Depth Interpretation of DePIN Network Aethir: Driving Force for AI and Cloud Gaming

AI+GPU DePIN is a hot topic in the current Web3 industry and is considered to potentially lead to industrial transformation.

The basic logic of AI+GPU DePIN is to create a decentralized physical infrastructure network composed of globally distributed GPUs, providing computational power support for AI training and usage.

From the perspective of AI product development, this track has significant potential. However, achieving GPU access to the mining network is relatively simple, and the challenge lies in building a truly valuable and in-demand network.

Aethir is a highly regarded DePIN network in the market. On March 20, Aethir sold 60,000 nodes in 2 hours, worth over $92 million.

The initial price of Aethir nodes was 0.1259 ETH, which rose to 1.8232 ETH by May, an increase of 14 times, with total sales reaching 130 million USD.

This article will provide a deep analysis of Aethir's application scenarios, technical implementation, and ecosystem, exploring the reasons why this project is favored by the market.

Application Scenarios and Prospects of Aethir

AI training and inference

The AI industry is still in its early stages of development and has huge potential.

OpenAI statistics show that from 2012 to 2018, the computing power for AI training doubled every 3.4 months, increasing by 300,000 times over the 6 years.

The CSET report points out that there is a shortage of GPUs, with prices driven up to 2-3 times the retail price. In the second quarter of 2021, GPU shipments totaled 123 million units, with Nvidia accounting for 15.23%.

GPUs are in short supply, especially for AI computing, where they are a scarce resource.

The limitation of computing power restricts the evolution and development of AI programs, especially for startup AI projects. Purchasing computing power brings significant cost pressure and economic risks.

Aethir, as a decentralized GPU DePIN network, can meet the computational power needs of AI products, especially helping startup AI projects through the algorithm training phase.

Aethir provides decentralized computing power support for AI product training and applications, which is beneficial for the development of the AI industry. At the same time, it offers mining opportunities for idle computing power.

This is the fundamental meaning of the Aethir DePIN network - to integrate GPU resources in a decentralized manner, achieving the maximization of GPU computing power applications and value.

Cloud Gaming

Traditional games perform computation and rendering tasks on the client side, requiring players to purchase top-tier graphics cards.

Cloud gaming is different; it has low hardware requirements for the player's client and can run cross-platform on various devices.

Cloud gaming's computation and rendering are performed on cloud servers, reducing the burden on the client. Ordinary computers, mobile phones, etc. can play cloud games.

The GPU on the Aethir DePIN network can serve as a cloud server, executing computing and rendering tasks for cloud gaming.

Cloud gaming has a low barrier to entry and cross-platform advantages, and is currently a blue ocean in the market.

According to a report by fortunebusinessinsights, the North American cloud gaming market is showing a stable growth trend. The global cloud gaming market size is expected to reach $5.76 billion in 2023 and grow to $126.62 billion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate of 37.9% during the forecast period.

Virtual Reality and the Internet of Things

In addition to AI and gaming, AR/VR/MR/XR products also require large computing power, and Aethir can serve as the computing network for these types of products.

As DePIN, Aethir itself belongs to the Internet of Things. In reality, various IoT devices such as sensors, smartphones, cars, and household appliances have a need for Aethir's distributed computing power when computation is required.

Technical Implementation of Aethir

DePIN Network

Aethir consists of three types of nodes: containers, indexers, and validators, which collaborate and supervise each other to form a stable and secure decentralized technology architecture.

Container

Responsible for executing user remote computing and rendering tasks in real time. The core hardware is the GPU, and different performance GPUs provide varying computing power for AI program calculations and cloud gaming rendering.

Indexer

Responsible for indexing and matching suitable containers to execute tasks based on user needs. Comprehensive consideration of factors such as demand, container status, service quality, network latency, and costs ensures that users have an efficient and smooth experience while fully utilizing global container nodes.

Checker

Responsible for assessing the quality of container work.

The checker performs random checks during the registration, standby, and execution of tasks on the container nodes. It monitors container performance, including computing power, response time, network latency, etc., and submits this information to the indexer. If service quality is found to be below standard, information will be uploaded, and the blockchain protocol will execute penalties, including reducing priority and decreasing the probability of task allocation.

Aethir has launched the "Inspector Owner Portal" and "Inspector Client" GUI/CLI software testnet versions. The former is used for managing nodes and viewing extraction rewards. The latter is used for running inspector nodes.

Containers are the functional assurance of the Aethir network to meet user needs.

The indexer is the efficiency guarantee of the Aethir network.

The checker is the security guarantee of the Aethir network.

Aethir Network Workflow

Application Integration: Developers of applications in 4 major demand scenarios need to stake $ATH tokens to integrate with the Aethir platform.

Send calculation request: After integration, users or developers issue requests to the Aethir network during the use of various applications and AI application training.

Task Matching: The indexer accepts requests and selects suitable containers to execute tasks. The inspector evaluates the execution status of the containers.

After the container, indexer, and checker successfully complete their respective tasks, they receive token rewards. Miners need to stake $ATH tokens and purchase the corresponding node NFTs to obtain mining rights.

POR consensus algorithm

Aethir uses POR ( Proof of Rendering, 渲染证明 ) consensus algorithm.

Rendering capability proof integrates verification transactions, token stakes, and workload frequency. Every 15 minutes, the Aethir network randomly selects nodes to execute verification transactions to obtain computing and rendering capabilities; the token stake by nodes is a credit commitment, with more staked indicating a lower probability of default or malicious behavior; the lower the frequency of node selection, the relatively higher the probability of executing tasks (, while considering the performance to demand matching degree ) to ensure fairness.

