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dappOS is a project focused on simplifying blockchain operations and enhancing user experience through an "intent-centric" design. With this approach, users simply express their goals, and the system automatically handles complex operations such as cross-chain transfers and asset exchanges. dappOS builds an efficient execution network for developers and service providers, optimizing transaction processes by combining both on-chain and off-chain strategies. Its OMS (Optimistic Minimum Staking) mechanism ensures efficient, secure task execution while minimizing costs. The project has partnered with several renowned blockchain platforms and has raised multiple funding rounds from institutions like Binance Labs and Polychain, with a current valuation of $300 million.
What is “Intent-Centric”? In simple terms, “intent-centric” is a design philosophy aimed at improving user experience by allowing users to express what they want, while the system or a third party handles the execution. In Web2, intent-centric product design has been extensively applied in scenarios like ride-hailing, food delivery, and online shopping, where users express their needs, and the system automatically completes complex processes. With the development of decentralized technologies, Web3 offers users more control over their assets but also increases operational complexity. Thus, simplifying the user experience has become a key challenge for Web3 products. Recognizing this trend, the well-known crypto fund Paradigm highlighted “intent-centric protocols and infrastructure” as the top trend in its report on ten potential developments in the crypto space. Additionally, projects like Anoma gained attention at the ETHCC conference, further promoting the intent-centric concept. For example, if a user wants to purchase an NFT on the Polygon network using ETH but only has USDT on another chain, traditionally, the user would need to exchange tokens and perform cross-chain transfers. In the intent-centric model, the user merely expresses the intention to buy the NFT, and the system automatically handles the complex on-chain processes while ensuring transparency. The user retains control over the ownership and final outcome of the transaction. This model not only improves the user experience but also upholds the core principles of decentralization. The essence of intent-centric execution lies in focusing on the desired outcome rather than the detailed steps. Users only need to specify the goal, while the system, smart contracts, or third parties manage the process. The results must be transparent and verifiable to ensure that users can track the entire process and confirm that the final outcome aligns with their original intent.
Introduction dappOS is a network focused on intent execution. By building a middleware layer, it allows users to express their goals without needing to worry about the operational details. The platform bridges the gap between supply and demand, transforming users’ intentions into actual on-chain results. On the supply side, service providers stake collateral and choose to offer one or more execution services. On the demand side, developers can use the platform to find the best solutions to fulfill users’ intents.
OMS Mechanism The underlying mechanism of the dappOS network is the Optimistic Minimum Staking (OMS) mechanism. “Optimistic” refers to the fact that OMS allows service providers to continue executing tasks even before the results are verified, enabling "optimistic" processing. “Minimum” means that service providers only need to stake an amount slightly higher than the total value of pending tasks to provide services to users. Once a validator confirms that a task is successfully completed, the service node receives the corresponding rewards. If the task fails, the service node is penalized, and the user is compensated as agreed beforehand. This design effectively balances task execution efficiency, service providers’ capital efficiency, and the overall security of the system. By lowering the capital costs for service providers, OMS ensures that user tasks are successfully completed while also guaranteeing compensation for users in the event of a task failure, thus enhancing the overall efficiency and flexibility of the network. OMS
Three Main Participants in dappOS Network
Intent Task Framework dappOS operates on a task execution network and, according to the dappOS Gitbook, currently features four types of intent task frameworks: Unified Account, Intent-Centric dApp Interaction, Intent Assets, and Intent Trading. More task frameworks may be added in the future based on user needs. Unified Account dappOS offers a unified account compatible with its intent execution network. Similar to centralized exchanges, assets within this account can be used across any dApp integrated with the chain, and most major tokens can be used to pay fees. This allows users to control multiple chain accounts with a single signature, even if their assets are spread across various blockchains. Additionally, the unified account in dappOS enables flexible external interactions. Applications that can interact with external owned accounts (EOAs) can also use highly scalable execution interfaces and custom service logic through the unified account.
