RNDR Network: Updates
A reflection and review of the past few months — the following summary goes over RNDR 2017 and what is planned for 2018
Dear RNDR Community,
2018 is a crucial year for the RNDR Network and we want you to be a part of it. The RNDR Network addresses the continuously growing demand for rendering services by creating a robust distributed Network on the Ethereum blockchain to bring GPUs into productivity. How will that work? There are around 265 million GPUs in circulation today, but less than 50,000 functioning on the public cloud. If just 1% of the available GPUs out there were to provide rendering in ORC, then there would be over 5300% growth in the rendering capacity without any expenditure in infrastructure.
Our background:
Our goal is to transform distributed GPU compute power into a decentralized economy of connected 3D assets where any object or environment can be authored, shared, and remixed through the blockchain.
The RNDR Network builds on the existing technology pioneered by OTOY, an end-to-end cloud graphics company and developer of the software Octane, which is a fully-functional GPU-based rendering and streaming services platform. For example, the photorealistic opening credits of “Westworld” were rendered by OTOY’s Octane software. Some parts were even completed on Octane Render Cloud (ORC), which is powered by ORBX, the company’s interchange format currently proposed to MPEG as the new media format for holographic content. Besides HBO, OTOY has worked with many other prominent clients such as Disney, Columbia Pictures, Netflix, just to name a few.
But the future of rendering lies in real time rendering according to Jules Urbach, OTOY’s co-founder. His dream, the holodeck, is a decade’s piece of work and OTOY is already seven years into that. Urbach has always envisioned a world where decentralized and distributed GPU power was easily accessible. With the integration of Render Token and blockchain technology, RNDR converts the existing ORC Render Cloud into a decentralized ecosystem, making that goal possible. By making available a broader scope of decentralized GPU-based rendering and streaming services, the RNDR Network addresses the growing demand for AR/VR/Mixed Reality and the rise of holographic content that centralized render farms simply cannot supply.
With our deep knowledge of this industry, we believe blockchain technology and Render Token is the best way to achieve this decentralized vision because it allows a fully functional, widespread and “trustless” way of exchanging information and content through millions of available GPUs around the world.
What’s new?
There have been notable developments on both the Token Sale side as well as the development and community building side — here is a recap to get you up to date:
Phase I
As explained above, the technical backbone of ORC was already operational after the initial phase of our Token Sale, since it built on OTOY’s existing rendering technology. While the conversion of ORC into a fully decentralized Network is still an ongoing project, it was essential that buyers of Render Tokens be able to use their tokens immediately after the tokens were delivered. We made this possible by instituting a transitional procedure where Render Token holders can obtain rendering services through us, at prevailing market rates for rendering, while the conversion process to a decentralized Network continues. The bottom line is that Render Tokens already provide — and should continue to provide — access to market-rate rendering services throughout future Network development phases.
Here’s a quick update of major events as ORC has been converting to the fully decentralized platform using the Render Token:
● We have set up localized RNDR nodes on our own GPUs to test RNDR <> ORC integration and rendering capability.
● On Dec 5th, we started sending real paid commercial jobs from our centralized render cloud ORC to a Linux test RNDR node (running a hybrid ORC/RNDR client)
● In 60 days from Dec 5th — Feb 5th, this RNDR node completed about ~500 jobs totaling 50,000 RNDR tokens. The node was working with no issues and produced excellent results rivaling those of the centralized Amazon Web Services (AWS) ORC nodes.
● We’re setting up the third-party wallet system to provide a direct way for users to pay for rendering jobs with RNDR tokens — Metamask is already working in our testing environment.
● The next step will be to integrate RNDR transfers into the Ethereum blockchain, after which RNDR jobs can be validated on the ORC independently of USD or public cloud GPUs.
This puts us on track for Phase II — we are very excited with the outcome so far and will keep you posted on every development moving forward.
Token Sale #2 (2A)
As we stated in a prior blog post, after our initial sale of Render Tokens to the public concluded, we started a second sale phase where we sold Render Tokens directly to our early registers as well as large commercial users.
Next steps for RNDR
Nexus with our community
During the last weeks, we’ve put together a plan that will allow the RNDR Network user community to grow, scale, and get involved. Here are just some of the steps that we’re taking in order to bring more clarity to RNDR Network users and supporters of OTOY’s project to decentralize rendering services. Our general goal in this aspect is to make the RNDR Network more accessible and easier to understand for newcomers and seasoned renderers alike, including miners and general token purchasers.
1. New website — We’re revamping the website so that it meets our community’s needs. We’re making it much easier to use and substantially more complete regarding the information and details about the project as a whole.
2. Updated Whitepaper — We’re releasing an extended version of the whitepaper in conjunction with the new website in order to address your questions, as well as provide a detailed the RNDR Network roadmap over the near and long-term.
We’ve enlarged our team and strengthened our communication plan for the existing channels and opened up a new one for our users to connect and find out more about the RNDR Network’s developments on a consistent basis: Telegram. We’ll continue to scale and use RocketChat, but will also aim to release weekly blog updates and email newsletters to our subscriber list. Furthermore, we will be tweeting updates to keep our community informed. Please get in touch with us!
We also plan to provide updates on:
- Tutorials and Guidelines — Ethereum, wallets, contracts, transactions, gas, tokens, private keys, exchanges… Participating in a blockchain project for the first time feels like a programming crash course. We understand that ORC is the Network that will bring many new blockchain users into the space. We feel obliged to do everything we can to ensure your trip will be safe. We will come up with a series of tutorials teaching new members in the space the essentials and point you to the right sources in case you have questions.
- Staff /Team — We have been actively growing the ORC team, from our community managers to our marketing teams to our developers. From a team of just 5, we are now 12 members and growing! We are currently looking for more passionate blockchain developers to join our cause — if you are interested, please reach out via our RocketChat.
20% Airdrop for RNDR Holders
We have not forgotten about the bonus for earlier adopters! We will be deciding on a snapshot date in a separate blog post. Details on what you have to do for the airdrop will be announced at that point as well.
Next Token Sale Pool in Q2 2018 (2B)
With the successful completion of Phase I and ongoing development of Phase II, we’re ready for more people to join in and take part in the RNDR Network. We will announce the next registration phase when the new website launches. Details about whitelisting will be posted on the website, as well as the amount of tokens offered.
Phase II
After completion of Phase II, we anticipate that users will be providing and receiving services in the fully decentralized Render Token platform on the RNDR Network. Through a simple user interface, users and developers can easily employ their GPU power for rendering and streaming jobs in exchange for RNDR tokens. The beta testing during this time will take place by qualified early token purchasers. Information about the Beta sign-up will follow shortly — after this, renderers will join the beta in batches based on random selection to render for the Network and earn tokens.
In Conclusion….
Building the community in tandem with the platform and our vision is our main goal — we want to make sure everyone is part of the future that we envision. As always, we are more than happy to speak with you on any of our channels — please reach out below!
RNDR On,
The RNDR Network Team
Join us in the Rendering Revolution
Stay in touch with us and learn more about Render Token:
On our community chat!
By following us on Twitter!
By subscribing to our subreddit!
By joining our Telegram!
