DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure) is undoubtedly one of the hottest narratives in this bull market. On the DePIN track, the project io.net based on the public chain Solana has attracted the attention of the community many times.
As the exchange Binance launched io.net in the 55th new coin mining event and was officially listed on multiple exchanges earlier this week, investors are even more optimistic about the future growth potential of io.net .
This article organizes the operating principles of io.net, ways to participate in the io.net network, and the economics of IO tokens to help readers understand this star project in the DePIN track.
What is io.net? A decentralized computing power network
io.net was established in February 2023. It is a DePIN project built on Solana. It aims to provide more efficient and flexible computing capabilities for machine learning, making the development team's training model calculations more scalable.
The io.net team consists of 29 members. Ahmad Shadlid is its founder and CEO, and Russ Vetrano manages the sales department. In just one year of development, io.net has received US$30 million in investment in March this year due to its theme being in line with industry development trends and the team developing appropriately. Investors include Hack VC, Delphi Digital, Solana, Aptos, Foresight Ventures, and ArkStream Capital. Well-known institutions such as DePIN have also attracted more attention to this DePIN project.
What problem is io.net trying to solve?
1. There is a huge gap in the global GPU market
Due to the rapid development of the AI industry, existing cloud computing services are insufficient to meet the market's demand for machine learning and AI-related computing, and global computing resources are still gradually in short supply.
AI development teams need to face a seller's market, which indirectly results in their need to be subject to the cloud provider's GPU hardware specifications, location, security level, latency and other options, leaving buyers with few choices.
2. The threshold for AI entrepreneurial hardware is gradually increasing
Due to the shortage of computing resources and the increasingly fierce competition for AI models, ordinary small companies and teams cannot afford to purchase a large amount of computing equipment and management costs without receiving large financial investments, resulting in low training efficiency and difficulty in the long term. Gather competitiveness. Therefore, the market requires a more flexible way of allocating computing resources.
How does io.net work?
io.net operates through a decentralized network architecture and aims to utilize idle GPU resources in a decentralized framework to provide cost-effective computing power for AI and ML practitioners. Here's how it works:
- Aggregation: io.net aggregates available GPU resources from data centers, cryptocurrency miners, and decentralized storage providers to create a massive pool of computing power.
- Dual-Token System: Utilize a dual-token economy consisting of $IO and $IOSD tokens to incentivize network participation and reward providers based on their contributions and uptime.
- Job deployment: Users such as machine learning engineers or data scientists deploy their computing jobs to the network and specify their requirements.
- Resource Allocation: The platform dynamically allocates these jobs across available GPU resources, ensuring optimal utilization based on task complexity and hardware capabilities.
- Execution and monitoring: Once deployed, the system can effectively manage job execution, allowing users to monitor progress and collect results upon completion.
- Governance: Although io.net is developed by Anthropic, the governance model implies a decentralized approach, with $IO token holders also having the opportunity to participate in future decision-making processes.
io.net potential risks?
In fact, there is still a lot of uncertainty about whether io.net can be adopted by the mainstream market. Both computing resource suppliers and rental teams are relatively unfamiliar with this model, and its actual implementation will face certain challenges. .
On the other hand, there may also be many short-sellers participating in other non-compliant ways. For example, io.net has previously stated that it will ban virtual GPU suppliers from participating. How to effectively master the incentive model to promote services without causing counter-effects? , is a major problem that tests the io.net team.
What are the io.net products?
After OpenAI launched ChatGPT, io.net CEO Shadid recognized its potential to serve AI/ML companies. These companies often require significant computing power and minimal latency. As a result, io.net became one of the successful projects of the Solana Hackathon held in April 2023, and officially launched its network in November of the same year. io.net provides several core products:
- IO Cloud: This service is a cloud-based platform that allows users to deploy and manage GPU clusters. Users have the flexibility to choose cluster type, intended use, deployment location, and integration with popular machine learning (ML) frameworks such as Tensorflow or PyTorch.
- IO Worker: This product allows users to rent their own GPU resources through the io.net platform, and then earn income by renting computing power.
- IO Explorer: A comprehensive network exploration tool, IO Explorer provides real-time insights into cluster deployments, compute tasks, network performance and pricing information.
- IO Coin: As the native token of this project.