Intent-Centric dApp Interaction The intent execution network of dappOS provides an efficient framework for real-time interaction with dApps. Users can seamlessly transition from the initial state to the final state with a single, simple signature. Traditional on-chain operations often involve complex steps such as cross-chain transactions, asset conversions, and contract authorizations, which are merely means to an end. With dappOS, users can achieve their goals with a single signature, greatly enhancing the user experience. Moreover, thanks to the OMS mechanism, dappOS ensures that operations remain decentralized and secure while also being efficient and cost-effective. This intent-centric design simplifies complex blockchain operations. Intent Assets dappOS introduces intent assets, which enable seamless use of different forms of assets across various scenarios. Here are two examples: Scenario 1: A user wants to exchange yield assets for USDT Without dappOS, a user wishing to redeem yield assets like xxETH typically needs to trade on a decentralized exchange (DEX), which may involve issues like low liquidity or high slippage, resulting in losses. Redemption through official channels can take about 7 days, and users would also need to manually convert ETH to USDT. With dappOS, intentETH held by the user can be used directly on DEXs that support dappOS, allowing for one-click conversion to USDT, making transactions faster and more convenient.
Scenario 2: A user wants to buy $XXX tokens on xx L2 chain but lacks funds on that chain Without dappOS, users need to raise funds on other chains, convert assets, and handle cross-chain operations, which can be cumbersome. With dappOS, users can directly use intentETH to purchase tokens on the xx L2 chain as easily as using regular ETH, avoiding many complex operations, not needing to pre-fund gas fees on multiple chains, and still earning rewards. As of now, the first batch of partners of dappOS intention assets include: Pendle, Bouncebit, Monad, ether.fi, Lorenzo, etc. Intent EX dappOS’s intent trading task framework is designed to handle various asset trading and exchange tasks, regardless of the order size. Service providers can combine on-chain and off-chain strategies to optimize the execution process and secure the best trading outcomes for users.
Team and Financing Background
Team The dappOS team is composed of core members with extensive experience in technology and blockchain. Ty Shen, Founder and CEO, previously served as CTO and co-founder of Alchemy Pay, with experience in building blockchain payment systems, and founded VR company Tsing Visual. He graduated from Tsinghua University and has received numerous honors including Forbes 30 Under 30. He is responsible for dappOS's strategic planning and technical architecture.Isabella Yang, Co-founder and COO, has a strong background in technology entrepreneurship and investment. She worked as a software engineer at Google and has invested in several unicorn companies. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and is an early investor in blockchain and a recognized female leader in the industry. She oversees dappOS business strategy and ecosystem development. dappOS LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/dappos Financing dappOS has completed three rounds of financing, securing support from well-known institutions such as Polychain, Binance Labs, and Sequoia China, with a valuation reaching $300 million. pre-seed: In November 2022, dappOS was selected for Binance Labs' fifth season incubation program and received Pre-Seed funding from Binance Labs on June 20, 2023, though the specific amount was not disclosed. seed: On July 21, 2023, dappOS announced the completion of its Seed round with a $50 million valuation. The round was led by IDG Capital and Sequoia China, with participation from OKX Ventures, HashKey Capital, KuCoin Ventures, TronDao, Gate Labs, Taihill Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Foresight Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Mirana Ventures, and Leland Ventures. Series A: On March 28, 2024, dappOS raised $15.3 million in Series A funding at a $300 million valuation. Polychain led the round, with participation from Nomad Capital, IDG, Flow Traders, IOBC, NGC, Amber Group, Uphonest, Taihill, Waterdrip, Bing Ventures, Spark Digital Capital, Web3Port Foundation, Satoshi Lab, and Metalpha. Ecosystem Collaborative Projects In the past year, the dappOS ecosystem has experienced rapid growth. Many well-known and emerging projects such as GMX, Kyberswap, Manta, BENQI, and KiloEx have partnered with dappOS. The ecosystem collaboration map of dappOS is as follows.
Product User Scale Due to the unique nature of its business model, the majority of dappOS operations are conducted in collaboration with other dApps. According to data published by dappOS on Dune, as of September 14, 2024, the cumulative number of unique users for the business conducted in partnership with GMX has reached 45,872, with a current TVL of $4,070,726.
