fraction of what you give them which you can only use according to their rules. To make it more confusing they all have different names on each platform and different values, but it’s always only spendable on the platform and non-refundable. If you hadn’t caught on yet, you’re not going to make money. You may be able to get a new PS4, which I haven’t seen anyone verify, but that’s not real monetization. If you invest time and earn something, you should have full control over its use and what you do with it. On any of the Theta platforms, you do not.
This is very similar to DLive except that their token Theta is actually listed on exchanges. While you can buy it though, you cannot withdraw after you’ve deposited, and you can only “withdraw” it by buying their merch and items in their store. You can put Tfuel in, but you can’t take it out, you can only buy items. To me, that makes this a fake cryptocurrency (at least within the context of Theta.tv. Their involvement in NFTs and promises to take on Netflix along with many powerful people from the likes of Twitch and YouTube, their coin has been legitimized and gone way up in price. It’s disappointing that Samsung had partnered with them since giving them more legitimacy to trick more people, then later canceled quietly from what we can see. Three platforms that use their token are Theta.TV (previously Sliver.TV), G Fuel, and Esports on Samsung VR.
SamsungVR - https://samsungvr.com/
G Fuel – https://gfuel.com/
Theta TV - https://www.theta.tv/
So, all in all, it’s just as sketchy as DLive in its own way. I guess it’s somewhat good that there is a competitor in the space, but it’s still awful. - https://www.thetatoken.org/
Right here you can clearly see that they don’t let you transfer out and deposit aren’t refundable: https://support.theta.tv/hc/en-us/articles/360022635414-Can-I-transfer-TFuel-out-of-Theta-tv-
Now for the important part. Everything above is just deceptive and sucks, but they do explain it all on the site. Where I believe it becomes really deceptive is you have these big-name companies supporting it who don’t understand what’s happening like GFuel and Samsung. People go and invest it in one of the many popular exchanges selling TFuel or ThetaToken. Say half of those people put it into the platform because they didn’t realize you couldn’t get it back assuming that the platform didn’t convert a cryptocurrency into a “point” that you no longer have control or full ownership of. Now say only 10-20% of those people ever earn enough to even get something like a t-shirt. Given, they even want a T-shirt, the rest of these funds are basically nullified if these people continue to try it hold it all to get something but never make it or give up. If they buy the merchandise, they are helping promote it to more people, and if they never use it, then in a way the value of the cryptocurrency goes up because you effectively burn the tokens that are put into the platform.
As you can see below, the original article talking about Samsung was deleted and even though the SamsungVR website was also terminated, https://www.thetatoken.org/ still lists SamsungVR as a partner when there is no real indication that is true.
This is the link to their deleted Medium article: https://medium.com/theta-network/sneak-preview-pre-installed-theta-tv-242234b9fef9
If you look at the on-chain analysis on CoinMarketCap: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/theta-fuel/onchain-analysis/ which has since been removed you could have seen at the time of writing this that 94% of people holding it have had it since their original airdrop distribution of March 2019. While it’s dropped a lot in value, all they are waiting for is for people to continue buying and burning it and or wearing more merchandise to increase the popularity and value of Theta and TFuel. This is probably the most concerning part. I wish I had saved it in an archive at the time. This isn't necessarily a problem, just something to note that the original Theta holders are mainly the ones benefitting from you buying in.
This screenshot just shows that you must be a partner or affiliate streamer to actually get your funds off the platform, but regular streamers and users who have their funds in Theta.tv cannot withdraw them without spending them on merchandise sold by Theta.
I accidentally skipped over the part where I looked at Theta.TV and TFuel’s social media:
https://twitter.com/TFuelTV, https://twitter.com/slivertv360, https://www.facebook.com/WatchTHETAtv/.
The Theta network social presence is solid, but I figured it was worth sharing that their subsidiary platforms have little to no support.
I forgot to go through the social media presence for TFuel which is weirdly abandoned. Theta network still has everything running strong, but you wonder why they have all these different platforms and currencies that they are not supporting.
Let me know what you think of all of this. Have you bought Theta or TFuel? Have you used the Theta network? Let me know what you think about this in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe!
