Nexus completed a $25 million Series A funding round in June.

This week, the supercomputer project Nexus launched its new testnet. Daniel Marin, founder and CEO of Nexus, stated that just two hours after the testnet release, it attracted the active participation of 10,000 users. \
So, what exactly is the Nexus project? How does it operate, and how can one participate in it?

What is Nexus?

Nexus is inspired by large-scale scientific projects such as SETI@home, developed by the University of California, Berkeley (which uses globally connected computers to search for extraterrestrial life), and Folding@home, a distributed computing project from Stanford University aimed at helping scientists develop new treatments for diseases by simulating protein dynamics. The idea behind Nexus is to build an internet supercomputer based on verifiable computation. It seeks to connect computing devices scattered around the world, such as large GPU farms, personal computers, smartphones, and more, to form a unified supercomputer.

Additionally, through the use of the Nexus zkVM, Nexus connects computation supply with proof demand. This allows anyone to connect their device to the network, participate in computations, and earn rewards in return.

Nexus’s founder and CEO, Daniel Marin, graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and is a two-time winner of the International Physics Olympiad. The Chief Scientist, Jens Groth, is the inventor of the paired zkSNARK and has held positions as a Research Director at DFINITY and a Professor of Cryptography at University College London.

The engineering and research team at Nexus is composed of numerous experts with extensive experience in cryptography and computer science. Additionally, the advisors listed on the Nexus website include 8 individuals, such as Yevgeniy Dodis, Chair of the Cryptography Department at New York University; Chelsea Komlo, Chief Scientist at Zcash; Zhenfei Zhang, an Ethereum cryptographer; Giuseppe Persiano, a Google cryptographer; Daniel Vogel, Co-founder and CEO of Bitso; and Gengmo Qi, a partner at Dragonfly, among others.

In terms of funding, Nexus Labs raised $25 million in a Series A round in June 2024, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Pantera Capital, with participation from Dragonfly Capital, Faction Ventures, and Blockchain Builders Fund.

How Does Nexus Operate?

As mentioned earlier, Nexus operates as a large-scale parallel proof network that tightly connects computing devices from around the world, collectively forming a supercomputer. The core of this network is the Nexus zkVM, which can verify the correctness of any computation. The zkVM is a virtual machine that uses zero-knowledge cryptography to ensure that a computation is correctly executed without accessing any private or personal information.

According to the official description, the Nexus zkVM is a modular, scalable, open-source, highly parallel, proof-optimized, and contributor-friendly virtual machine. It is written in Rust and focuses on performance and security. The core components of the Nexus zkVM include: the Nexus Prover, Nexus Virtual Machine (NVM), and the Nexus Proof Compression Mechanism (recursive SNARK proof compression sequence). Because the Nexus zkVM is designed to support a high degree of parallel computing, it greatly improves proof generation speed.

Specifically, Nexus Network operates by scheduling a set of Prover clients, each of which can access the Nexus zkVM. Each connected Prover is assigned a unit of work, which is the program to be proven. Prover clients continuously report their progress to Nexus throughout the proof generation process, and after completing a proof, they remain idle, awaiting new task assignments.

Is Nexus Secure?

Regarding security, according to the Nexus FAQ documentation, Nexus network programs cannot access files on the user’s computer or network. The proof environment, the program to be proven, and the program’s inputs are always communicated through encrypted secure network connections. Additionally, the proof uses a virtual machine to prevent programs from directly accessing your files, devices, peripherals, etc. When communicating with the Nexus network, the Prover’s web version operates in a sandboxed browser environment, which cannot access other applications, files, or data on the system.

So, what information does Nexus collect? According to the Nexus terms of service and data privacy page, Nexus may collect and track telemetry data, such as the user’s machine usage, geographic location, bandwidth, clock speed, hash rate, throughput, and/or other measurement data. The only personal information collected is the email address connected to the user’s account.

How to participate?

The new testnet of Nexus has introduced a points and account system, allowing contributors to compete for rankings on the leaderboard. The current testnet will continue until December 14 at 01:00.

At present, users can participate in the Nexus Network in two ways:

1. Contribute computational resources directly via the web interface (available for both desktop and mobile).

2. Provide computational resources via the command-line tool, Nexus Network CLI. Using the CLI to connect to the network offers better performance and provides the opportunity to submit your own programs for others to verify.

3. Contributing Computational Resources via the Web Interface

This method requires no technical knowledge. The steps to participate are as follows:

1. Visit beta.nexus.xyz.
2. Click “Connect” to connect.
3. Enter your email address to link your ProverID and create a Nexus account (email confirmation is required, though I have not yet received the confirmation email).

Alternatively, you can add your email in the “Profile” section at the bottom left, which will allow you to track your NEXUS points. You can also connect multiple devices to the same email.

Note:

• If you close the webpage, your points will not accumulate.
• Clearing the cache will generate a new ProverID, and you will not be able to access your previous points.
• The ProverID displayed here is not the full version—only the first few digits or letters are shown. To see the full ProverID, you can check the localId field in developer mode.

1. Providing Computational Resources via Nexus Network CLI

Nexus states that connecting to the network using the CLI (Command Line Interface) offers better performance and allows users to submit their own programs for others to verify.

The CLI supports Linux, macOS, and Windows operating systems, and users can even use VPS servers to keep their devices running in the background. For a detailed process, users can refer to the official documentation.

Disclaimer:

1. This article is republished from [ForesightNews]. All copyrights belong to the original author [KarenZ, Foresight News]. If you have any concerns regarding this republishing, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it according to the relevant process.
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