The number of unique users for dappOS business conducted in partnership with Kyberswap has reached 41,645.
Community As of September 14, 2024, dappOS community has grown to over 345k members. This includes 187.2k followers on X (formerly Twitter), 145,236 members in the Discord community, and 12,902 members in the Telegram group.
zkSync Era is an Ethereum-based Layer 2 scaling solution that leverages zero-knowledge proofs and Rollup architecture to offer faster and more cost-effective transaction experiences. By shifting most activities to Layer 2, zkSync Era reduces network congestion and lowers transaction fees while maintaining the security and finality of the Ethereum mainnet. As the 2.0 version of zkSync, zkSync Era significantly improves performance and functionality compared to its predecessor, zkSync Lite (1.0).
Key features of zkSync Era include mainnet-level security without relying on third parties, ensuring transaction reliability. It supports instant confirmation and completion of ETH and ERC20 token transfers on Layer 1, typically within ten minutes. Transaction costs are minimal, with ERC20 token fees approximately one percent of those on the mainnet, and ETH transfer fees about one-thirtieth of mainnet costs. zkSync Era allows receiving funds without registration and facilitates payments to existing Ethereum addresses, including smart contracts. Additionally, it supports multi-signature transactions and permissionless smart contracts, enabling efficient and flexible user experiences with withdrawals to the mainnet in approximately ten minutes.
Core Components
zkEVM zkEVM is the technology that runs the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) as the smart contract engine on ZK Rollup. Its main goal is to preserve the performance advantages of Rollup while completely replicating the Ethereum experience on Layer 2, providing users with a familiar development environment and operational mode.
Account Abstraction Account abstraction introduces a new account type by treating accounts as smart contracts to separate transaction verification from transaction execution. This enables each account to have its own logic, achieving seamless compatibility, ensuring user sovereignty, and providing a more secure and smooth user experience.
zkPorter zkPorter addresses the scalability limitations of zkRollup by ensuring the availability of off-chain data. It does not rely on data publication on the Ethereum base layer, thus overcoming scalability bottlenecks and achieving more efficient data processing and greater scalability.
Team and Investor
Team
Matter Labs, the German company behind zkSync, was founded in 2018 and has grown to over 50 employees dedicated to developing efficient, low-cost, and secure Ethereum transaction solutions. The company is led by CEO Alex Gluchowski, who brings over 15 years of development experience and a passion for personal freedom and decentralized technologies. The team's CTO, along with other core members, contributes extensive technical expertise and development experience, driving innovation and growth within zkSync.
Investor
Since 2018, zkSync has completed 5 rounds of financing, raising a total of $458 million, the most among Layer 2 scaling solutions. A recent Series C round valued the project at $2 billion. Funding comes from top-tier investors and venture capital firms, including Binance, Aave, Curve, Coinbase Ventures, a16z Crypto, Dragonfly, and Blockchain Capital. In 2022, zkSync secured an additional $200 million commitment from BitDAO, further ensuring ample funds for project development and infrastructure construction.
Tokenomics
$ZK is the native token of zkSync, with a total supply of 21 billion.
As of June 17th, the $ZK token is priced at approximately $0.25 USD, having launched on June 11th and listed on multiple cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance. Its market capitalization exceeds $900 million USD, with a fully diluted valuation of approximately $5.2 billion USD. According to CoinMarketCap, $ZK ranks 79th in the global cryptocurrency market by market capitalization and 7th among all Layer 2 projects, positioning it between Starknet and Aevo in terms of market presence.
Ecosystem
Since zkSync Era mainnet launched on March 24, 2023, despite maintaining a leading overall scale, there has been a significant decline in user engagement and profit-capturing capability. This phenomenon is closely related to insufficient ecosystem projects and a lack of sufficient focus on the community.
As of June 17, 2024, according to L2 BEAT data, zkSync Era's total locked value is $765 million, down from approximately $990 million on March 12.
