Sustaining Profitability with io.net: Challenges and Considerations

The decentralized cloud computing network io.net and the DePIN platform Aethir have joined forces to invest $100 million, aiming to popularize supercomputing worldwide. Leveraging their decentralized networks, their goal is to make high-performance computing widely accessible.

The first half of 2024 has witnessed a fervor in GPU resources and AI business, particularly for those engaged in the io.net project, making it an exceptionally vibrant period.

With the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technologies, there has been an exponential surge in demand for high-performance computing resources like GPUs, leading to a global supply shortage.

Enter io.net, which emerged earlier this year as a decentralized cloud computing network built on the Solana blockchain network. Its mission aims to alleviate the current GPU resource scarcity on AI and maching learning innovation, and supports the ongoing development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

According to io.net's LinkedIn profile, the team is headquartered in New York, with a branch in San Francisco, boasting over 50 team members. Io.net cloud enables machine learning engineers to access distributed cloud clusters at a fraction of the cost of centralized services. Its core objective is to democratically harness computing power by assembling over a million GPUs from independent data centers, cryptocurrency miners, and encrypted projects like Filecoin or Render.

In mid-March, io.net achieved a significant milestone by successfully raising $30 million, catapulting the company's valuation to an impressive $1 billion. Investors such as Hack VC, Multicoin Capital, Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, OKX, Aptos Labs, and Solana Labs have exhibited high confidence and anticipation for this project.

Developers can select the resources they need, such as region, GPU specifications, and security levels, through a service called io.net Cloud. All transactions and task allocations are conducted on the Solana blockchain, ensuring rapid, transparent, and secure operations. In essence, io.net Cloud utilizes blockchain technology to make GPU resource sharing efficient and convenient.

According to io.net's official website, io.net offers services cheaper and faster than traditional solutions.

By leveraging underutilized resources like independent data centers, crypto miners, and consumer-grade GPUs, io.net can provide computing services at 90% cheaper rates than traditional cloud providers.

Moreover, io.net cloud is reportedly much faster, as creating distributed clusters through traditional cloud providers is time-consuming. Companies like AWS often require detailed KYC information, long-term contracts, and frequently maintain waiting lists for the most popular hardware. However, ordinary users needing computing power can opt for companies like GPU Mart, where GPU server and computing power provisioning takes 1-2 hours.

Since Solana io.net integrates idle GPU resources worldwide, it offers almost all NVIDIA RTX and AMD Ryzen series GPUs capable of high computational power for AI training. io.net connects the global customer network with the global supplier network, deploying containers on each working machine to facilitate the integration of io.net's virtual network and monitor the availability of all devices on the network.

To receive airdrop rewards, common users have two options:

Firstly, participate in interactive community activities such as the Galxe mission. Complete GalXE tasks to participate; activities have been ongoing since March 1st and will continue until April 28th.

Secondly, if you possess or rent compatible GPU powering devices, you can earn airdrops by providing GPU resources to the io.net network as a supplier.

Io.net offers different levels of computing power connections, ranging from low to ultra-high. Although the absolute minimum connection requirement is 250 Mbps, suppliers are recommended to support at least 1 Gbps download and upload speeds to remain attractive to customers. The average io.net data flow is estimated to be 5GB per hour.

According to some suppliers, renting an RTX 4060 server can earn around $1 per hour.

With io.net's valuation at 1 billion dollars, details about its economic model and airdrop remain undisclosed. As of March 13th, there were a total of 60,000 devices participating in activities, with expected single-day earnings exceeding 600u.

In April, io.net and Aethir will distribute tokens worth $50 million each to their respective communities, with a total investment of $100 million. This move aims to revolutionize global computing power and foster innovation. Recently, the Solana ecosystem DePIN protocol io.net has opened points for inquiry. io.net has acknowledged the existence of virtual GPU abuse on the network and its security team has automatically flagged these accounts, with plans to remove some virtual GPU accounts.

Community participants in task-related activities or GPU suppliers seem to be able to gain some profits from the io.net project, with no-cost operations minimizing potential losses. However, for some who rent GPU servers from traditional providers and aim to profit from io.net's leasing of computing power, the profitability remains to be seen. This uncertainty stems from the substantial rental fees associated with traditional GPU server providers and the yet undetermined distribution quantity and timeframe of $IO coins. Suppliers with limited funds should prepare for long-term operations with caution.