The DePIN track has become one of the hot topics of interest for crypto capital this year, attracting a significant influx of funds. With its flexible resource allocation, efficient operational methods, and reliable security performance, it has gradually penetrated multiple fields and projects. For example, Helium's wireless network protocol, IoTeX's decentralized Internet of Things, IO NET's decentralized GPU computing platform, Filecoin's distributed storage network, Grass's decentralized bandwidth services, and Spheron, which provides diverse network resources specifically for developers, are all representatives of this trend.
Spheron is a decentralized network that provides ultimate solutions for AI and cloud computing, and it is the world's first supercomputing network. Users share their hardware resources to provide rental services for network application developers and earn token rewards. These resources include GPU, CPU, storage, and network bandwidth, which not only reduce costs for developers but also apply to various scenarios, including AI computing, rendering, scientific simulation, or the deployment of decentralized applications, to meet the enterprise-level demand for stability and security.
Spheron's Operating Mechanism
Spheron's framework has certain similarities with DePIN networks like IO NET and Filecoin, but it also has many innovations. In the Spheron network, resource providers (such as participants with RTX 4090 or multi-core CPU Apple Mac computers) can register as providers to offer GPU or CPU computing resources to the Spheron network and customize their prices. The network uses a Matchmaker mechanism to match demanders and resource providers based on multiple parameters, optimizing the matching mechanism with an edge EDGE network. This matching engine operates through smart contracts to ensure the normal execution of orders, and users can also verify the corresponding deployment process on-chain.
Matching parameters include region (global distribution of computing resources), price, runtime, provider reputation, staking amount, resource availability, etc. An algorithm provides users with compliant providers and executes transactions on-chain to complete the trading process of these network resources.
Provider nodes participate in the network by staking $SPON tokens to ensure stable DePIN resource services (a penalty mechanism prevents malicious behavior). The network also provides additional $SPON token rewards based on the utilization rate of their computing resources, ensuring that resource providers can receive corresponding positive returns without incurring losses (after deducting operational, electricity, venue, and other costs). This encourages resource providers to participate more actively in the network without exiting due to negative returns.
To accommodate ordinary users' personal computing devices, Spheron offers Fizz Node. This is a lightweight version mainly suitable for small or personal low-power devices. Fizz is based on cross-platform Docker, and users' resource requests are run through new Docker containers to ensure service security and isolation. Compared to K8S, it maximizes device resource utilization and reduces overhead. Ordinary users can participate in computing resource sharing by downloading the lightweight Fizz Node.
In addition, Fizz will layer based on the quality of the CPU and GPU resources provided, ensuring a match with user demand to provide better computing resource services. Currently, it basically supports all NVIDIA GPUs and Apple Mac CPUs, providing computing resources for AI training and rendering.
Core Advantages of Spheron
A Variety of DePIN Resource Aggregation
Compared to decentralized networks like IO NET and Grass, Spheron not only provides GPU and CPU resources but also includes network bandwidth resources (CDN), RAM, and storage resources like IPFS (for example, in collaboration with Akash), making it suitable for more development and adoption scenarios. In contrast, IO NET mainly provides GPU and CPU resources, while Grass primarily offers network data bandwidth resources (CDN). Thus, Spheron can provide a more comprehensive network computing resource that better meets market demands for cloud computing and related services.
Flexible Services
For developers (resource users), Spheron offers two modes: enterprise-level infrastructure and consumer-grade resources. The enterprise-level infrastructure is mainly used for production environments (final delivery mode) and features high reliability and stability, allowing developers to use resources long-term, such as on a monthly basis, to reduce costs. The other is the consumer-grade Fizz mode, primarily aimed at testing and development processes, offering high cost-effectiveness. Developers can flexibly use it based on their project progress, such as paying by the hour, which is a significant feature of Spheron.
Other projects providing decentralized network resources, such as Render (video rendering), IO NET (GPU computing), and Grass (bandwidth network data), do not have clear demand segmentation for users, leading to mismatches in supply and demand or low cost-effectiveness.
Fair Reward Distribution Mechanism
Additionally, resource rewards are not only related to quantity but also include quality, tiered base multipliers (intermediate, advanced), etc. The higher the level, the higher the corresponding resource rewards, rather than just being distributed based on quantity and idle time like Grass. Overall, resource providers who offer more stable and long-term high-quality network services and more valuable hardware resources will receive more rewards.
