The global super computer, a new decentralized internet
The Golem Network is an interesting cryptocurrency enterprise. Headquartered in Poland, its team is run by a group of predominantly Polish members who took inspiration from Jewish folklore to design the currency’s brand. The Golem is a mythical creature that was created from inanimate matter to form a being of limitless power and potential — an ambitious symbol for the ambitious goal the company is setting out to achieve.
Golem Network’s goal really is remarkably ambitious, make no mistake. Today, supercomputers are limited to the technology industry’s giants, cutting-edge scientific laboratories and the military. The public has no access to the powerful computational capabilities of these beasts and in a world where computers dictate the rules of the game, it is a stark omission that computational power is unavailable to the masses.
Golem wants to rectify that and give the public an open source, decentralized supercomputer, where the computing power comes not from one mainframe lodged in some inaccessible part of the world, but from the many computers operating around the world with some idle resources to offer. They want people and their computers to team up to solve problems that any individual or group might have, using the power of a decentralized network.
In the context of cryptocurrency, they are letting people rent out their computing power to help others solve complex problems, such as CGI rendering, stock market prediction, DNA analysis, cryptography and machine learning. Problems that would ordinarily take days or weeks could potentially be solved in minutes and hours.
What is Golem Bringing to the Table?
Golem itself claims that it wants to change the way the internet works. Its functionality classifies it as an Internet-as-a-Service and a Platform-as-a-Service product. There’s a unique spin to this though: Golem has an integrated application registry and a transaction framework that permits users to design and distribute their own software on the network. The application registry is something of an app store, where users can choose different payment models through the transaction framework to monetize their software on the application registry. Both hardware and software resources can be rented out on the Golem network.
The idea is simple and brilliant. The computing power market is dominated by big names like Microsoft, Amazon and Google. Purchasing computing resources from these companies is expensive and disproportionately in favour of the companies, who derive large margins. It is a difficult segment to break into, and Golem may just provide a democratized way of distributing computer resources.
Peers on the network will also be able to decide exactly how many CPU cores, how much RAM and disk space they want to allocate for the Golem network. A Task Definition Framework also dictates how tasks are automatically distributed over the network. The company is not clear on how they plan to curb exploitations however it has implemented a reputation rank system to keep nodes in check, deterring inappropriate behavior.
The Golem Ecosystem
Three stakeholders make up the Golem ecosystem: providers, requestors and software developers. The providers are the ones who rent out their computational power to the requestors, who use it for whatever purpose of their choosing. Both individual users and large data centres can participate in the network.
In addition to receiving affordable and scalable hardware and software solutions, requestors can also act as providers when they have resources to offer.
Software developers can deploy and monetize software on the application registry. This is a key area where Golem is reaching out to incentivize users to join the network. Microservices and Decentralized Applications are on the rise and if Golem can deliver an easy-to-use and effective development platform, they stand a good chance of growing the network.
Golem’s own token, the Golem Network Token (GNT), will be used to conduct transactions on the network. Both providers and developers will be paid exclusively in GNT. It is based on the Ethereum transaction system, with 1 ether being equal to roughly 1200 GNT.
How can Golem be used by the Public?
CGI Rendering
CGI is a long and system-intensive process that can take days to complete. On the Golem Network, the task can be distributed to about 100 computers, each of which complete a portion of the total task. The end result is that the task is completed many orders of magnitude quicker and with less load on each individual system. Indeed, this was the first use case showcased by the company.
Scientific Calculations and Machine Learning
Both scientific calculations and machine learning require a lot of CPU time. Many problems in the world remain unsolved because of a lack of computing power. Golem is a convenient solution to this problem, offering a use-case that is genuinely altruistic and productive.
Medicine
The healthcare industry is a major segment of any country’s economy. The study and analysis of DNA, cancer research, Alzheimer’s and neuro-science related fields are all ripe for computational assistance. If Golem can establish itself as a reliable platform on which computational power can be distributed, then the healthcare industry will receive an enormous boost in the solving of diseases and conditions.
Building a Decentralized Web
This is by far Golem’s most ambitious use case. A decentralized internet is the holy grail of internet aspirations and Golem hopes to allow for an ecosystem where machines can be rented in bulk to perform operations within a self-organizing network. However, this required many other technologies to be developed side-by-side.
Why is Democratized Computational Power Important?
Many individuals and groups are in need of computational power, but due to the considerable expense, it is out of most peoples’ hands. In fact, Golem was not actually the first organization to harness the potential of distributed computing. In the 90s, SETI used resources from computers around the world to help analyze signals. What Golem is doing is taking the same idea but incentivizing it for large-scale commercial use.
Computers can be used to solve the most complex problems — many of which are of urgent importance, like climate change modelling. In essence, democratized computational power is analogous to a collective working together to move a heavy object. It’s just that here, we pool our computing resources to solve problems of a different kind.
The Challenges to their Success
There are a lot of high claims regarding Golem. Described by the internet as the “AirBnB of cryptocurrencies”, it‘s easy to get swept away by hype. But while the goals may seem overly ambitious, the theoretical reasoning behind their purpose is legitimate and compelling. What’s most interesting is that all sorts of users could be seen as a potential market for Golem — individuals, developers, businesses, data centers — because in the modern world everyone is in need of computing power.
The team is solely focused on increasing the quality of development on the platform to attract more developers. Adoption is certainly one of Golem’s biggest challenges during its infancy stages. The Application Registry and Transaction Framework is a step in the right direction, but whether it can be used to effectively deploy and monetize apps is out in the open. It works in their favour that they allow developers to implement their own monetization mechanism. It is easier to see providers joining the network because everyone has a certain amount of computational power that they can easily offer.
There are other concerns to address.
It is built on Ethereum. It is dependent on it and what happens when Ethereum runs into an inevitable scaling issue? How will it adjust to the shortcomings of Ethereum? Since their long term ambitions are predicated on Ethereum’s improvements, they will hit a brick wall should technologies they are dependent do not turn out well. Perhaps it is in their best interests to break out into their own independent platform to mitigate risk.
This cloud computing battle is also a case of David vs. Goliath. Is a battle against Microsoft and Amazon one they can realistically win? Can they develop a reliable system fast enough to challenge these giants?
At 1200 GNT for 1 ether, some may say that it is overpriced as well. And this is only at the first stage of Golem’s lifespan which the company has split into four: Brass, Clay, Stone and Iron. Each stage will see the inclusion of additional features.
Golem has a strong business plan, which they’ve detailed in a White Paper released in November 2016. The total potential market for these services is estimated to be $600 billion or more, if and when cloud computing takes over. Should the Golem team realise their total vision, look out.
