Computing power has become a terrific source of revenue for large technology companies, like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM, who leverage their market positioning and considerable assets to ensure hefty margins, resulting in inefficiently priced computer services. Amazon’s data storage and computing power platform (EC2), AWS, currently dominates the market with over 1 million customers and annual sales that rose by 43.2 percent to a whopping $17.49 billion in 2017.

One blockchain project that hopes to disrupt this market is Golem, a decentralized supercomputer platform leveraging a peer-to-peer network to enable both businesses and individual users to rent computing resources from a network of user machines. Through Golem’s Ethereum-based transaction system, they will enable direct payments between requestors, providers, and software developers to ultimately develop a true alternative to the current centralized systems.

Interested in Golem? Here’s a quick rundown of the project:

Platform & Development

At its core, the Golem platform is fairly intuitive. The network is broken down into two major, decentralized resources made available to the requestor:

Golem Infrastructure (Hardware)

The meat and potatoes of the Golem platform, the decentralized system of computing power that allows users to purchase the exact amount needed to conduct their work. The computing power is sourced from a wide range of machines, from idle CPU cycles of a gaming PC, to a large datacenter contributing their entire capacity

Golem Application Registry (Software Solutions)

An Ethereum smart contract, to which anyone can publish their own applications that are ready to run on Golem network. The goal of the Application Registry is to, as described in the Golem white paper:

Give developers a way to publish their integrations and reach out to users in a

decentralized manner;

decentralized manner; Give requestors a place to look for specific tools fitting their needs;

Give providers full control over the code they run because of the security concerns.

All payments on the Golem platform are made in native Golem Network Tokens (GNT), including the purchase of hardware resources and compensation for software developers. Once the Application Registry and Transaction Framework are implemented, GNT will be necessary for other interactions with Golem, such as “submitting deposits by providers and software developers or participation in the process of software validation and certification.”

The Golem roadmap is broken down by arbitrary words, like Brass, Clay, Stone, and Iron. The project is currently in Brass, which is the proof-of-concept, alpha testing stage. In this stage, they are working with image rendering as their proof of concept.

Team

The Golem team is well rounded and are considered more than capable to develop the Golem network to scale. The company is led by CEO Julian Zawistowski and CTO Piotr Janiuk.

Token Financials

Golem (GNT) currently has a market cap of ~$210 million with a circulating supply of 834,262,000 GNT and a total supply of 1,000,000,000 GNT.

Final Take

Whereas projects like Sia and Storj are focused on decentralized storage platforms, Golem is interested in disrupting the current market of centralized computing power resources. If properly scaled, Golem could find themselves as a major contender in the space with significant value creation.

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Disclaimer: The author(s) of this article may have a position in one or more of the securities mentioned above. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Always conduct your own due diligence before making investments.