First published 16 March 2020. The chain had been live for a year. Expanded in October 2026 so the fee token is not folded into the ticker people trade. Theta is a network aimed at paying computers that relay video. Theta Labs built it. THETA is the staking token. TFUEL is the fee. A stream you watch is not a balance of either token, and a token is not a share of a video company.
Before mainnet, THETA was an Ethereum token. The native chain opened at about 19:00 UTC on 15 March 2019. The swap was one old token for one native THETA. Each THETA also received five TFUEL, so the launch created 5 billion TFUEL against a THETA cap of 1 billion. That cap is the project’s rule: THETA does not inflate. TFUEL does. The launch note described new TFUEL at a target near 5 percent a year, and said the protocol can change the rate. A dashboard figure is that version. THETA still sitting on Ethereum was not swapped. It is not the native coin, and it is not TFUEL.
Staking THETA pays TFUEL, not more THETA
The launch used a small set of validator nodes. The launch materials named companies including Google, Samsung, and Sony. Guardian nodes were the wider set described as finalizing blocks. Locking THETA in that design is how the project pays people in new TFUEL. It does not mint more THETA. A company on the original list is not a promise that the same company runs a node now. This page will not walk through running one. Staking is a lock and a queue, not a savings account.
A Theta address starts with 0x. So does an Ethereum address. They are not the same network. The wrong network is still the wrong city. Nothing here is an instruction to stake THETA, to relay video, or to buy either token.
