Utility tokens were all the rage back in the early days of 2021’s bull market, with proponents promising that they were going to revolutionise a range of industries. However, many, like Theta Network are back at their pre-bull-run prices, while newer tokens looking to capitalise on the metaverse trend are quickly finding support in the crypto community.
One of the most promising metaverse tokens within sight is Metacade, and in this article, we’re going to discuss what’s happened to Theta Network and why Metacade could soon be overtaking it.
Theta Network (THETA) Struggles to Attract a Userbase
In today’s world, where streaming is now the norm, there exists a fundamental problem: content delivery. Content delivery networks (CDNs) are paid by firms to handle their video content, but because of the centralised nature and geographical restrictions of traditional CDNs, they struggle to keep up with delivering high-quality streams.
Theta Network aims to solve this problem by allowing users to offer their spare bandwidth and computer resources to create a decentralised CDN in return for THETA tokens. The idea is that as more users join the network, more bandwidth is available to handle these high-quality streams.
While this sounds great, in practice, THETA.tv, the network’s native video platform, rarely amasses more than 100 viewers on any given livestream. More often than not, the most popular streams on the platform have less than 30 viewers at any one time.
This lack of adoption, combined with the crypto bear market, has led to a dramatic drop in THETA’s price. Since its peak in April 2021, THETA has fallen almost -95%, from $15.88 to just $0.987 in mid-October. Unless Theta Network can do something to get in on the bubbling metaverse trend, then it seems like its future looks dark.
Unlike Theta Network, Metacade is positioning itself to make the most of the upcoming metaverse trend. Metacade plans to be a community hub built for the future of Web3, GameFi, and the metaverse. It’s where gamers, crypto investors, developers, and entrepreneurs go to link up and discover how to make the most out of the nascent GameFi industry – an industry that is expected to grow at 10x the rate of traditional gaming by 2025, according to Crypto.com.
Community is at the heart of Metacade’s vision. Instead of allowing game studios to dictate and profit from future metaverse trends, Metacade intends to let its users feel the benefits directly through its reward model and game development program known as Metagrants.
To incentivise the community to make Metacade the prime destination for everything GameFi, Metacade rewards its users with the MCADE token for their contributions. Each time you make a review, share tips on the latest Play2Earn games, or test titles for Metacade’s developers, you not only earn respect from the community but actual cash – all for sharing your thoughts on the games you already love to play.
Earn More From Play2Earn
While these rewards represent another way to boost your Play2Earn income, they’re just the start. Metacade’s best players will be able to earn MCADE tokens by winning exclusive tournaments. But what if you’re just a casual player that wants to break into the gaming industry? In the future you’ll also be able to earn by working through Metacade’s job board, which is planned for 2024. Here, you’ll find opportunities that range from beta testing all the way to internships with those at the forefront of the hottest metaverse trends.
Funding the Latest Play2Earn Titles
Metacade’s game development program, Metagrants, is a way for the community to have their say on the Play2Earn titles they want to see built in a kind of idea meritocracy. Game developers from across the globe present their ideas as equals in a competition to win funding from the Metacade treasury – and there can only be one winner. Eventually, Metacade plans to host dozens of winning titles inside its own virtual arcade, becoming a powerhouse of the GameFi industry and kickstarting its own metaverse trends.
At the point that Metacade is a self-sufficient collective populated by thousands of like-minded individuals, the aim is to turn the platform into a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO). This will see the keys quite literally handed over to Metacade’s most valuable members. Each will be given a key that is used to sign transactions from the treasury’s multi-sig wallets. These wallets require two or more leaders to verify any transactions made from the treasury, mitigating any mismanagement of the community’s funds.
Theta Network is a nice idea in theory, but reality has shown otherwise. For one, Theta Network is directly competing against Cloudflare, Amazon Web Services, and Akamai: three industry titans that have captured 89% of the market, according to Intricately. To stand a chance of competing against any major provider, Theta Network would need to attract a lot more users in order to offer a better service – which as its performance shows, hasn’t been happening.
At the core of Theta Network’s user growth issues is that CDNs are particularly unglamourous, not to mention tricky for most people to understand. While it might have a fanbase in niche communities, your average netizen won’t find Theta Network interesting enough to invest their time and money into.
Compare that to Metacade: a platform at the epicenter of the already-popular gaming industry that’s set to roughly double in value by 2026, according to the World Economic Forum. Its reward model could be compared to Theta Network’s, but the key difference is in the expected user growth. As GameFi adoption grows rapidly, so will the adoption of Metacade’s platform.
If you’re looking for a token that could be the hottest metaverse trend of 2023, then you can stop looking. Metacade might just be your answer.
You can buy Theta Network at eToro here.
You can participate in the Metacade pre-sale here.
