Golem Network (GLM): A Decentralized Supercomputer Redefining Computation

Decentralized sharing of computing power is among the most innovative solutions that blockchain technology offers. Over the past few years, numerous projects focused on bringing together buyers and sellers of computational power over a blockchain network have emerged. This new category of the blockchain ecosystem, DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure network), is among the fastest-growing niches in the industry. The origins of the DePIN concept, however, predate even the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain itself, the network of choice for most of these projects.

Back in late 2014, a few months before the launch of Ethereum, programmer and blockchain enthusiast Piotr Janiuk presented the initial idea behind Golem Network (GLM), a DePIN system designed to support a decentralized computing power marketplace. The pioneer of the concept, the Golem Network project, was eventually founded in 2016 and launched on Ethereum in 2018. 

To date, Golem Network remains one of the foremost innovators in the DePIN sector, with the project introducing a scalable Layer 2 solution in 2021 and an artificial intelligence (AI) road map in early 2024. The concept of trading computational resources, such as GPU, CPU, memory or storage over a decentralized platform, truly emerged with the arrival of Golem Network.

Key Takeaways:

• Golem Network, an Ethereum-based app, enables decentralized trading of computing resources. Conceptualized in 2014, it’s the oldest widely-known DePIN platform.

• Golem’s trustless marketplace connects providers and consumers of supercomputing power, which is often used for resource-intensive tasks in AI, ML, rendering and more.

• Its native token, GLM, is used primarily to facilitate the trade in computing power on Golem Network, and can be traded on Bybit as a Perpetuals contract.

What Is Golem Network (GLM)?

Golem Network (GLM) is a decentralized app (DApp) designed to facilitate the flexible trade of computing power and resources over a blockchain network. Golem is a classic example of the DePIN concept, having pioneered it within the blockchain industry. The origins of the project date back to November 2014, when a number of blockchain technology visionaries and enthusiasts, including industry heavyweights like Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood, gathered in Berlin for the Devcon 0 conference.

Devcon 0 was dedicated to the exploration of the Ethereum blockchain concept, which was eventually launched the following year, and involved a small number of presentations on early ecosystem projects. Among the projects presented was Golem Network, an innovative idea for using the Ethereum blockchain to power the flexible sharing of computing resources.

After years of research and development, the Golem Network project was eventually founded in 2016 by Golem Factory. The project's Ethereum mainnet was launched in April 2018 to support the affordable and flexible trade in computing capacity between resource requesters and providers. Golem Network quickly became a viable alternative to the more expensive and restrictive cloud computing services provided by centralized entities.

Golem's Evolution Over the Years

The platform's initial native token was GNT. In November 2020, the project announced a migration of the GNT token to the new GLM token to improve its functionality. In late 2021, Golem added support for Layer 2 operations by establishing its presence on the Polygon (POL) platform, a popular Layer 2 sidechain for Ethereum. Golem now supports transacting on Ethereum Layer 1 and on Layer 2 through Polygon. The latter option provides significant scalability and cost savings for users.

Golem, however, isn't just a medium for exchanging computing resources: the network's ecosystem now features several DApps and solutions that streamline resource sharing, enable AI applications and even offer crypto portfolio management. For instance, the DeML project is among the first machine learning (ML) algorithm training solutions leveraging Golem. Another innovative DApp within the Golem ecosystem is Emeth, also known as Blockchain Automations, a decentralized finance (DeFi) solution for automated portfolio management.

As a trailblazer of decentralized trading in computing power, Golem Network was among the top DePIN projects a few years ago, often viewed as a key competitor to another major early DePIN platform — Render Network (RNDR). However, fierce competition in this sphere and the rise of other DePIN players over the past three years have dropped Golem to 16th place by market cap in the DePIN category (as of Sep 4, 2024). Even though Golem is no longer a full-fledged category heavyweight, it remains a historically significant project in the blockchain industry.

How Does Golem Work?

There are two key types of network actors on Golem: computing resource consumers, called Requestors, and resource suppliers, aptly named Providers. Requestors provide their requirements by filling out a task template in which they indicate what kind of hardware resources they need. Meanwhile, Providers join the network and offer their services to complete the tasks submitted by Requestors. In most cases, you don't need to run a high-powered machine to act as a Golem Requestor. Any laptop or desktop with relatively modern specifications can be used to provide services on Golem Network.