Despite the relatively high total locked value of zkSync ecosystem projects, the number and diversity of projects remain insufficient. According to zkSync-dappradar data as of June 17, there are 205 ecosystem projects covering areas such as DeFi, gaming, trading markets, NFTs, social platforms, wallets, and DEXs. However, DeFiLlama data indicates that only 5 zkSync projects have TVL exceeding $10 million, accounting for 58.5% of the total locked value. Among the top 10 projects by TVL, the majority are concentrated in DEX and lending sectors, with a limited deployment of well-known high-quality projects on zkSync.
As of June 17, zkSync Era has accumulated a total of 3,434,121 users, with 2,382,454 bridge users and a bridged total of 3,878,944 ETH, marking an increase of approximately 66.8% since the beginning of the year. However, the average bridge amount per wallet address is relatively low at 1.031 ETH. Over the past two months, on-chain activities on zkSync have significantly declined, with daily bridge transactions plummeting—for instance, only 160 transactions were recorded on June 16, and dropping to just a few dozen transactions between June 12 and 15.
Daily active users on zkSync have also sharply decreased, with zkSync Era recording 183 active users on June 16, and zkSync Lite only 12, totaling 195 users. This represents a decline of about 98.73% compared to January 15, 2024, highlighting a substantial reduction in user engagement.
Data source:Dune @outputlayer
Data source:Dune @sixdegree
Furthermore, prior to the announcement of the airdrop rules, the significant participation of "rug pullers" brought substantial profits to zkSync Era but also impacted the overall health of its ecosystem. As of May 1, over the past four months, zkSync Era generated approximately 1848 ETH in profit from gas fees, accounting for 10.3% of the total profits on Rollup chains. However, compared to chains like Base, Arbitrum, and Scroll, zkSync Era still shows a noticeable gap in monthly profits, which have been declining.
Data Source: Dune @niftytable
ETH Layer 2 Landscape
The daily total transaction volume on Layer 2 has significantly surpassed that of the Ethereum mainnet. Currently, Layer 2 solutions include six main types: state channels, sidechains, Plasma, Optimistic Rollup, Validium, and zkRollup.
Among these solutions, Optimistic Rollup holds the majority of the Layer 2 market share. Arbitrum, a leading Optimistic Rollup project, accounts for 40.4% of the Layer 2 TVL; Base and OP hold 17.12% and 15.67% respectively. In contrast, zkRollup’s zkSync captures only 1.76% of the Layer 2 market.
Optimistic Rollup projects like Arbitrum and OP launched their mainnets early, gaining a head start in ecosystem development. Arbitrum's ecosystem quality is notably superior to other Layer 2 solutions, with well-known native projects such as Radiant Capital, GMX, Camelot, and Treasure DAO. In comparison, zkSync’s ecosystem development remains relatively weak.
According to L2 Beat data, zkSync Era’s TVL ranks 9th among Layer 2 projects, following Manta. The market share of Layer 2 is predominantly occupied by Rollup solutions, with Arbitrum’s TVL at $2.4 billion, accounting for 51.6%; Optimism’s TVL stands at $1.43 billion, representing 30.56%.
Regarding the stages shown in the chart: To better differentiate and define Rollup solutions, Vitalik and others have categorized Rollups into three stages based on their reliance on fraud proofs/interactive mechanisms. zkSync Era is classified as Stage 0, which means it fully relies on fraud proofs, meeting the minimum standards for a Rollup implementation.
Community Development Community Scale
zkSync boasts a large-scale community with over 2 million members. It has 1.4 million followers on the X platform and a Discord community of 779,000 members. This substantial user base demonstrates zkSync's influence in the market and the vibrancy of its community.
Airdrop Controversy
Recently, zkSync released its airdrop rules, triggering widespread dissatisfaction within the community. The airdrop criteria heavily favor on-chain interactions, on-chain asset values, and holding periods, with a simplistic approach to identifying eligible addresses. Ultimately, only 10% of over 6 million wallet addresses qualified for the airdrop, far below expectations. Additionally, exclusion of many ecosystem projects from the airdrop list raised significant questions. Members of the Chinese community expressed disappointment in Matter Labs' leadership, citing a perceived imbalance in community interest considerations.
