Cryptocurrency Golem/GNT: complete overview of the project and online course/calculator

The essence of the project

Golem Network is called the Airbnb of the computer world. Just as apartment owners make money on non-residential premises, and travelers receive comfortable and affordable housing, so the owners of facilities make them work.

For example, you live in Russia. You have a powerful gaming computer that you borrowed. But now, because of work, you use it much less, obviously not 24 hours a day. And at the same time, somewhere in China, a poor videographer needs a powerful computer, but it is not so easy to buy. Yes, and I need it for a couple of projects.

What if a Chinese guy pays you to use your computer's processing power while you're at work or sleeping?

This is the essence of the Golem cryptocurrency user network.

Golem is a decentralized supercomputer that:

• works all over the world,
• combines the computing power of individual nodes into a common network,
• gives anyone the opportunity to donate their resources,
• makes it possible to purchase additional power that is needed when performing intensive calculations.

Potential clients of a supercomputer are users who work in the following areas:

• computer graphics. Rendering can be much faster. This is the focus of the project in the first stage of development.
• business processes, if necessary, work with large amounts of data or prediction markets,
• cryptography, to support mining pools or conduct cryptographic operations, tests,
• scientific research in various fields: AI, medicine, etc., including applied applications.

Technologies

• There is no single point of failure and no trusted authority, although Golem is capable of connecting millions of nodes using P2P architecture
• All calculations are performed on virtual machines and are completely isolated from the host system
• Developers can deploy their own integration into Golem and implement the corresponding monetization mechanism.

20th century.

21 century

How does Golem work?

Golem's competitors are render farms and cloud services. But their services are quite expensive. Thus, the project can take its place in the market.

Anyone who wants to make money on capacity does simple operations:

• launches Golem App,
• chooses which resources to rent,
• earns.

Now let's look at the whole process for a buyer through the Golem network.

You can see the creation of the task in the official video:

You need to know that in this beta version there are several task templates

If the required task is not available, the buyer will have to write their own code for the task using the framework. This will be available in the third version, Golem Stone.

Blender and Luxrender are the only two task templates available in the first version of Golem, Brass. In the future, task templates will turn into the Golem marketplace, where you can add and use new ones.

1. Select a template.
2. The task is added to the task manager, set the time settings,
3. The network receives information about the task.
4. The capacity supplier selects among the tasks (there is a reputation system), sends the price and information about the available capacity.
5. We check the reputation of the supplier and agree on the price (in GNT).
6. We start the task.

If all goes well, the provider obtains the appropriate resources via IPFS and begins computing. Once the task completes, it sends the results back over the IPFS network. The task manager then passes the information to the node to check the results. The number of nodes to be tested can be selected at the ordering stage.

For payments, the system works through Ethereum smart contracts. If both parties did everything in a timely manner, not only coins will be awarded, but also reputation will be added.

Golem Network also has:

• application registry, which is a special smart contract for developers and allows them to publish their Golem applications.
• transaction framework - these are the requirements that you need to comply with when creating your application.

Network security is achieved:

• development of components resistant to DDoS and Sybil attacks,
• isolation of data and nodes from calculations,
• encrypted data and code,
• reputation system for users and nodes,
• presence of a black/white list of nodes.

Ecosystem

• Golem allows users/applications (customers) to capture the cycles of other users (providers). Any user, from a single PC owner to a large data center, can contribute resources to the Golem network.
• Software developers are at the center of the Golem ecosystem. The application registry and transaction platform allows anyone to deploy and distribute applications on the Golem network.
• The Ethereum-based transaction system clears payments between providers, customers and software developers.

Mining golem

Golem has a fixed number of tokens, which are released in the first block. Coin distribution:

Mining is not available.

Something similar to “Mining” would be performed by running a compute node on the network.

These nodes perform compute tasks from clients (who require rendering time and such things).

If the node does some work on the request, you receive GNT in exchange.

Network statistics: https://stats.golem.network/show

Git: https://github.com/golemfactory/golem/wiki/Installation

Where can I buy?

The cryptocurrency is traded on the following exchanges.

Forecasts

The best part of the project, the decentralized network, has the advantage that it can never be monopolized. This technology is a huge step towards the future. Adherents of the project believe that it will replace existing data centers. All of the network's direct competitors are centralized, have the same functionality as Golem, but cannot match the price.

Back in mid-April 2022, the Golem team announced that the alpha version of Golem “Brass” was running on the Ethereum mainnet. This happened a year and a half after the ICO of 8 million US dollars.