Multi-Chain Integration
Spheron integrates with multiple chains, including ZKSync, Arbitrum, Optimism, BNB Chain, Solana Chain, Avalanche X, and Filecoin FVM, allowing users to pay fees using the native tokens of these public chains. It also supports fiat payment methods, which is friendly for Web2 developers needing to migrate, a feature that other similar projects cannot match.
Guaranteed Income
Spheron ensures the income of GPU and other resource providers, meaning there is a guaranteed income, making it less likely to incur losses. Currently, most DePIN projects in the market have not announced this point, meaning that when market demand is high, providers may earn higher income, but if demand decreases, providers may choose to exit the network due to losses, which could impact network stability.
From the developer's perspective, Spheron is primarily designed for developers and supports EVM. The official team has also launched CLI and SDK tools to facilitate integration for developers, making it one of the main features that are friendly to developers compared to Akash and IO NET.
Innovations Brought by Spheron to the DePIN Track
The integration of multiple resources is a clear advantage for Spheron, making it highly applicable for scenarios like AI computing. Multi-chain support can also attract a large number of Web3 developers to deploy their applications on Spheron at low cost. Similarly, these resources provide providers not only with rental income but also with points or token ($SPON) rewards earned while maintaining online presence, ensuring providers' income, especially considering that their idle resources have almost no cost, which will encourage more active participation from resource providers.
Additionally, Spheron is built on containers, making it easier and safer to deploy applications on-chain. It ensures data security and reliability through blockchain technology while also driving more scenarios, including AI training datasets and other economic models. The team has optimized tools for large model training and artificial neural networks, allowing such applications to achieve better experiences, which can expand the development of the DePIN market and ecosystem generated by Spheron, bringing more value to Spheron.
According to official information, Spheron's GPU resource utilization has reached 80%, attracting a large number of developers to create application instances on it. It has already connected over 13,000 nodes, becoming the largest DePIN computing network.
Spheron makes resource usage on decentralized networks more convenient, with user-friendly and highly compatible features, making it easier for developers, small and medium enterprises, and startups to migrate their products, thus achieving the Web3 application process.
Positioning Spheron for Early Benefits
The team has also gained considerable attention in the capital market, securing $7 million in funding in 2022 from investors including Alphawave Ventures, NexusVP, Zee Prime Capital, Protocol Labs, ConsenSys Mesh, Paradigm Shift Capital, Matrix Partners India, Tykhe Ventures, Sandeep Nailwal, Aniket Jindal, and Julian Traversa. Additionally, they have established partnerships with teams like Akash, Filecoin Foundation, and Arbitrum.
The official team recently announced the upcoming launch of Supernoderz, the first DePIN node as a service layer, which will introduce a model store for seamless deployment of models. Furthermore, the official team is about to launch the mainnet and the $SPON token. For players holding GPU graphics cards, this presents a good participation opportunity, especially for retail investors.
Of course, for investors, Spheron is still in its early development stage. Sharing one's hardware computing power and resources to earn early points and token rewards (compared to IO NET) is also a way to position for early benefits. Compared to the current GPU mining market, where most GPU computing contribution projects' earnings are nearing the electricity cost line, many GPU miners have already shut down. Therefore, the expected benefits from Spheron will attract more GPU players to participate, significantly increasing the project's popularity and enhancing its overall valuation.
Similarly, we can compare the early incentives provided by IO NET before the token launch, which offered users good returns. We can speculate that joining the Spheron network is likely to yield high returns. IO NET currently has a total market cap of $3 billion and a circulating market cap of $470 million. Compared to Spheron's current popularity, its token market cap is also expected to perform well.
In Conclusion
The development of AI computing and big data has made GPU computing a necessity for large-scale applications, and it will permeate all aspects of our lives. Decentralized resource networks, characterized by flexibility, low cost, and high security, will become a popular solution. With Trump's rise to power, the blockchain industry is expected to enter a period of relaxed and rapid development, and the demand for the integration of traditional industries with blockchain will further increase. The DePIN market is undoubtedly very promising.
Spheron builds a supply-demand market by combining users and computing power providers, offering rich and comprehensive solutions and tools that facilitate developers' deployment and migration of cloud applications. At the same time, Spheron provides enterprise-level production environment services, which are extremely useful for Web3 and AI startup teams. Additionally, as a participant, Spheron's tokens have not yet been launched, and benchmarking against the early performance of other DePIN projects like IO NET, currently positioning Spheron to contribute computing power is also a good participation opportunity.