NFT marketplace ElemenT also tweeted that, as the largest NFT marketplace on ZKSync, they did not receive any airdrop, questioning the seriousness of the initiative. Similarly, zkApes tweeted that despite generating $15 million in gas fees, they did not receive any airdrop.
Rug Events
The airdrop controversy is not the first instance of zkSync neglecting community interests. Previous rug events resulted in user losses, causing discontent within the community. For example, the zkSync lending protocol Eralend suffered a $3.4 million loss due to a flash loan attack, xBank Finance lost $550,000 in liquidity due to a hack, nearly reducing liquidity to zero, and the ZKasino incident. Despite some projects being sold or attackers being arrested, zkSync has failed to adequately protect user interests. Community members believe that the zkSync team has been negligent in ecosystem development and is more concerned with gas income. Such mismanagement and disregard for user interests pose significant challenges for zkSync.
Summary
zkSync, developed by Matter Labs, is an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution leveraging zero-knowledge proofs and Rollup architecture to achieve faster and cost-effective transactions. Key components like zkEVM, account abstraction, and zkPorter highlight its innovations in security and usability. However, due to the complexity of its technical implementation, zkSync requires more time and resources compared to Optimistic Rollup projects. Despite having a large community and substantial funding, zkSync faces challenges in ecosystem development and user engagement, particularly concerning controversies over airdrop distribution and handling of rug events, impacting community trust and market performance.
#第55期新币挖矿IO Io.net Dive into our latest research on io.net! This decentralized computing network is revolutionizing AI development and execution on the Solana blockchain. By aggregating underutilized resources from independent data centers, crypto miners, and projects like Filecoin and Render, io.net offers a robust solution to the growing demand for computing power. - Key Highlights: Flexible Composition: AI engineers can customize and combine various chips to create clusters tailored to their computing tasks, enhancing efficiency and flexibility. Rapid Deployment: Unlike centralized providers like AWS that require weeks for approval, io.net enables task deployment in seconds, significantly speeding up workflows. Cost Efficiency: With services priced up to 90% lower than mainstream providers, io.net makes high-performance computing more accessible and affordable. - Product Functionality: On the demand side, io.cloud allows users to define and deploy GPU clusters for AI computing tasks. Categorized into General, Train, and Inference scenarios, it helps users select GPUs based on performance needs. On the supply side, IO Worker optimizes operations for suppliers with features like account management, real-time monitoring, and profitability analysis. - Market and Growth: With over 28,000 GPUs and 6,000 CPUs, io.net has rapidly expanded its supply side. Despite early-stage market cultivation on the demand side, the platform has processed over 319,000 AI inference tasks, generating significant fees. - Challenges and Opportunities: While io.net faces technical, regulatory, and market adoption challenges, its innovative approach and strategic partnerships position it as a leader in the decentralized computing space. Dive deeper and explore all the insights in our full report.
Project Introduction io.net is a decentralized computing network that supports the development, execution, and scaling of ML applications on the Solana blockchain. It aggregates underutilized resources, such as GPUs from independent data centers, crypto miners, and crypto projects like Filecoin and Render, to address this issue. The main selling points of io.net are: Flexible Composition: AI engineers can freely select and combine the chips they need to form a "cluster" to complete their computing tasks.Rapid Deployment: Unlike centralized providers such as AWS, which require weeks of approval and waiting, tasks can be deployed and started within seconds.Low Cost: The service cost is 90% lower than that of mainstream providers.
Product Functionality and Workflow Demand Side io.cloud allows users to define their desired GPU clusters based on their needs to complete AI computing tasks. Depending on different computing power tasks, io.net categorizes the demand scenarios into three types: General, Train, and Inference. This classification helps users choose GPUs based on performance metrics such as memory and bandwidth. Supply Side IO Worker simplifies and optimizes operations for suppliers. This includes user account management, real-time activity monitoring, temperature and power consumption tracking, installation support, wallet management, security, and profitability analysis.
