Riding the AI wave, introducing 3 GPU mining projects that retail investors can participate in

Written by: dt

Edited by: Lisa

Every bull market has new narratives that promote the new while neglecting the old, and this round's most promising narrative is undoubtedly related to AI. This AI craze has swept from Web2 to Web3, with various AI-related projects emerging like mushrooms after rain. Among them, decentralized cloud computing projects that share GPU resources have particularly captured the attention of venture capital firms. By combining the traditional hardware mining approach of blockchain with the concepts of Depin and AI, these projects successfully allow decentralized blockchain to ride the wave of the AI boom.

This week's Cryptosnap Dr.DODO will introduce three early-stage GPU mining decentralized cloud computing projects that retail investors can participate in. Let's ride this wave together.

io.net

The first project to introduce is io.net, a decentralized DePIN project based on Solana, focused on providing GPU computing power for AI and machine learning companies. Founded by Ahmad Shadid, the idea originated in 2020 when he built a GPU computing network for his machine learning quantitative trading company, Dark Tick, to reduce costs. After the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, Shadid realized that this network could provide the large-scale computing power needed by AI/ML companies.

io.net aims to build "the internet of GPUs" to address the GPU computing power shortage caused by the AI boom. The platform's computing power can be used for parallel processing workloads such as model training, batch inference, hyperparameter tuning, and reinforcement learning. It aggregates GPU resources from data centers, cryptocurrency miners, and other idle sources, and can automatically handle task scheduling, organization, and resource expansion. This way, research and development teams can perform the necessary computing tasks on decentralized computing resources without worrying about the common limitations, high costs, and poor configuration options of public cloud services. Recently, io.net launched a rewards program called "Ignition," which will reward points based on the number of GPUs supplied to the network from March 1 to April 28. For specific details on how to provide computing power, please refer to the official documentation. Although the article does not explicitly state whether the reward points can be exchanged for io.net's platform token, IO token, CEO Shadid mentioned that the IO token will be issued on April 28.

Source: io.net

Gaimin

The second project to introduce is also a DePIN cloud computing project running on the Solana chain - Gaimin, founded by the esports team Gaimin Gladiators. Unlike the general-purpose GPU decentralized network of io.net, Gaimin starts from the gaming field, aiming to combine cloud computing with a gaming platform to build a dAPP that provides services such as game downloads and logins, while allowing players to rent out their idle GPU computing power for extra rewards. By leveraging the high-performance GPU computing power of most players, Gaimin aims to create a decentralized distributed supercomputing platform, gaimin.cloud, which can provide data processing services such as video rendering, AI deep learning, and blockchain computing power. Last week, Gaimin announced its plan for an L2 gaming public chain, which will build an L2 public chain on BNB using opBNB Stack technology in collaboration with MovementLab, achieving over 150k TPS throughput, reduced latency, minimal gas fees, and enhanced Web3 gaming user experience.

In terms of tokens, players can earn $GMRX tokens through blind mining by downloading and installing the Gaimin Windows application. For specific details, please refer to the Q&A on the official website. The token has not yet launched and is expected to conduct IDO fundraising on Seedify on March 21 and 22. The token distribution is shown in the image below. Currently, the official has launched a Gaimin Gladiators NFT, and holders can earn $GMRX airdrops by staking the NFT on the Gaimin platform.

Heurist

The third project to introduce is Heurist. Unlike the previous two projects, Heurist is more community-oriented and has not disclosed team background or capital financing, so extra caution regarding security is advised. Heurist is an L2 public chain built on the ZK Stack for AI model hosting and inference, utilizing the scalability, customizability, security, interoperability with other chains, and future-oriented architecture of the ZK Stack to create a blockchain specifically optimized for AI model hosting and inference. It has established a decentralized AI infrastructure network where users can access AI model inference services such as text generation and image generation on a pay-per-use basis. The goal is to allow anyone to contribute resources or models and benefit from the open AI infrastructure network, thus achieving decentralized and democratized access to AI. Any user can seamlessly integrate AI functionalities from Heurist into their applications. Retail investors can earn or spend the $HUE token by becoming network participants in various roles, such as miners earning fees and token distributions by hosting AI models, model creators receiving a portion of user payments, application developers obtaining a percentage of fees, and validation nodes earning rewards by checking data integrity. Currently, the Heurist project is still in its early stages. Unlike io.net and Gaimin, Heurist is not a platform for renting computing power but utilizes users' computing power to run specific LLM learning models. Heurist is currently conducting its incentive testnet, and those wishing to use its AI model services can apply for API access.

Source: https://www.heurist.ai/

Author's Perspective

For readers with idle GPU computing power and limited funds, I believe participating in such GPU mining projects is a very good way. Currently, most mining in the crypto space is quite competitive; for example, projects like Blast or EigenLayer, which involve staking ETH for airdrop rewards, are quite difficult for small retail investors to profit from and feel more like games for large whales. In contrast, GPU mining resembles early POW chains, offering more opportunities for small investments to yield significant returns.

I believe that this type of Depin + AI computing power mining project will only increase throughout this year. Anyone would certainly want to be associated with the hottest AI trends, and readers with limited funds can actively seek out these types of GPU mining projects, as they might just stumble upon unexpected rewards.