As the pace of updates for smartphones and computers accelerates, owning several old phones and computers has become common. Although these devices no longer meet high-performance demands, their value has not completely vanished. On the contrary, in the world of Web3, they can be revitalized to participate in mining, running nodes, and sharing computing resources, thereby earning tokens or point rewards without worrying about the risk of data breaches or misuse.

This article compiles nine Web3 projects that can turn old phones and computers from waste to treasure for readers to explore.

io.net

• Background: io.net is a DePIN project based on Solana aimed at aggregating GPU resources for artificial intelligence and machine learning companies.
• Funding: In March 2024, io.net announced the completion of a $30 million Series A funding round led by Hack VC with participation from Foresight Ventures, SevenX, Multicoin Capital, 6th Man Ventures, M13, Delphi Digital, Solana Labs, Aptos Labs, Longhash, ArkStream, Animoca Brands, Continue Capital, MH Ventures, OKX Ventures, and notable angel investors such as Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Aptos founders Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, Animoca Brands’ Yat Siu, and Perlone Capital’s Jin Kang.
• Vision: io.net aims to transform IO into a computing currency, powering a product and service ecosystem, allowing computation to be accessed as a resource and asset. Key features include batch inference and model services, parallel training, parallel hyperparameter tuning, and reinforcement learning.
• Ignition Reward Program: Launched on March 1 and continuing until April 28, the program rewards users for providing GPU power to the network. The reward algorithm considers several factors such as hours of work completed, node bandwidth, GPU model, and uptime. However, io.net has specific requirements for personal computer configurations and settings, detailed in the official documentation.
• Reward Pools: The Ignition program features three independent reward pools: Worker Rewards, Community Task Rewards, and Discord Role Rewards. For Worker Rewards, points are calculated based on activity from November 4, 2023, to April 25, 2024, recording the total points accumulated by each node and user account during the full reward period. At the end of the reward period, all earned points are summed and converted into rewards, distributed proportionally to each user account based on their share of points.
• Community and Discord Rewards: In the community task rewards, io.net has set up multiple tasks on Galxe, where completing fixed and daily tasks earns points. In Discord role rewards, users earn roles based on their contributions to bounties, content creation, and other activities.

Official website: https://io.net/

ola:

ola is a Layer 2 zero-knowledge (ZK) programmable privacy and scalability project that incorporates ZKVM (Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machine), DePin (Decentralized Pinning), and AI technologies. This project is a part of the Massive platform, which has modularized blockchain design into various components such as ZKRollup (off-chain computation), DA (Data Availability - off-chain transaction storage), ZKVaaS (Zero-Knowledge Verification as a Service - off-chain verification), and L1 (state updates).

Key Features of ola:

Equal Participation: On the Massive platform, every user participates and contributes in the same way, ensuring fairness across the system.

Mining App “Massive”: ola has launched a mobile mining application named Massive, introducing a “verification-as-mining” model. This app is currently available for Android users, with an iOS version to be released soon.

Token Allocation: Originally, 10% of the tokens were allocated to the Massive module. This has been increased to 13%, with at least 2% of tokens to be pre-allocated during the testnet phase, up from the initial 1%.

Participation Methods:

Users can join the network and, after accumulating a certain amount of rewards, unlock further mining rewards.

By staking assets, users can also become nodes within the Massive network.

Depending on the underlying L1 chain type, users can stake different assets. For instance, for services on the BTC L2/L3 Massive network, users can stake BRC-20 and BTC assets; for Ethereum-based L2/L3 services, users can stake ERC-20 and ETH assets.

Funding:

In July 2023, ola completed a $3 million seed funding round. The round was co-led by Web3.com Ventures and Foresight Ventures, with additional participation from Token Metrics Ventures, J17 Capital, Skyland Ventures, LD Capital, and CatcherVC.

