Today we launch the Pre-Guardian Node client, the first step toward the launch of Theta protocol’s Guardian Node system. Guardian Nodes are a critical part of Theta’s Multi-BFT consensus mechanism, serving as a second line of defense by reviewing blocks at regular checkpoints and finalizing each block in the chain*.

While Guardian Nodes won’t go live until Q3 2019, the Pre-Guardian Node (PGN) client is an early precursor that serves three important purposes:

Theta tokenholders can start earning TFUEL, the payment token of the Theta protocol It allows the Theta team to gauge interest in users running Guardian Nodes, and identify the users most dedicated to running nodes It raises awareness for the Guardian Node program and the Theta project in general, which will drive more users running GNs when they go live

You can download the Pre-Guardian Node client here:

The client is Windows-based to start, and we’ll be working on Linux/macOS/other versions based on user demand. Make sure the Windows certificate name is under Theta Labs, Inc. (It will not be recognized as a trusted app by Windows Defender until enough users download it, but this is expected and the client is still safe to run).

When you first start the client, you will enter your Theta wallet public address. To confirm you control that address, you will be prompted to make a small TFUEL transfer to a specific Theta address. Once you enter the transaction hash in the PGN client, your address will be verified. If the client won’t recognize your tx hash, try entering it with all letters in lower case.

The client will grade users on their hardware specs (CPU/RAM/internet connection), uptime (consistency running the client) and Theta Token balance. There is no minimum token balance; if you have any Theta Tokens in your Theta wallet, you can earn TFUEL proportionally to that balance.

The amount of TFUEL that can be earned by users in total will be fixed at 1,000,000 TFUEL/month. Every 10 minutes, the client will detect which users are running the client and reward TFUEL proportionally to the amount of Theta each user has. If you were the only one running the client, you’d take 100% of the rewards. As additional Theta tokenholders join and run the client, rewards will be split according to the Theta balance each user has.

The total monthly earning amount is capped because until Guardian Node functionality launches in Q3, new TFUEL is not being generated (i.e. supply is fixed at 5B). Until then, Theta Labs will be rewarding users who participate out of the Theta project reserves, and we need to make sure we keep enough TFUEL for incentives for video platforms to join the Theta Network.

Initially pending TFUEL earnings will be paid out monthly, directly to your linked Theta address. Depending on the level of participation, payments may be adjusted to more frequent payouts. The client will continue to be updated in the months to come as we get closer the Guardian Node functionality launching in full in Q3. For example, the Pre-Guardian Node client will later show additional network information on how many users are staking, your % of the total amount staked, and more.

Please join us in the Theta Telegram channel with any questions and/or feedback. We look forward to the Theta community participating in the program as we progress toward Guardian Nodes launching in Q3, when the Theta protocol will truly be secured by the Theta community.

Cheers,

The Theta team

*For a deeper dive on the implementation of the Theta consensus mechanism, make sure to read the paper “Scalable BFT Consensus Mechanism Through Aggregated Signature Gossip”, by our CTO Jieyi Long and lead blockchain developer Ribao Wei. The paper was recently selected for presentation at a major upcoming cryptography conference; more details to come on that as soon as they go public.