How to rent idle GPU on io.net?
io.net currently supports three systems: Windows, IOS and Linux. If you have one of these systems and the GPU level is RTX 3050 or above, you can try to rent your own GPU according to the steps. The following will take Windows as an example. Before performing the following steps, it is recommended to download and install the Docker and Nvidia drivers in advance, and restart the computer:
- Go to https://cloud.io.net/ , log in using Google or Twitter, and find "Worker" in the drop-down menu on the homepage;
- After entering the Worker page, click "Connect New Device" or "Connect New Worker";
- Choose whether you want to rent the GPU to io.net or Render Network. It is recommended to rent it to io.net;
- Add a new name for your device. The ideal format is similar to the following: My-Test-Device;
- Select operating system Windows;
- Select the device type, because you want to rent a GPU, please click GPU Worker;
- Follow the steps in the official Docker, Cuda and Nvidia driver installation files;
- Start Docker and execute the Docker command in the terminal (Windows users can enter commands with the built-in PowerShell);
- Click "Refresh" repeatedly to wait for the device to connect. If Running appears, the connection is successful;
- After completing the connection, remember to set your payment address in "Payout" in "Earning Rewards" to receive rental income and rewards.
What is the $IO token?
io.net uses blockchain as the settlement network for its incentive layer, which is why it can use the token incentive model to create such a decentralized business model to integrate idle computing resources. The native token of io.net's project is IO, which has been officially listed on the Binance exchange. At the time of writing, it was US$5.62, and the current circulating market value is US$530 million.
IO Token Utility
- GPU renter fee tokens: If these rental development teams use IO to pay for renting GPU clusters, they will not be charged a handling fee (payment in USDC is subject to a 2% handling fee).
- GPU supplier pledge requirements: Suppliers of computing resources need to pledge a certain number of IO tokens to obtain idle rewards.
- Token staking: Anyone who holds IO tokens can pledge tokens to the protocol on Solana to obtain staking rewards.
IO Token Economics
io.net announced the economic model of the token IO on April 16. The initial supply of IO tokens is 500 million tokens, which belong to:
- Community: 50%
- Early-stage seed investors: 12.5%
- Early Series A investors: 10.2%
- Core developers: 11.3%
- R&D and ecosystem: 16%
Among them, investors and team shares have lock-in conditions and will not be released in the first 13 months after the token issuance. In other words, the initial circulation of io.net tokens will be less than 500 million.
In the next 20 years, the supply of IO tokens will gradually increase to 800 million. Additional tokens are used as incentives for vendors and stakeholders. Rewards start at 8% in the first year and then decrease by 1.02% each month, equivalent to 12% per year, until the maximum supply is reached (800 million). Community rewards account for up to 50%.
In addition, there is an automated IO token destruction mechanism in the io.net ecosystem. The income generated during the io.net network operation process will be used to repurchase and destroy IO tokens.
io.net related news collection
. 2024/6/6
New Coin IO is mining on Binance! What can a decentralized AI platform do? BNB Breakthrough 705 mg
The exchange Binance announced today that it will launch the 55th phase of new currency mining. This mining project is IO.NET, a decentralized manual computing and cloud platform. The event will be held at 8:00 on June 7, 2024, Taiwan time. Until 07:59 on June 11, 2024, a four-day mining activity will be carried out. Users can pledge BNB and FDUSD tokens to obtain IO token rewards.
. 2024/4/29
Follow-up to the io.net hack” Founder apologizes: Hiring a new technical chief from Binance will protect the rights to $IO airdrops
io.net, a popular AI + DePIN project in the Solana ecosystem, was attacked by hacker @ledrog123 before issuing airdrops, causing the front-end data of the official website to be tampered with. Today (29th), io.net CEO and founder Ahmad Shadid once again launched the X platform Explain this matter.
. 2024/4/26
AI+Depin Hot Project》io.net was hacked and the official website data was tampered with, $IO airdrop announced to be postponed
io.net, a popular AI + DePIN project in the Solana ecosystem, was attacked by hacker @ledrog123 before the airdrop was issued, causing the front-end data of the official website to be tampered with, triggering widespread panic in the community. The io.net team responded to the hacker's failure to access any sensitive user data or GPU resources and announced that the airdrop would be delayed.
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