Official website: https://olavm.org/

Grass

Transforming Public Web Data into AI Datasets through an L2 Data Rollup Solution

Grass, launched in June 2023, focuses on transforming public web data into datasets for artificial intelligence, facilitating easier access to this data for open-source AI projects. Grass implements an L2 data Rollup solution that introduces a mechanism for recording metadata, documenting the origin of all datasets involved.

Architecture of Grass L2 Rollup:

Grass operates as a sovereign Rollup composed of nodes, routers, validators, ZK (Zero-Knowledge) processors, and a data ledger. This structure allows for the batching of metadata for verification purposes.

The Grass data ledger serves as the final repository for all the data, with each dataset’s metadata proof stored on Solana’s settlement layer. The settlement data itself is also made available through this ledger.

Functionality of ZK Processors:

ZK processors in Grass support the creation of metadata proofs that trace the origin of the Grass datasets. This provides a mechanism for builders and users to verify that AI models have been trained correctly and with integrity.

Funding and Network Participation:

The Wynd Network, behind Grass, completed a $3.5 million seed funding round in December 2023. The round was led by Polychain Capital and Tribe Capital, with contributions from Bitscale, Big Brain, Advisors Anonymous, Typhon V, Mozaik, and others, bringing Wynd’s total funding to $4.5 million.

Grass has launched an incentivized beta version, allowing users’ devices (currently in plugin form) to become nodes in the Grass network. The network utilizes unused internet bandwidth from user devices to fetch web data, rewarding users in return. Moreover, Grass supports earning points by inviting others to join the network.

Market Value:

As of the last report, Grass points were trading at $0.00287 per point on the Whale Market, a platform for trading such credits.

This innovative approach by Grass not only leverages underutilized resources (like bandwidth) but also enhances the accessibility and integrity of data used in AI research and development.

Official website: https://app.getgrass.io/

Over Protocol

Over Protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain protocol designed to lower the barriers for running blockchain nodes by reducing storage requirements, thus enabling anyone with a PC to become a validator and significantly decrease the costs of maintaining blockchain nodes. The protocol employs Ethanos technology to structure its data hierarchy into three main layers: Over layer, Nether layer, and External layer. The Over layer houses crucial data for blockchain operations, while the Nether layer stores supplementary data that enhances consensus but is not critical.

In July 2023, Superblock, the developer of Over Protocol, announced the completion of $8 million in fundraising through two financing rounds. The investors primarily consisted of companies from South Korea, including SK, Netmarble, DSC, E&Investment, Schmidt, SpringCamp, and NaverZ.

Testing and Participation:

Over Protocol is currently in the testnet phase, with two main methods for participation:

1.Home-Staking: Users stake OVER tokens and operate nodes through OverNode, which offers higher rewards.

1. Palm-Staking: Users can earn OVER test tokens by daily check-ins on the OverWallet mobile app and participate in staking activities. Initially, these activities provided rewards in the form of points, which are relatively lower compared to Home-Staking.

Tokenomics:

As of January 2024, Over Protocol indicated that the total token supply is 1 billion OVER tokens. The Community Access Plan (OCAP) accounts for 15% of the total supply, designated for airdrops to early participants and contributors, with specific airdrop formulas for OverWallet and OverNode to be released before the mainnet launch. Additionally, 40% of the tokens are allocated for staking rewards, to be distributed gradually over the next ten years.

For further information, visit Over Protocol’s official website. This approach aims to simplify the process of becoming a node operator and democratize the benefits of blockchain technology, making it more accessible to a broader audience.

Official website: https://over.network/

Nodle

Nodle is a decentralized IoT (Internet of Things) network that leverages smartphones as nodes to connect and support critical applications such as media content verification, asset tracking, and proof of location. Users can earn NODL tokens as rewards by downloading the Nodle app, activating Bluetooth, granting location permissions, and keeping the app running in the background. The app utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy, consuming about 10-15% of a phone’s battery daily. Nodle emphasizes that device locations are used only to calculate rewards based on network coverage contributions and to locate Bluetooth devices upon owner requests.

