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.
Note
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. Everything else stands though, their platforms suck and you will lose your money. 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 Steem where platforms are completely independent.
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.
This may put a target on my back given the power and influence of the companies involved, but I feel it is important to outline everything. 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. To me, that’s a scam. You can put money in, but you can’t take money out, you can only buy items. To me, that makes this a fake cryptocurrency. You’re probably only buying it from Theta and others who are trying to benefit from other people’s stupidity so, in a way, they are controlling its value just like DLive. It’s disappointing that Samsung has partnered with them since giving them more legitimacy to trick more people. 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.
If you look at the onchain analysis on CoinMarketCap: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/theta-fuel/onchain-analysis/
You can see that 94% of people holding it have had it since the ICO. While it’s dropped a lot in value, all they are waiting for it for people to continue buying and burning it and or wearing more merchandise to increase the popularity and value of Theta and TFuel. Theta was probably invented to give more liquidity and trading volume to TFuel and Theta likely operates in the some way where it relies that you just convert it into GFuel, TFuel, or SamsungVR’s currency.
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? Do you think Samsung and GFuel were tricked based off of the name recognition of the previous YouTube and Twitch co-founders? Let me know what you think about this in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe!
