Samsung Galaxy phones to bring crypto-enabled esports streaming to millions

Theta.tv, a gaming and esports-centric streaming video platform powered by the Theta blockchain, will be available to tens of millions of Samsung Galaxy phone owners via an alliance with Samsung announced Tuesday.

Streams from the service will be embedded within the Samsung Daily interface that comes pre-installed on all new Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones in the United States. The update will also be pushed to all Galaxy S10, S9, Note 10, and Note 9 devices around the world, for a total installed base of more than 75 million devices.

What sets Theta.tv apart from leading video game streaming service Twitch is the ability for viewers to earn Theta tokens, known as $TFUEL, by watching and sharing streams. Users can also donate $TFUEL to streamers, or it can be swapped at a crypto exchange.

Samsung Daily is a rebranded version of the previous Bixby Home interface on Galaxy phones, providing a stream of news, videos, and other recent content. Users will be able to interact directly with Theta.tv streams via the Samsung Daily embed. The Samsung NEXT fund invested in Theta Labs in 2017, and the companies have been collaborating since.

“We believe this commercial product launch is a critical inflection point in the adoption of the Theta Network globally,” said Theta Labs co-founder and CEO Mitch Liu, in a release. “Our groundbreaking approach to streaming is a perfect fit for Samsung’s worldwide user base. It’s a huge step toward our goal of making Theta a global infrastructure for video content and data delivery.”

In addition to content from gaming streamers and esports competitions, Theta.tv broadcasts World Poker Tour tournaments as well as blockchain conferences such as Consensus and Crypto Asia Summit.

In February, Theta Labs announced a turnkey live embed tool for website and blog owners, letting them earn $TFUEL by hosting streams on their sites. The tool used smart contracts to split $TFUEL rewards three ways between the hosting website, the streamer being featured, and viewers with registered Theta.tv accounts.

CoinGecko lists the price of a $TFUEL coin at $0.0075 as of this writing, which is up more than 200% from this time last week.