Golem (GNT) is the first fully decentralized computer network and a global marketplace for computing power. Golem connects computers in a peer-to-peer network and enables users to rent resources of other users’ machines. They can be used for computer graphics rendering, realistic simulations, machine learning, scientific calculations, and other resource-demanding tasks. Similar cloud computing services are offered by centralized cloud providers Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM.
What is Golem (GNT)?
Put differently, Golem (GNT) is a global decentralized supercomputer network that congregates the processing power of computers on the platform. Like Uber or Airbnb, Golem empowers people to rent their spare resources. At the same time, anyone in need can speed up or perform heavy tasks which would otherwise be too hefty for their hardware.
Such services are already offered by already existing cloud computing giants Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others. Nevertheless, Golem hopes a peer-to-peer network incentivizing people to share and rent computing power would beat centralized services, offering cheaper, and more convenient services.
Fundamentally, they are created by the teams of artists. They design the characters, elements, objects, environments and plot out the motion. Afterward, they send the designs with further instructions to a cloud computing service, which renders everything. It means calculating all the tiniest pixels of the scenes to create stunning images we enjoy. Every particle, dust, light and other objects move on their own, so all their movements have to be calculated to an absolute precision to make up a realistic impression of a real world. It takes simulating the entire world within a computer, so rendering intense CGI scenes requires massive computing power. And that’s where Golem comes to play.
Presently, Golem can assist anyone who works with graphics on any scale. Besides, anyone with spare computing resources can generate income. It’s estimated that an entire cloud computing market is worth nearly $130 billion. In the future, Golem plans to expand beyond graphics with machine learning being the next objective.
How Does Golem Network Work?
The Golem (GNT) ecosystem revolves around the three types of stakeholders: resource requestors, providers, and software developers. Every one of them has different incentives to participate in the ecosystem.
At the moment, Golem (GNT) runs its first version for CGI computing only. It’s called Brass, and it supports two templates: Blender and Luxrender, which are two common open-source frameworks for making computer graphics. Here’s how it works.
If you, for instance, need to render a beautifully animated scene made in one of these programs, then all you need to do is select the appropriate template, add all the necessary info into the task manager and send it to the Golem network.
On the other side of the process, a resource provider retrieves all the available task offers and chooses the best one. Then, he or she replies to the proposal suggesting a price and relevant computing power info. If the conditions satisfy the requestor, the needed files are transferred to the service provider via IPFS, and the computing process begins. Once it is complete, he or she sends the outcome back to the requestor.
In the final stage of the process, the task manager passes the information to different nodes for result verification. If all is well and good, the Golem payment system receives an order sent via Ethereum smart contract and executes the payment.
Golem Team and History
Golem (GNT) team has over two dozen members and is based in Poland. The team is led by Julian Zawistowski, who is also involved with other blockchain platform Hoard. Most of the team members have a strong background in fintech.
Golem launched in the second half of 2016, but it is said the founder Julian Zawitowski conceived the idea in 2014 when he got inspired by the potential of Ethereum blockchain.
What is the Use Case of the Golem Network Token (GNT)?
GNT, which stands for Golem Network Token, is used to measure what one pays for the service. In other words, it’s the unit of payments of the Golem Network. A user who leases computing power can set any desirable price, but as it is in every free market, only the fairly priced offers leading to win-win situations work out. All use cases of the GNT token are summarized below:
- Means of payment to computing resource providers.
- Means of compensation for the Golem Network software developers.
- Upon integration of the Application Registry and the Transaction Framework, GNT will be used to pay for other interactions, too.
Although Golem is issued on the Ethereum blockchain, it’s not an ERC-20 standard token. There are many ways to issue new tokens on Ethereum, and ERC-20 happens to be the most popular one. GNT does rely on the security and stability of the Ethereum network, but one just can’t assume every ERC20 wallet supports GNT tokens, so you should double check it every time.
Bottom Line
When you think about the potential of a global supercomputer you can see what a cool project Golem (GNT) is. If you imagine out decades into the future it can begin to seem like science fiction, with all the world’s computers forming an interconnected network capable of processing power we can only dream of today.
Of course, Golem is only in its infancy now, but in the coming 4 or 5 years they could conceivably already have millions of computers all contributing processing power to complete massive tasks quickly and seemingly effortlessly.
The downside to Golem right now is the lack of marketing from the development team, and the slow pace at which they seem to be working. Fortunately for them there is no other project that is close to what they’re doing, but the slow pace could end up being their downfall if a strong competitor arises.