Providers earn rewards in GLM tokens for their resource contributions. They’re free to set their own rates for these contributions. Naturally, the rates set by Providers are one of the variables used by Requestors in their selection process. In addition to the rates charged, other selection factors frequently used by Requestors include the number of processor cores offered, the Provider's reputation and history of performance, and the urgency of the task.

While Golem doesn't require particularly onerous hardware specifications, some minimums that Providers must meet include a Linux machine with the x86-64 architecture and the nested virtualization option enabled in the machine's basic input/output system (BIOS). These basic requirements apply to standard CPU capacity sharing.

Since early 2024, Golem Network also offers GPU capacity sharing, specifically tailored for AI use cases. Providers who would like to provide GPU power to the network must meet higher minimum requirements, including more advanced specifications for storage and video cards.

Golem GPU/AI

In early 2023, Golem Network floated the idea of GPU capacity-sharing as a proof of concept (PoC). Since early 2024, the project has begun to offer the decentralized trade in GPU power to support resource-intensive AI computations.

As the AI field within the blockchain industry experiences explosive growth rates, many DePIN projects have launched their AI-focused products. Golem Network hasn't remained indifferent to these developments, introducing its updated GPU/AI road map in early 2024. The project aims to offer several dedicated solutions for AI applications. Among these are Modelserve AI and Golem-Workers.

Modelserve AI is a platform to let AI developers affordably run their models at scale, while Golem-Workers is an API that lets Requestors access dedicated high-level nodes to process and fine-tune AI models.

Golem Key Projects

We noted above that Golem hosts not only a peer-to-peer marketplace for computational tasks, but also a variety of DApps and solutions based on the platform's technology. Below are some of the more notable among these solutions.

Ray on Golem

Ray on Golem is a popular Python-based distributed computing framework designed for AI and ML applications. Given Ray's focus on these fast-expanding fields, applications utilizing the framework often require access to significant computing capacity. Quickly scaling the applications to meet fluctuating demands is also a frequent requirement.

Ray on Golem is an integration of the framework with the Golem platform. Python developers can use it to access Golem's computing resources in order to run computations within their apps. This expands the use cases and reach of Ray-based apps, with more robust solutions and AI models now available through the highly popular framework.

Jupyter on Golem

Jupyter on Golem is an interactive computing environment that lets users create and share documents containing programming code, textual information, media files, visualizations and other pieces of digital information. Thanks to its interactivity and capacity to accommodate various media types, Jupyter is a highly popular tool for programmers and software testers, especially for tasks like prototyping, collaborative development, debugging and testing.

The Jupyter on Golem solution integrates Jupyter's Python version on Golem Network, empowering Python-based Jupyter documents to utilize the computing capacity offered by Golem. This is particularly useful for collaborative work when developing large-scale, resource-hungry Python applications.

Rendering on Golem

Rendering is another area in which Golem Network has use cases and applications. Computer rendering is the process of creating finalized 3D visual outputs (e.g., images, animations and videos) from initial specifications, and modern, visually rich rendering requires a lot of processing power.

Golem Network has partnered with Reality Metaverse to help the project render personalized videos and animations of buildings for its NFT users. Building co-owners and holders of the associated Reality NFTs can now generate building animations containing their personalized information, such as a building nameplate with their nickname, wallet address and share amount. Golem Network is the underlying technical solution that works in the background to power these animations seamlessly.

Reputation System

Golem's reputation system is a form of sophisticated decentralized identity (DID) solution. It assigns reputational scores and properties to Golem Providers. These properties are based on Provider nodes' historical performance on the network, in addition to technical infrastructure capacity and other factors. The reputation system makes it easy for Requestors to identify reliable resource providers.

Currently, Golem's reputation system exists only for Providers, but there are plans to introduce a similar identity and scoring solution for Requestors, as well for a more balanced ecosystem.

Golem Portal

Golem Portal provides an easy-to-use graphic interface for accessing the platform's services and DApps. Instead of using command-line options, developers and users can take advantage of Golem Portal to launch apps with just a few clicks. The portal also provides visualizations that show the steps for launching Golem apps and services; the number of active Providers on the network; and other useful platform-wide information.

Golem Network Token (GLM)

Golem's native token, GLM, is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum and Polygon chains. GLM is primarily used to facilitate the trade in computing power on Golem Network. Requestors pay in GLM for access to hardware resources, while Providers are rewarded in GLM for providing the resources. GLM is also used for staking, as outlined in the next section.

