Author: Stacy Muur, Web3 researcher; Translation: 0xxz@Golden Finance
Why is Aethir the flagship project of Web3 GPU as a Service (GPUaaS)? Let’s take a closer look.
Decentralized computing is one of the most powerful use cases for Web3 global business. In 2023, the DePIN industry has seen explosive growth, with a total of more than 755 projects and a market value of more than $32 billion. The industry has a utilization rate of 40-70% and annual revenue of $27.5 million.
In the current GPU-as-a-Service market, Aethir dominates with the most GPUs, the most A100s and H100s, and the lowest hourly rate for A100s. They have $24 million worth of rendering equipment in 25 locations in 13 countries. Not to be underestimated.
Aethir leverages a diverse network of GPU suppliers, including enterprise, data center, miner, and retail suppliers, to maximize hardware utilization and ensure cost-efficiency. For example, an A100 costs $0.30 per hour on Aethir, while Amazon AWS charges $41 per hour.
On the demand side, Aethir targets the enterprise market segment that requires a lot of GPU resources, mainly in the fields of gaming and AI. In addition to decentralization and cost-effectiveness (the obvious advantages of Web3 GPUaaS over Web2), what makes Aethir different?
Diversified network access: Compared with traditional cloud rendering services, it is more adaptable and network management is more efficient.
Transparent container evaluation framework and overall quality benefits of the services provided.
Enhanced low-latency technologies: prediction algorithms, advanced video capture, region-of-interest encoding, super-resolution technology, custom video rendering adjustments.
Diverse hardware access.
Hardware acceleration via Aethir Edge.
With the above advantages, Aethir has reached deals worth more than $20 million in the first quarter of 2024, including contracts with the world's largest gaming companies and Well-Link Tech. Other partners include NVIDIA, Seedify, Magic Eden, etc.
Aethir’s business model consists of charging a 20% service fee (ATH tokens) on transactions between customers and suppliers. In addition, 50% of the total ATH tokens are distributed as rewards to node operators and service providers.
Node operators’ income comes from the following sources:
Service fees (80% goes to the node operator).
Token incentives for rendering proof of work (completed).
Token incentives for proof of capacity (availability of resources for computational work).
In my opinion, Aethir is well positioned to take advantage of the growing demand for decentralized computing. By expanding its GPU infrastructure and establishing major partnerships, Aethir aims to meet the high demand for processing power. According to information provided by CoinMarketCap, they plan to achieve a goal of over 50,000 H100 GPUs by 2024.