In-depth Analysis of Aethir: A Decentralized Cloud Computing Player with Triple Track Strengths

The development of large language models and artificial intelligence is an extremely great technological advancement in human history. Humanity has entered the AI era, where "computing power" is the most scarce resource in this new world. The trend of computing power development is edge computing, which can effectively reduce physical latency and become the cornerstone for the development of low-latency demand industries such as the metaverse. Decentralization distributed cloud computing has the advantages of flexibility, low cost, and resistance to censorship, with a very broad development prospect.

Aethir is a decentralized real-time rendering platform based on the Arbitrum network, which aggregates high-performance GPUs such as the H100 to provide enterprise-level computing power services for companies in gaming, artificial intelligence, and more. Aethir has already partnered with several top gaming studios and telecommunications companies, expecting its annual recurring revenue of (ARR) to exceed $20 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Aethir Edge significantly lowers the threshold for ordinary users to sell excess computing power and greatly expands the geographical coverage of the Aethir network. Aethir has already raised $80 million by selling checker node NFTs, proving that its project prospects and economic model are very attractive to a wide range of users. The hourly usage cost of A100 in the Aethir network is significantly lower than that of other competitors, providing a clear competitive advantage.

In the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence, we must recognize the dual aspects of development: model training and inference. Inference involves the functionality and output of AI models, while training includes the complex processes required to build intelligent models, which involve machine learning algorithms, datasets, and computational power.

Taking GPT-4 as an example, if developers want to obtain high-quality inference, they need to acquire comprehensive foundational datasets and immense computing power to train effective AI models. These resources are primarily concentrated in the hands of industry giants. The high cost of computing and entry barriers prevent more developers from entering, which also allows the top players to become stronger.

Decentralized distributed cloud computing provides us with solutions in this era. Compared to centralized cloud computing providers, the advantages of decentralized cloud computing mainly lie in:

1. Accessibility and Flexibility: Distributed computing platforms can access computing power at any time and provide flexible hardware options, offering greater accessibility.

2. Lower prices: By utilizing idle chips and adding the token subsidies from network protocol parties to chip and computing power suppliers, the distributed computing power network may be able to provide cheaper computing power.

3. Anti-censorship: Some Web3 systems do not position themselves as permissionless systems, addressing compliance issues during the GPU launch, data loading, data sharing, and result sharing stages.

With the further development of AI and the ongoing supply-demand imbalance of GPUs, more developers will be encouraged to turn to decentralized cloud computing platforms. At the same time, during the bull market, due to the rise in cryptocurrency prices, GPU suppliers will earn more profits, which will stimulate more GPU providers to enter this market, creating a positive flywheel effect.

Aethir Cloud is a decentralized real-time rendering platform based on the Arbitrum network, helping gaming and artificial intelligence companies deliver their products directly to consumers by aggregating and intelligently reallocating new and idle GPUs from enterprises, data centers, cryptocurrency mining operations, and consumers.

One of the key innovations of the project is the resource pool, which brings together decentralized computing power contributors under a unified interface to serve global customers. A major feature of the resource pool is that GPU providers can freely connect or disconnect from the network, allowing enterprises or data centers with idle equipment to participate in the network during downtime, thus enhancing the flexibility of suppliers and the utilization of devices.

The operation of the Aethir ecosystem relies on three core infrastructures:

• (Container): The key function of the container is to provide real-time remote rendering services, offering a "zero latency" experience. The container is the actual location of cloud computing, serving as a virtual endpoint that executes and renders applications. This transfers the workload from local devices to the container.

• Checker (: The checker node ensures the integrity and quality of service of the Aethir network by inspecting the Container and its service processes. After completing the task, the Checker Node signs the results with its own private key and passes the results to the referee. The referee will receive 2N+1 results from each container, and each node providing the same result as the majority will receive a token reward.

• Indexer ): As the core of the Aethir network, the Indexer matches consumers with suitable containers, ensuring the rapid launch of cloud applications and services. The goal is to provide "second-level" service - the transition from the consumer's request to actual delivery ( for example, a player's request to the game screen ) should occur in the shortest possible time. This requires concise signals and efficient scheduling. To maintain Decentralization and enhance user experience, the Indexer is randomly selected to reduce potential fraud risk and signal latency of the Indexer.

Aethir has a strong team and a solid resource background, which is reflected in Aethir's existing achievements:

• Aethir has reached a cooperation agreement with a certain network, and the two ecosystems will be integrated to provide customers with a perfect GPU computing experience that includes services such as cluster and serverless inference. At the same time, Aethir and the network community will conduct a $50 million airdrop exchange, where each side will airdrop tokens worth $50 million to the community members of the other side, to promote the development of the entire ecosystem.

