As AI impacts various industries, computing power has become a necessity. NVIDIA, focused on AI computing chips, has become the world's largest company by market value. Numerous AI startups and teams have emerged spontaneously, but for them, the high hardware costs of GPU devices remain the biggest obstacle. Even leasing does not yield low costs.

The emergence of DePIN precisely addresses the issue of computing power costs. In simple terms, DePIN achieves resource allocation through a distributed physical network. For instance, it allows startup companies to meet their low-cost and flexible computing needs through decentralized computing platforms while providing token rewards to GPU computing power providers for reasonable resource allocation, thus attracting market and investor attention to Aethir.

Aethir - Low-Cost GPU Computing Provider

Aethir is a low-cost distributed GPU computing cloud service platform. Computing power providers can connect to the network through GPU graphics cards to provide computing resources. AI companies and gaming teams can obtain computing resources for AI calculations and game rendering tasks by paying with tokens, thus meeting the market's demand for GPU computing resources.

The main advantage of this flexible supply and demand model for GPU computing resources is the high flexibility of computing power demand, while also significantly reducing costs. For example, when AI startup teams require a large amount of GPU resources during the day or for a short period due to high computational demands, they can temporarily lease a large amount of GPU computing power from Aethir. When demand decreases or at night, they can release some resources to reduce overall costs. At the same time, GPU computing power providers can supply GPU computing resources during idle times to improve equipment utilization and earn additional income.

In 2023, Aethir completed a $9 million financing round, reaching a valuation of $150 million. Major institutions include Sanctor Capital, Hashkey, Merit Circle, CitizenX, etc. They previously received seed round financing led by Framework Ventures and Infinity Ventures Crypto.

Additionally, Aethir has established partnerships with multiple teams and companies to expand its overall influence in the industry, such as providing a $100 million ecosystem fund to the community and collaborating with APLA to conduct a $10 million funding plan for Web3 and game developers to attract more partners to participate.

Features and Advantages of Aethir

There are three main roles in the Aethir ecosystem: container, indexer, and checker.

Containers are the basic units based on the cloud, primarily used for rapid response and execution of workloads. Resource providers supply computing power through containers and register on the network.

The indexer mainly implements the resource matching process, utilizing edge computing for reasonable resource allocation on the DePIN decentralized physical network to improve task execution efficiency and reduce network latency.

The checker is mainly responsible for monitoring and verifying the performance of containers to ensure they are running normally.

Aethir's GPU resources mainly include nine mainstream GPU resources such as H100/RTX 4090/A6000/A100/H200/L40 series, mainly used in AI computing and game rendering scenarios. The computing power resources are widely distributed across the Americas, Asia, and Europe, with a total of over 40,000 connected graphics cards. For A100 computing, Aethir's hourly computing price is around $0.3, which is far lower than io net's $0.7 and Amazon's $4, thus meeting the computing needs of most startup teams.

Similar to io net and Render, Aethir operates quite simply, allowing resource providers and demanders to utilize GPU computing resources through Aethir.

Aethir's main advantages include:

1. Extremely low computing power prices, lower than other similar projects' GPU computing prices, reducing user costs, which is very attractive to AI computing and game rendering users.

2. Providing enterprise-level computing power, focusing on high-quality GPU resources for data centers, technology companies, and mining farms to meet high-demand scenarios in AI computing and game rendering.

3. A high number of connected GPU hardware can fully meet demand. In the future, the team will continue to increase the number of cooperative providers through various means to enhance the GPU computing power level within the network.

4. Achieving low latency and high data transmission through edge computing and DePIN networks to enhance user experience, which means that geographically proximate computing resources are prioritized for allocation, thereby achieving a low-latency network.

5. Retaining ownership for resource providers (GPU computing power providers), allowing them to control their resource access at any time to achieve stable and flexible application of computing resources.

6. Achieving integrity and privacy protection of user data through encryption and decentralized identity and smart contracts, providing commercial-level GPU computing services.

Changes brought by DAO governance

As an "intermediary" connecting supply and demand for computing power, traditional economic activities often encounter many problems that may affect further expansion and development of the network. For example, the pricing and allocation of computing power, as well as the use of project revenues. As a platform with over 40,000 GPU computing resources, Aethir implements decentralized DAO governance to achieve transparent decision-making and a fairer computing power market.

The governance committee is key to DAO governance, with major governance decisions aligning with market goals. Additionally, DAO governance enables Aethir to achieve fair and reasonable distribution of profits, such as buybacks and rewards for participants, enhancing the value of the $ATH token and attracting more users and computing power providers to participate, thereby enabling Aethir's rapid growth and obtaining developmental dividends.

For $ATH token holders, staking tokens to obtain $veATH grants them governance voting rights. The governance process allows participation in the project's growth, and staking can also yield corresponding staking incentives. Additionally, it reduces the circulation of tokens in the market, increases scarcity, and helps drive up prices. The governance process is also an important aspect of community participation in Aethir, enabling maximized utilization of GPU computing resources and rapid adaptation to market demands and growth.

To this end, Aethir has designed a detailed plan, including the creation of staking functions and voting mechanisms during the development phase to ensure the decentralization of the DAO. At the same time, it aims to enhance community user participation through education and discussions, providing rich suggestions for community governance to ensure a smooth governance process. Finally, after completing the testing and adjustments of the governance facilities, it will go online to achieve Aethir's comprehensive decentralized operation.

$ATH Staking and Earnings

$ATH is the token of the Aethir ecosystem. In addition to being used to pay for computing power on Aethir, users can earn returns through staking, support the stability and security of the network, and receive incentives. Resource providers can earn $ATH rewards by contributing computing power, while $veATH serves as a governance certificate, allowing participation in the network's operations through DAO governance. The total supply of $ATH is 42 billion tokens, with a current circulation of 5.2 billion, accounting for approximately 12%.

Aethir offers two categories of partners for stakers: gaming and AI pools, which are currently the main uses of GPU computing power on the Aethir platform. Staking rewards are divided into regular $veATH token rewards and additional rewards from selected partners, where the additional rewards are $stATH, which can be freely transferred.

The staking process is quite simple. We connect to the page using MetaMask, input the amount of $ATH to stake and the staking duration (minimum one week, maximum four years), and click Stake to proceed with staking.

Summary

AI is an important tool for improving productivity in the technology and internet industries, and it will have a trillion-dollar market in the future. GPU computing resources will become as important as electricity and energy. The high demand in the computing power market and the decentralized DePIN model can significantly lower the rental costs of GPU computing power, which is also an advantage of Aethir's low computing power prices, bringing rapid development opportunities to Aethir.

Furthermore, the decentralized DAO governance process not only reflects the ecological openness and transparency but also represents Aethir's fair distribution of potential future profits and dividends. This is not only for computing power users and providers but also for all $ATH holders and stakers who will share in the dividends. Additionally, DAO governance also aligns with maximizing community interests to attract more computing power providers and users and establish the most influential decentralized GPU computing network.