Learn about the newly funded decentralized cloud computing protocol Heurist, which has raised $2 million

Author: Haotian

Let’s briefly talk about the latest $2M funding received by @heurist_ai. What is its target positioning? How does it differ from other cloud computing aggregation service platforms? What considerations are behind its technology framework based on ZK Stack and elastic chains?

Honestly, I’m quite afraid to see "big" projects in the AI space that have a comprehensive service framework and an overly luxurious investment lineup. What makes Heurist feel different with its small and focused approach?

1) Heurist positions itself as a decentralized GPU resource aggregation platform. This service direction is not unfamiliar, as previous AI computing service platforms like @ionet and @AethirCloud are similar. After all, compared to the high costs and inflexibility of web2 cloud services like AWS, a cloud service platform utilizing the web3 token economy and distributed technology framework in an Airbnb model can meet most of the needs of small and medium-sized cloud computing demanders.

Thus, doing computing aggregation is a common characteristic of most computing service platforms;

2) However, the potential of competing computing service platforms lies not only in the scale of GPU resource aggregation but also in whether it can be implemented and applied. Heurist's differentiation lies in its focus on decentralized inference, fine-tuning, and other application scenarios, including AI Agents, AI NFT generation, AI dialogue, AI search, and other more easily implementable application scenarios.

In other words, what it aims to do is more web3 Native, focusing more on the service layer of application scenario implementation rather than being directly locked into a grand decentralized computing service platform that challenges AWS;

3) Heurist has chosen the ZK Stack and Serverless elastic chain mechanism, essentially wanting to highlight the "lightweight" characteristic.

Using ZK Stack's zkVM can process and verify transactions, its Prover network can generate proofs, and the DAC data availability committee has the high throughput and low on-chain storage cost characteristics of the Validium model, etc. The elastic scaling mechanism based on Serverless technology architecture can truly reduce costs and leverage the "lightweight" advantages that must be based on ZK technology.

How to understand this? The traditional server service model has fixed server hardware, maintenance, and other fixed costs. The elastic chain's main idea is a Scale-to-Zero dynamic load adjustment mechanism, where you only pay during actual inference, do not reserve resources, and return computing resources to zero when not in use.

This is a highly resource-scheduling-dependent elastic technology, which would be impossible to achieve without the flexibility of ZK proofs as a fundamental basis. At the same time, the key is that this mechanism can further refine and compress costs, Pay as you go;

4) In addition to the deep bundling of the underlying ZK Stack technology framework, Heurist has many special connections with zkSync. For example, it received airdrop incentives from the zkSync Hackathon, marking a beneficial exploration of the zk Stack service in the AI field. In the zkSync ecosystem alone, it will have the same ecological position height and subsequent growth incentive support as well-known projects like @grvt_io and @sophon.

Recently, zkSync's 3 billion $ZK incentive for ecological support is in full swing, which is a tangible benefit. Heurist has also launched an NFT minting event with OKX Wallet, rewarding 100,000 ZK tokens to the first 1,000 participants. Such activities might go unnoticed in ordinary times, but under the overall backdrop of zkSync's large-scale token distribution, they will receive significant weighting.

That’s all.

In summary, the AI+DePIN track has been integrated into the bullish market expectations from ordinary retail investors to VCs, leading to a brief stagnation and adjustment due to market influences later on.

Projects that are more web3 Native and integrate web3 technology service architecture, and can even be deeply bound with ecological growth, will shed the illusory and flashy visions to become more pure and pragmatic.