This served as a major milestone for the Golem network as per their roadmap.

In total, we can expect three more major development milestones:

1. Clay Golem - clay golem - beta version, in which you can interact with the application registry,
2. Stone Golem - Stone Golem is a proven version for application development.
3. Iron Golem - iron golem - extended version with additional features.

After Brass Golem launched, the team announced a bounty program for developers and testers. Once the trial phase is complete, the team plans to launch a general-purpose, all-in-one computing cloud. Their next release, “Clay,” will provide globally decentralized supercomputers by establishing integration with compute synchronization.

On April 27 (after launch), Binance announced the listing of the GNT token on social media. Naturally, GNT assets rose to 45% and reached a price of $0.64.

As a result, Golem will still reach the top, since it has behind it a product with a clear concept and clear benefits. By following the roadmap and announcements in official channels, you can guess when the price of the token will rise.

It is also worth noting that the project is valuable in itself, without speculation.

Golem is led by Julian Zawistowski, who is also an advisor to Hoard, a blockchain platform for the video game industry. The Golem team's long-term vision is to create a decentralized microservices platform serving as the "new Internet of tomorrow."

Competitors among cryptocurrency projects: iExec, SONM and BOINC.

Development team

The development team is open access. In total, the team includes 42 participants.

Julian Zawistowski - CEO and founder of the project

Piotr Janiuk - CTO, co-founder

Andrzej Regulski - COO, co-founder

Aleksandra Skrzypczak - Lead Software Engineer, Co-Founder

Joanna Rutkowska – Head of Security Department

Grzegorz Nowakowski – project manager

Pawel Bylica – advisor from Ether

Anna Sawicka – office manager

Advantages of the Golem network that can attract the attention of users

To promote any product, it is necessary that as many people as possible become interested in it. With the current wide choice, such a product must have serious advantages over similar products (services), otherwise the consumer, spoiled by the abundance of offers, will not even look in its direction.

This rule also applies in the cryptocurrency sphere. There are such a large number of cryptographic projects that users, before becoming participants in any of them, meticulously and scrupulously analyze its prospects and attractiveness from different points of view.

In this sense, the golem has something to surprise and delight the selective user:

1. Let's start with the fact that the project is universal. The types of tasks that can be processed using this platform can be very diverse.
2. Decentralization ensures uninterrupted operation of the network; there is no threat of failures that could stall the entire system.
3. Scalability, and unlimited scalability, is another significant advantage. Any number of computers can connect to the network at any time.
4. The system is quite safe, one might even say very safe. This is ensured by carrying out all calculations on a “virtual computer” (thus, operations are not associated with the main system). And if you're into developing your own computing applications, you can easily integrate them into Golem.
5. The platform aims to deliver – both as an infrastructure and as a platform (IaaS and PaaS). The system’s tokens, when they begin to fully function, will be used to pay software authors and those who provide computing power. In addition, over time they will be used to provide collateral (by the same providers and application developers).

Development prospects

It must be admitted that Golem’s plans for 2018-2019 are grandiose, and the beginning of the journey was vigorous. The coin was among the top ten leaders in capitalization. People, inspired by the ideas of the developers and the prospects of Golem, actively invested money in it.

But a year has passed since the cryptocurrency entered the market, and the development of the project is still at the “copper” stage, that is, at the initial level. The coin slipped into fortieth place in the capitalization ranking. Such news gives grounds to make an unfavorable forecast for the development of Golem. Many are beginning to be tormented by doubts whether the developers will be able to complete everything planned.

The Golem exchange rate to the dollar has now dropped by half compared to the state in the summer of 2022, but perhaps everything will change if the developers come to their senses and start working to achieve their goals. In the meantime, it is not recommended to buy Golem cryptocurrency.

Main competitors

Golem's competitors are:

• Bitkub is a platform for exchanging digital assets and cryptocurrencies.
• Crypterium is a crypto bank that aims to transform the overwhelmingly volatile world of cryptocurrency into a contactless payment platform.
• Indodax is a fintech company that exchanges digital assets on the blockchain.
• Algorand is a company developing a scalable, secure and decentralized digital currency and transaction platform.

Golem's competitors include other decentralized computing tokens such as SONM, DeepBrainChain, iExec RLC, and Substratum. Of its decentralized computing competitors, it boasts the highest market capitalization at $542 billion.

Through decentralization and cryptoeconomic incentives, Golem is trying to disrupt the $130 billion-a-year cloud computing market, and it appears to have the best chance of doing so.

