On June 6, 2024, Sophon and Aethir announced the launch of a strategic partnership to connect Aethir's decentralized computing community of 800,000 users with Sophon's more than 3 million pre-registered users.
As part of the collaboration, Aethir will be live on the Sophon network shortly after the Sophon mainnet launch, scheduled for Q3 2024. In addition, the two projects will exchange nodes between each other’s communities, as both recently completed extremely successful public node sales.
Aethir is a distributed computing network focused on supporting GPU-intensive applications such as artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and cloud gaming. The Aethir network has two main components: the check nodes and reward infrastructure, as well as the actual computing resource providers. The check nodes will be deployed on Sophon and will be responsible for most of the network's verification and reward distribution processes. In addition, Aethir will also launch a permissionless platform for providing computing services, which will also be available on Sophon.
Sophon will run Aethir Checker nodes to ensure the resilience and reliability of the network. As part of the node swap and broader collaboration, Sophon and Aethir node operators will receive each other’s tokens, ensuring that both communities benefit from the successful collaboration of the two networks.
“The combination of Aethir’s powerful decentralized computing infrastructure and Sophon’s state-of-the-art ZK Stack technology heralds a new era in high-performance computing. This collaboration will make top-tier GPU computing resources more accessible and reliable for AI, machine learning, and cloud gaming applications. By leveraging Sophon’s advanced blockchain capabilities, we can ensure that decentralized computing networks will continue to innovate and scale.” - Dan
“We are thrilled to be working with Aethir to showcase the best of what Web3 has to offer next,” said Seb, Co-Founder of Aethir. “Sophon and Aethir’s long-term goals make this collaboration a natural fit and we are excited about the value it will bring to both ecosystem communities.”
"Decentralized computing networks and DePIN are the killer applications of blockchain technology, and the high performance and plug-and-play nature of ZK Chain makes it a perfect choice for hosting key components of distributed computing networks." - Daniel Wang, CEO of Aethir
About Sophon
Sophon is a modular blockchain built on the ZK Stack architecture, launched by former ZKsync executives and supported by funds including Spartan, SevenX, OKX Ventures, Huobi Ventures, etc. It will be one of the first instances of the modular and extended ZK Stack, enabling projects to launch highly scalable and secure EVM chains. Built on the technology stack behind ZKsync Era, Sophon will benefit from low latency without sacrificing security, as most competing L2 solutions are still highly centralized on many key functions.
Sophon facilitates connections between developers and users, benefiting from strong strategic partnerships with ecosystems such as ZKsync, Beam, Zentry, and Aethir.
About Aethir
Aether is empowering the AI and gaming sectors through its advanced, distributed enterprise-level GPU computing infrastructure, revolutionizing the DePin track. Aethir aims to serve enterprise-level customers who need the world's most powerful AI chips (such as NVIDIA H100s) and provide the best experience for cloud gamers around the world. All of this is achieved through a decentralized architecture, bringing GPU clouds to the community and making computing resources available to everyone.
Aethir is backed by leading Web3 investors including Framework Ventures, Merit Circle, Hashkey, Animoca Brands, Sanctor Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC), and more. Thanks to successful node sales, Aethir has over $150 million in funding to grow the ecosystem. Aethir is paving the way for the future of decentralized GPU computing.