As of the latest data, the price of Nodle token is $0.009154, with a circulating market cap of approximately $32.8 million and a fully diluted market cap of $78.8 million.

https://www.nodle.com/nodle-app

UpRock

UpRock is described as a human-centric AI DePIN network, centered around a Knowledge Abstraction Layer (KAL) which combines advanced web crawling, intelligent routing, and LLM data extraction technologies. Users can earn UpRock tokens (UPT) by sharing unused internet bandwidth and contributing to the UpRock network, with support currently available for Android and macOS, and iOS support coming soon. The reward rate is calculated based on a formula involving upload and download speed coefficients, connection type, degree of freedom, and total mining time.

Although UpRock tokens have not yet been released, the tokenomics have been disclosed on their official website. The maximum supply of UPT is 1 billion, with 15% allocated to the team, 50% to the community, 4% to VCs, DAOs, and angel investors, 5% to exchanges and market makers, 10% for token launch activities, and 1% to advisors.

https://uprock.com/#home_install

Kuzco

Kuzco is a distributed GPU cluster used for LLM inference on Solana, aimed at facilitating efficient and cost-effective inference for large language models (LLMs) like Llama2 and Mistral. Kuzco currently supports macOS and Linux, allowing users to contribute their idle computing power to the Kuzco network in exchange for compensation (currently in the form of points).

By leveraging the power of idle computing resources contributed by network participants, Kuzco enables users to access and utilize these models through an OpenAI-compatible API. Information on mining equipment setup and tutorials can be found here.

Official website: https://kuzco.xyz/

Nimble

The Nimble Network is a composable AI protocol, creating a decentralized AI framework that allows AI models and data to be combined and reused. This protocol can be scaled across various media for complex IP, creators, advertising, personalization, and chatbot applications.

The Nimble Network has developed six key technologies including an AI version of Proof of Stake called “Proof of Gradient” (PoG), AI validation protocol Sandhill, horizontal scheduling network Rainstorm, modular incentives for the AI market Orchestrator, a universal network database Bandwagon, and a distributed AI ledger HashTrail. The key operational element of Proof of Gradient (PoG) is the AI request. Network validators reach consensus on AI processing and message scheduling through a PoS-like consensus algorithm. Miners earn network tokens through gradient learning PoW. Nimble Network states that this innovation allows developers to build decentralized data markets (like Google), ride-sharing markets (like Uber), e-commerce product markets (like Amazon), and more.

Nimble Network’s team members are serial entrepreneurs and researchers from companies such as Apple, Meta, Uber, Palo Alto Networks, and Robinhood. They were selected last month for the Binance Labs Season 7 MVB Accelerator Program and have launched the mainnet. Participation in Nimble Network mining is now available. Device requirements and guidelines for participating in Nimble Network mining, applicable to Linux, Windows 11, and Mac, can be found here.

According to Nimble Network tokenomics, the NIMBLE token will be issued in the second quarter of this year, with an initial supply of 50 million tokens and a total supply of 1 billion tokens. Of these, 10% are allocated to the ecosystem, 40% as miner rewards, 10% to the community, 20% to projects or individuals who contribute to the core components of the Nimble Network stack, and 20% to private investors. However, the current token distribution scheme is inconsistent with the FAQ document published by Nimble Network.

Official website: https://www.nimble.technology/

Acurast

Acurast is a decentralized serverless cloud, a Layer1 blockchain that supports providing computing and earning rewards.

Specifically, Acurast offers a modular architecture that separates the consensus layer, execution layer, and application layer. The Acurast coordinator is embedded in the consensus layer and includes a specially built reputation engine to ensure reliability and incentivize honest behavior. The permissionless Acurast protocol allows developers to join without trust, enabling them to deploy applications. Processors can provide computing power via Android mobile devices and have the opportunity to be rewarded for their computing resources. If interested, you can click here to learn about the setup process to become an Acurast processor.

Acurast has publicly stated that early community contributors like processors will be able to receive rewards.

Official website: https://acurast.com/

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