Reflections "at the end"

Well, what can we say in conclusion? Of course, I would like to summarize with some specific conclusions and data, but this is always difficult, if not impossible, in the cryptocurrency sphere. The market is too unstable, too much rests on the interest of the “public”, and this interest can disappear at any moment, etc., etc.

But nothing prevents us from talking about the impressions that the Golem project produces. And the impressions are not bad. Everything we described above looks quite promising and promising. If the developers' plans come true (and they have repeatedly emphasized that much will depend on future funding), then consider that we are on the verge of great opportunities in the field of computer computing and more.

Don’t let our words about financing alarm you too much; it is likely that there will be no problems with this. Golem’s capitalization already looks no worse – $200,000,000. Let's hope that everything will continue to be okay.

In a word, the idea is very interesting, it’s a shame if it remains unrealized to the end. But let's be optimistic. Good luck!

Token

November 19, 2022. Transition from GNT to GLM

We are moving to an ERC20 token, mainly because New Golem's transaction structure is built on Ethereum Layer 2 and this scaling method requires the tokens to be ERC-20.

Our previous token (GNT) launched in 2016, and ERC-20 wasn't popular back then and we didn't know how widely it would be adopted. ERC-20 tokens can be freely used not only for L2, but also for DeFi and DEX (decentralized exchanges), and can also give you access to other benefits on the Ethereum blockchain. The new GLM is the key to unlocking it all!

You can migrate in a variety of ways, but if you have little experience with Ethereum, we highly recommend MetaMask or MyCrypto (they're secure, simple, and both support hardware wallets like the Ledger Nano S and Trezor). The other two are for advanced users.

Functionality and financing

Budget structure with maximum/minimum level of funding

Team Gelem

spends funds exclusively on employee salaries. We estimate that with maximum funding we will be able to support a team of 20 people (most of whom are developers) for 4 years.

Office and related expenses

— includes expenses for offices in Zug and Warsaw, as well as other related work-related expenses.

Contractors

- this includes all third parties with whom we would like to work. This is a large part of the budget mainly due to safety audits (four in the case of maximum funding: one for each stage). Legal and accounting services are also included in this category.

Activities to maintain and expand the community

strictly related to Golem's expansion plan.

It includes both communication and marketing tools to attract new communities to Golem, as well as support (funding or co-funding) third-party integrations with Golem.

The events will be mainly focused on attracting customers to ensure an increase in the number of integrated solutions that are actively used by members of the Golem network.

Additional technologies category

includes the costs of external technologies on which the Golem depends. Most likely, our own development of the technologies needed by the Golem will be financed.

Contingency Fund

calculated as 10% of the total budget (5% with minimum funding).

Application

• COMPUTER GRAPHICS Golem can distribute a CGI rendering task, doing in minutes what would take days, for cheaper than anything else. The first version, Brass Golem, will only do this.
• BUSINESS From stock market forecasts to big data analysis, Golem can speed up business calculations and reduce costs.
• MACHINE LEARNING If you're teaching an AI to be a grandmaster or recognize images or human voices, you can go to Golem to speed up the process
• CRYPTOGRAPHY Golem can run the world's first and largest fully decentralized pools of smart cryptocurrency systems. It can also help with cryptography work such as integral factorization.
• SCIENCE The world of science can benefit greatly from inexpensive and easy access to a powerful supercomputer. From DNA analysis to protein folding simulations in search of alien life and so on.
• MICROSERVICES Golem's application registry can launch countless types of decentralized microservices and dapps that anyone can develop and share (for profit if they wish). This is just the tip of the iceberg in potential uses for the Golem. And more will appear as new technologies emerge.

Road map

In this section we present the main stages of Golem's development.
You can read non-technical details of Golem's architecture on our blog, some thoughts on upcoming challenges are described here, and of course you can check out the code on GitHub. Successive versions of the Golem program are divided into stages. This is a preliminary plan as Golem uses advanced technology and is a very complex project in itself.

Before each stage, studies must be carried out and results obtained, which are described in technical documents. However, two important notes need to be made:

1. New features are added at each stage. 2. The results of each stage depend on the amount of funding raised. In the description of these phases below, these functions are classified into four indicative funding scenarios. 3. The functions will be implemented if the appropriate level of funding is achieved.

We've codenamed the different versions of the Golem program based on the golems in Dungeons & Dragons. The analogy is not perfect, but still, these are e-golems.