Tokenomics The total supply of IO tokens is capped at 800 million, with an initial supply of 500 million IO at genesis, distributed across five categories: seed investors, Series A investors, core contributors, R&D and ecosystem, and the community. The issuance of IO tokens aims to incentivize network growth and adoption, gradually increasing to a fixed maximum supply of 800 million IO over 20 years. Rewards will be released every hour to suppliers and stakers, following a deflationary model that starts at 8% in the first year and decreases by 1.02% each month (approximately 12% per year) until the cap of 800 million IO tokens is reached.
Besides $IO token, the project designed a dual-token mechanism. There are plans to introduce an IOSD token, which is pegged to the US dollar and generated.
Key Data Supply Side Expansion The supply side has expanded rapidly. As of May 20, according to official data, IO.NET has a total supply of 28,889 GPUs and 6,605 CPUs on the supply side. Additionally, as a partner, Render Network contributes 1,152 GPUs and 27 CPUs to the network's supply, while Filecoin adds 1,024 GPUs. The most available hardware is the GeForce RTX 4090. The active hardware online rate is approximately 42%.
Demand Side Performance On the demand side, IO.NET is still in the early stages of market cultivation, with the actual usage for computing tasks remaining low. Most online GPUs have a task load of 0%, with only the A100 PCIe 80GB K8S, RTX A6000 K8S, RTX A4000 K8S, and H100 80GB HBM3 processing tasks. Except for the A100 PCIe 80GB K8S, the load on the other three chips is less than 20%. Network Processing and Fees By April 18, the network had processed and validated over 319,000 AI inference tasks, although the majority of this activity came from IO.NET-sponsored project BC8.AI. The network has generated $1,024,107 in fees, with the most recent day's fees amounting to $624.
IO.NET offers significant cost advantages, with the following hourly rates: A100: $0.76RTX 4090: $0.37RTX 3080: $0.20RTX A6000: $0.75A4000 K8S: $0.23 For example, the cost of using an A100 is 82.45% cheaper than Google Cloud and 82.62% cheaper than Amazon AWS.
Project Background The team is headquartered in New York, USA, and has over 50 members. Initially, the team's business focused on quantitative trading, but it shifted to decentralized computing in June 2022. The founder, Ahmad Shadid, has a background in quantitative and financial engineering and is also a volunteer for the Ethereum Foundation. The latest project valuation has reached $1 billion. IO.NET has received support from Solana, Render Network (RNDR), and Filecoin (FIL). The Series A funding round was led by Hack VC, with participation from Multicoin Capital, 6th Man Ventures, M13, Delphi Digital, Solana Labs, and Aptos Labs.
Distributed Computing Platform Landscape Distributed computing power platforms possess several key characteristics: Accessibility: Traditional cloud services such as AWS, GCP, or Azure often involve lengthy wait times and stock shortages for popular GPU models. Additionally, users typically must commit to long-term contracts with limited flexibility. In contrast, distributed computing power platforms offer more accessible options with flexible hardware choices.Low Pricing: By leveraging idle chips and providing token subsidies to chip and computing power suppliers through network protocols, distributed computing networks can offer lower-cost computing power.Censorship Resistance: Currently, advanced computing chips and supplies are controlled by large tech companies. With increasing government scrutiny, particularly in the U.S., of AI computing services, there's a growing demand for decentralized, flexible, and censorship-resistant access to AI computing power.Target Consumers: Most consumers of distributed computing power platforms are professional developers or small to medium-sized institutions. These users prioritize stability and continuity in the services provided by the protocol.