• Aethir is collaborating with the first Decentralization artificial intelligence cloud edge computing platform to launch the world's largest hybrid GPU market.

• Aethir has signed contracts with the largest cloud gaming company, which has over 64 million monthly active users, focusing on mixed reality metaverse and game development. At the same time, it has signed contracts with the world's largest game studio that has 150 million monthly active users.

• Signed a contract with the world's largest telecommunications company, with an annual recurring revenue of $5 million. ( may rise to $13.9 million in the near future. ).

• Reached a cooperation with a certain company to become its exclusive GPU cloud computing service provider for mixed reality products. This company is a technology firm focused on Web3.0 metaverse development, and its core product is a metaverse world that combines extended reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) and other XR elements.

• Another 10 contracts in the gaming sector are in the works.

Aethir's sales of nodes in the first quarter of 2024 reached $80 million, setting a record for both the Depin project and AI projects. At the same time, Aethir has validated the market demand for enterprise-level GPUaaS clients in AI model training, virtual computing, and gaming, with 3 existing contracts expected to generate annual recurring revenue of over $20 million in the first quarter of 2024. Since the project's launch, revenue from service fees has reached $1.8 million.

In contrast, the entire DePin industry generated only $24 million in ARR last year. This revenue not only far exceeds that of other leading protocols in the same industry, but also demonstrates Aethir's extraordinary position within the industry, bringing it significant valuation potential. At the same time, its strong resources and solid strength help it expand its scale, enhance its technological capabilities, form strong competitiveness, and create a sustainable and self-reinforcing growth cycle.

Aethir Edge is a hardware device launched by the Aethir network to power next-generation GPU cloud computing. This device utilizes cutting-edge technology, including the Qualcomm® Snapdragon 865 chip and 12GB LPDDR5 memory, for processing data-intensive workloads at the edge.

Aethir Edge has a storage capacity of 256GB UFS 3.1, providing high-speed data access, as well as a 1000M GE LAN network port and WIFI6 2T2R + BT5.2 connectivity. This gives Aethir Edge enterprise-level computing capabilities.

It can aggregate various idle GPU resources through the Aethir network via the internet and directly transfer them to end users. This industry model of gathering sand to form a tower will pool a large amount of idle computing resources, greatly improving the supply and availability of computing power, which is of significant importance to the artificial intelligence and gaming industries.

Aethir Edge allows every user to participate as a computing power provider in the Aethir network and earn token rewards without needing to own professional graphics cards. Users can connect to the network via wireless or wired connections. Once connected, Aethir Edge will be managed through a dedicated mobile application, allowing users to optimize device performance and set it for specific tasks, such as GPU computing.

With this device, users can fully utilize their device's bandwidth, IP address, or GPU computing resources. Unlike the high threshold of professional mining machines, Aethir Edge lowers the barrier for people to provide computing resources, allowing everyone to purchase one and profit from their underutilized computing power.

At the same time, the portability and flexibility of Aethir Edge enable it to be distributed across vast geographical areas, allowing Aethir's GPU cloud to cover a wider range than traditional clouds while significantly reducing network latency, enabling users in remote areas to enjoy the convenience brought by cloud computing.

The Aethir core team has a diverse background. The founder of Aethir is an experienced manager with a successful track record in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, Web3, and gaming. The main team members include former practitioners from Web3 institutions, professionals from traditional financial investment institutions, as well as technical personnel from traditional technology companies. It can be inferred that the team has good networking relationships and resource integration capabilities in both the Web2 and Web3 fields.

• Mark Rydon: Co-founder and CEO, previously held key positions at NOTA Platform, Flux Capital, Gaas LTD, Kulture Athletics, Inc., and Bechtel Corporation.

• Daniel Wang: Co-founder and Chief Business Officer, previously served as a Partner at IVC(, Chief Information Officer at YGG SEA), International Publishing Management Director at Riot Games(, and Operations Director at Riot Games China).

• Kyle Okamoto: Chief Technology Officer, former CEO and General Manager of Ericsson's IoT, Automotive, and Security business, CEO of Edge Gravity, and Chief Network Officer of Verizon Media.

Aethir's financing situation:

• Seed round ( token round, early 2022 ), $60 million valuation, undisclosed funding amount.
• Pre-A round ( token round, early 2023 ), raised 9 million USD, valued at 150 million USD.

The second round of investment was led by HashKey Capital, with other participants including Mirana Ventures, Animoca Brands, Maelstrom Capital, Sanctor Capital, Merit Circle, Big Brain Holdings, Builder Capital, Momentum 6, Tess Ventures, CitizenX Crypto Ventures, and Lapin Digital.

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