The rendering of the work certificate is carried out based on the user's requirements, including indicators such as processing speed, response time, and stability, serving as proof of the quality of node work.

Proof of Render Capability and Proof of Render Work are the basis for nodes to receive rewards, incentivizing nodes to better execute computation and rendering tasks.

Aethir uses the OctaneBench component to calculate GPU rendering speed, with the OBh( hourly OctaneBench score ) as one of the main pricing bases for demand-side valuation and container node rewards.

Edge Computing

Edge computing is an important technology for Aethir and is also one of the core technologies of Web3 applications.

Edge computing aims to offload tasks to servers that are closer to the user end.

For example, Montreal player A sends a computation request, and the Aethir indexer selects the Montreal container node to execute A's task. Tieling player B sends a rendering request, and the index server finds no Tieling nodes, matching a Hangzhou container to fulfill B's request. This is edge computing. The server that executes edge computing tasks is called an edge server.

As a globally distributed DePIN network, Aethir is suitable for performing edge computing.

The Aethir network uses edge computing technology to meet the essential needs of applications such as AI, cloud gaming, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things for edge computing.

When executing edge computing tasks, Aethir integrates the computing power of container nodes, network transmission capabilities, etc., considering computing, caching, storage, and transmission, to provide users with the highest quality edge computing services possible.

Aethir Edge

On April 18, 2024, Aethir launched Aethir Edge at the Token 2049 official event in Dubai.

Aethir Edge is an edge computing hardware that uses the Qualcomm 865 chip, integrating Aethir's distributed GPU cloud infrastructure, capable of executing edge computing tasks such as AI, gaming, and real-time video streaming, while also participating in Aethir network mining to earn exclusive incentives of 23% of the total supply of $ATH.

Aethir Edge is a mining machine, resembling a mini PC host ( with specific dimensions unknown ).

Aethir Ecosystem Application Case Aphone

Aethir is the Web3 supply-side ecosystem for AI, cloud gaming, etc., while Aphone, as the first decentralized cloud smartphone, is a Web3 demand-side product.

Aphone has a built-in Web3 application store, creating a more specialized entry point for the Web3 market.

Aphone is based on the Aethir network, providing users with a better Web3 experience, including stronger security, convenience of web applications, faster rendering for cloud gaming, and more mining opportunities.

As an ecological application based on the Aethir network, Aphone is popular in the market, and the number of users has reached over 36,000.

The Ecological Status of Aethir

According to official website data, Aethir has over 200,000 users, with nodes spread across more than 20 countries and regions around the world, and has partnered with over 10 game studios.

Node Ecology

According to reports from Blockchain Pulse, there are now over 1000 H100 GPUs on the Aethir network. ( The H100 GPU is a high-performance computing and AI accelerator launched by NVIDIA, primarily designed to meet the computational needs of AI and machine learning models ).

According to publicly available data from Dune, Aethir has sold a total of 74,673 checker node NFTs. Among them, 29,544 are from the whitelist, and 45,129 are from public sales.

Cooperative Ecology

Aethir has established partnerships with multiple projects or institutions, totaling 24 projects or teams from AI, blockchain, game studios, the metaverse, Web3 infrastructure, etc. This includes well-known institutions and projects such as Well-Link, Magic Eden, IO.NET, and others.

Weiling Era

In February 2024, Aethir established a partnership with Well-Link Tech. Well-Link Tech (, known in Chinese as "蔚领时代" ), is the cloud version developer of the famous mobile game miHoYo.

IoTeX

In April 2024, the DePIN data browser DePINscan, under IoTeX's DePIN infrastructure, included Aethir.

CARV Protocol

Aethir's cloud gaming technology will be integrated into CARV Play. CARV Play is a Web3 game distribution platform with 2.5 million users. Aethir provides GPU computing power for CARV Play gamers while reaching a user base of 2.5 million.

NodeOps

NodeOps has established a partnership with Aethir, based on NodeOps node services, allowing Aethir checker nodes to achieve easy and seamless deployment.

KIP Protocol

In May 2024, the AI-focused Web3 foundational layer KIP Protocol established a partnership with Aethir. KIP Protocol was the champion project of the 2023 Chainlink hackathon.

IO.NET

Aethir has established a deep collaboration with another well-known DePIN project, IO.NET, including technical and ecological integration. Aethir's network H100 GPU can automatically connect to the IO network while participating in mining for both Aethir and IO.NET.

Not just Aethir+IO.NET dual mining.

IO.NET uses virtualization technology, allowing GPU access to be shared by multiple virtual machines, and orchestration technology and the network layer can be configured to optimize the requirements of the Aethir GPU network. IO.NET enables more efficient use of Aethir network GPU resources. Aethir expands the GPU node network infrastructure for IO.NET.

Aethir collaborates with IO.NET to enhance the service efficiency of supply-side ( computing and rendering nodes ) for demand-side ( applications such as AI and cloud gaming, further promoting the development of applications like AI and cloud gaming.

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) social media

As of now, Aethir's official Twitter has 820,000 followers, the Telegram community has nearly 270,000 members, and the Discord community has 460,000 members.

Including Aethir node operators, cryptocurrency investors, and various groups interested in Web3, AI, and cloud gaming show high activity in the community.

Token Economic Model

Token Application Scenarios

Token economy is the core of the Web3 ecosystem economy, serving as the decentralized incentive layer for the Aethir network and rendering services.

in centralized infrastructure services