Challenges in the distributed computing power platform space include technical hurdles, demand-side constraints, and regulatory compliance issues. Technical Challenges: Verifying the effectiveness of computations in deep learning models is complex due to the hierarchical structure where each layer's output influences the next. This requires executing all previous tasks, making verification inefficient. Distributed computing platforms need to develop new algorithms or use approximate verification techniques to address this. Additionally, parallelization of tasks is necessary to shorten completion time, but faces challenges such as task decomposition and data dependency.Privacy Protection: Ensuring that purchaser data and models remain protected from the task recipient is crucial for maintaining trust and security in distributed computing platforms.Breaking Through Computing Power Demand: While projects like DePIN can incentivize supply-side expansion using tokens, demand for crypto+AI computing power remains insufficient. This is partly due to limited consumer market expansion and a dominance of large companies in the AI field, which may not fully recognize the benefits of distributed computing power.Regulatory Compliance Issues: The permissionless nature of distributed computing platforms' supply and procurement markets can attract customers, but may also make them vulnerable to government regulation as AI regulatory norms evolve. Additionally, GPU suppliers may have concerns about the potential misuse of their leased computing power resources.
Technical Advantages of io.net io.net offers excellent service tools for both computing power suppliers and consumers, including IO Cloud, IO Worker, and IO Explorer.Core Technology: The IO-SDK multilayer architecture effectively addresses the issue of parallel execution of distributed computing tasks. It integrates well with key ML frameworks, enabling io.net to meet various computing needs flexibly and efficiently.Privacy Protection: io.net utilizes reverse tunneling technology and a mesh VPN architecture. Reverse tunneling allows engineers to bypass firewalls and NAT for remote access without complex configurations, ensuring protected communication and data privacy. The mesh VPN architecture provides robustness against node failures, scalability, reduced latency, and better traffic distribution.
Competitor Comparison In the Web3 domain, numerous computing marketplaces have emerged, including notable projects such as Akash, Render, Nosana, Clore.ai, Golem, Inferx, Kuzco, Aioz, Fluence Labs, and GPU.NET. These projects vary in their service offerings and target markets. For example, Akash is a peer-to-peer cloud service marketplace that provides GPU deployment, leasing, and AI model training. Render offers decentralized GPU rendering solutions. Analyzing publicly available data, Akash and Clore.ai perform well on the supply side. Akash has 382 GPUs and 20,890 CPUs with a CPU rental rate of 33% and a GPU rental rate of 26%. Clore.ai boasts 19,590 GPUs with a rental rate of 71%. Regarding network fees, Akash’s 24-hour fees ($2.73K) are comparable to io.net’s. Most of these projects are still in early or testnet stages and do not yet match io.net's capabilities. However, they are developing rapidly and warrant close monitoring. For instance, Kuzco has 1,400 active work nodes with a single-card utilization rate of 90%.
Summary The appeal of distributed computing power platforms stems from several key factors: distributed AI computing offers advantages over centralized options, including greater accessibility and lower costs. Real-world issues like GPU supply-demand imbalances and expanding regulations also play a role. Additionally, token price incentives, especially during bull markets, and lower barriers to entry for ordinary users mean AI benefits extend beyond large companies and institutions. Despite these benefits, distributed computing faces significant challenges, including technical difficulties with work verification, parallelization, and privacy protection. There are also issues with demand constraints and regulatory hurdles. io.net has attracted considerable attention, being dubbed the next Filecoin, due to its integration with the Solana ecosystem, AI, and DePIN—three themes expected to surge in the 2024 bull market. Technologically, it tackles distributed computing challenges with its core IO-SDK layered architecture and employs reverse tunneling and mesh VPN architectures for secure connections and data privacy. On the product side, it offers comprehensive services for both supply and demand, including IO Cloud, IO Worker, and IO Explorer. Practically, io.net outperforms other distributed computing platforms, boasting a higher number of hardware chips and online rates, making it the largest supplier network in this space. Although the total volume of computing tasks executed remains small with most chips in standby mode, this is a common issue across the industry. As computing resources become scarcer, io.net aims to reduce the cost of renting GPU/CPU capabilities, which is crucial for AI and ML scalability. The rising demand for computing power, coupled with insufficient supply, indicates substantial growth potential for distributed computing projects like io.net. However, io.net also faces several challenges: intense competition in the computing power platform market, the complexity of managing large-scale decentralized clusters, insufficient demand and early-stage adoption, slower-than-expected uptake by AI startups and developers, regulatory risks, and the complexity introduced by a dual-token mechanism. Io.net