Golem's original token, GNT, was issued on Ethereum back in 2016, when the blockchain's ERC-20 standard for fungible tokens hadn't yet started to gain real traction among developers. As such, the GNT token itself wasn't based on the ERC-20 standard. As the standard became popular, GNT's lack of compatibility with the standard became a serious limitation for the Golem project. In particular, Golem's plans to utilize Layer 2 processing through Polygon were hampered because GNT wasn’t an ERC-20 asset.

As a result, in late 2020, Golem Network announced a migration from the original GNT token to the ERC-20–based GLM. This migration allows GNT holders to swap their tokens for GLM at a fixed ratio of 1:1. The migration has no deadline, although most GNT tokens have already been converted to GLM as of early September 2024.

The new GLM token has inherited most of GNT’s tokenomics properties. It has a total and maximum supply of 1 billion. 

The original GNT token was allocated via three main streams as follows:

• 82%: Public sales

• 12%: Protocol development

• 6%: Reserved for early contributors and the project team

Golem Staking

You can stake your GLM tokens to earn passive income. It’s a great way to boost earnings from GLM for resource providers or, in fact, anyone who holds GLM tokens as an investment. 

There are several options for the GLM staking process, including solo staking, staking pools and staking-as-a-service. Since Golem Network is an Ethereum-based DApp, your staked GLM is converted to ETH at the underlying level to help secure the blockchain's proof of stake (PoS) block validation process.

Where to Buy Golem Crypto (GLM)

The GLM token is available on Bybit via its Derivatives market as a Perpetual futures contract with USDT (GLMUSDT). Bybit's Derivatives market allows you to trade hundreds of crypto assets with low fees and up to 100x leverage, depending upon the asset chosen. There are markets for Perpetuals, standard Futures and Options, with contracts based on popular stablecoins — USDT and USDC — as well as a range of other popular high-cap cryptos.

Golem Network Price Prediction

As of Sep 4, 2024, the GLM token's market value is $0.2669, which is 79.8% lower than its ATH of $1.32 on Apr 13, 2018, and over 2,800% higher than its ATL of $0.009138 on Dec 12, 2016.

Long-term price forecasts for GLM are generally bullish. PricePrediction expects the token to trade at $0.52 in 2025 and $3.22 in 2030, while DigitalCoinPrice predicts a maximum rate of $0.69 in 2025 and $1.98 in 2030.

Is Golem Network a Good Investment?

Depending upon your investment preferences and goals, you might consider the GLM token for the following reasons:

1. Golem operates as a decentralized marketplace for the trade in computing resources, which is experiencing significant growth due to the high demand for hardware capacity across many industries. Projects in areas like AI, ML and rendering particularly drive this demand. As the oldest and one of the most reputable DePIN networks, Golem has great potential to benefit from this development.

2. Despite being on the market longer than just about any of its competitors, the Golem project shows no signs of stagnating. It continues to introduce innovative features and new technologies to process complex tasks. In 2020 and 2021, the project gradually adopted Layer 2 processing, significantly reducing the costs of job processing for Requestors. Then, in early 2024, Golem Network introduced its updated GPU/AI road map, unveiling the functionality to support GPU processing — a major enabler of distributed AI computations. These innovations show that the project team is serious about further developing and improving its platform.

3. The GLM token has a sound tokenomics setup behind it, with a supply cap in place. It has also been thoroughly time-tested on the market, with a history stretching back to 2016 (including the older GNT token), making it one of the ultimate veterans of the Ethereum ecosystem.

Closing Thoughts

Large-scale applications in AI, ML and other fields that demand heavy-duty computations now rely a lot on the distributed processing model. These applications make extensive use of cloud services in Web 2.0, as well as DePIN networks in web 3. Golem Network, a project that laid the foundation stone for the DePIN concept, continues to thrive and innovate in this environment.

Golem is no longer as dominant a force in its niche as it was in the early years of DePIN platforms. At #16 in market cap rankings, it can be best described as a medium-sized DePIN player. However, its time-tested nature and the capacity to regularly introduce new features still attract nothing but admiration. 

Decentralized hardware capacity-sharing started with Golem, and the project will undoubtedly play a key role in this sector of the blockchain industry for years to come.