Gonka X BeInCrypto AMA Session
Gonka is redefining decentralized infrastructure by optimizing computational energy for AI mannequin coaching and inference. Unlike conventional centralized cloud suppliers—typically pricey, monopolistic, and liable to censorship—Gonka affords a scalable and environment friendly various that channels practically 100% of its computing sources into significant AI duties.
Recently, David Liberman, co-founder of Gonka, joined BeInCrypto for an AMA session to debate how the platform’s novel consensus mechanism transforms Proof-of-Work right into a productive system for AI computation.
During the session, David explored why compute energy is changing into the brand new foreign money, how Gonka bridges the hole between AI and decentralization, and what offers the venture the potential to outperform tech giants like AWS, Google, and OpenAI.
In this text, we’ll recap the important thing takeaways from the AMA and unpack how Gonka is pioneering a brand new period for decentralized AI infrastructure.
BeInCrypto: So, for everybody simply becoming a member of – right this moment we’re speaking about Gonka, the decentralized AI compute protocol that’s taking up centralized giants and redefining Proof-of-Work for the AI period.
So David, let’s begin with the massive one – you’ve stated that Gonka shouldn’t be an organization, not a startup, and never even a platform, however fairly a community and a protocol.
Can you clarify what meaning in observe? How does Gonka really perform and not using a conventional crew or possession construction?
David Liberman: In observe, the whole lot is ruled by consensus of the protocol; there isn’t any basis or any org controlling the protocol. Miners with their vote management the community.
Bitcoin is a superb instance, how protocols could be ruled with out conventional constructions
We’re primarily based within the U.S., the place regulators are fairly clear that you simply shouldn’t increase funds to construct protocols. Otherwise, the cash are thought of securities.
We know that many initiatives outdoors the U.S. don’t observe these guidelines, however in our case, we wished the community’s cash to be freely utilized by builders in San Francisco. So we by no means raised funds with the promise of cash and ensured the community was community-controlled from the genesis
BeInCrypto: That’s tremendous attention-grabbing – and truthfully fairly uncommon nowadays.
It seems like Gonka was designed from day one to remain actually decentralized – not simply in tech, but additionally legally and economically. Love that you simply talked about the U.S. angle too – it’s refreshing to listen to a few venture that was really constructed with compliance in thoughts fairly than attempting to work round it.
So let’s dig into the origin story a bit. You’ve stated Gonka was born out of collaboration between Web2 AI researchers and Web3 miners. That’s not a mix we see typically! What introduced these two worlds collectively, and the way did that form the early design of the community?
David Liberman: Yes, Gonka gives pure utility, and many of the builders constructing AI startups are within the US. We come from the “Web2” world and have been constructing AI firms for the previous 15 years, however we’ve at all times been obsessed with decentralization as a solution to create essentially the most environment friendly compute community.
When we had been in school within the early 2000s, we constructed a neighborhood of 300,000 computer systems world wide. Initially, we simply wished to do scientific computing, however as soon as the community got here collectively, we realized it had a complete energy of 10 teraflops. More than the biggest supercomputer at the moment.
Since then, we’ve believed that the networks of the long run must be decentralized.
When Bitcoin was launched, its thought of “One CPU, One Vote” was rooted within the fact that the best computing energy ought to stay within the palms of the folks
BeInCrypto: That makes whole sense – protecting it purely utility-focused is such a sensible transfer, particularly when your core dev base is within the U.S.
That’s wild – 300,000 computer systems again within the early 2000s?! That’s principally proto-Gonka! You had been crowdsourcing compute energy earlier than it was cool haha. So let’s fast-forward to right this moment – your Proof-of-Work mannequin isn’t only for mining, it’s really helpful.
It trains and runs AI fashions as a substitute of losing vitality on random hashes.
Can you stroll us by way of how that works technically? How did you make PoW “productive” as a substitute of purely computational?
David Liberman: Yes, that’s appropriate. We use a Proof-of-Work mannequin to construct the infrastructure, with all new cash issued day by day going to miners. The extra computing energy you contribute, the bigger your share of cash.
It’s essential to really construct an infrastructure of tons of of 1000’s of high-end GPUs and later ASICs, which none of PoS protocols will be capable to obtain.
Our PoW perform is completely different from Bitcoin’s. It’s primarily based on Transformers, the underlying know-how behind most AI fashions right this moment.
Secondly, the consensus makes use of a novel Sprint precept. It ensures that 100% of computing energy is utilized for a brief interval. About 5 minutes a day, concurrently throughout the community. During that point, everybody proves they possess the computing energy they declare, making it inconceivable to cheat or faux to have extra. Similar to how Bitcoin works.
BeInCrypto: That’s an ideal level – taking the PoW thought and making it helpful as a substitute of purely symbolic actually adjustments the sport.
But then comes the massive query – how do you retain that system honest because it scales? If 80% of tokens can solely be mined by way of actual compute, what prevents large GPU holders from taking on and centralizing the community once more?
David Liberman: Yes, that’s appropriate. The community evolves in line with its incentives. That was Satoshi’s main breakthrough.
If you design incentives to develop computing energy, it would scale at an infinite tempo. But in case you focus incentives on stakers, the general computing energy will stay comparatively small.
If you’ve 999 GPUs and I’ve 1, it’s honest that I obtain 1/1000 of the reward. That’s not an issue. The actual subject arises when your 999 GPUs assist you to forestall me, with simply 1 GPU, from getting into the market. And that’s what occurs in centralized clouds. When dominant gamers can forestall smaller gamers from even getting into the market.
If you have a look at who owns GPUs right this moment, hundreds of thousands of high-end GPUs are within the palms of smaller gamers. But with out Gonka, they might be sidelined from taking part within the development of the AI market.
BeInCrypto: That’s a very clear solution to put it – it’s not about having extra, it’s about protecting the door open so anybody with {hardware} can take part. I like the way you body it as fixing the entry drawback, not simply the scaling drawback.
David Liberman: That’s what Bitcoin confirmed us. Today, the Bitcoin community represents 26 gigawatts of information facilities, greater than Google, Amazon, and Microsoft mixed. If we attain an identical stability sooner or later AI world, I’d be advantageous with Google, Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI, and xAI every having 10% of the market, whereas the Gonka neighborhood holds the remaining.
BeInCrypto: And that naturally brings us to the financial facet of it.
You’ve stated earlier than that AI compute is the brand new foreign money, and that GNK is the primary token to signify that.
That’s an enormous assertion – are you able to stroll us by way of how compute really turns into useful within the Gonka mannequin?
David Liberman: In the Gonka community, round 310,000 GNK are issued day by day, regularly reducing with a halving each 4 years. These cash are backed by the underlying value of the GPUs mining them.
Two months in the past, when there have been solely 64 H200 GPUs within the community, every earned about 4,800 GNK per day. Now, with over 1,200 H200 GPUs within the community, every earns round 250 GNK
At first look, it seems like earnings dropped 20x. But in actuality, the underlying value of mining every coin elevated 20x, which means each coin now represents 20 occasions extra worth, so those that mined two months in the past have already 20x’d their mining funding
And the variety of GPUs within the community grew 30% simply although the final week
That is what it means for GNK to signify AI compute.”
BeInCrypto: That’s a very elegant mechanism – it’s nearly like proof of actual financial work, not simply technical work. The manner GNK’s worth adjusts with community development makes it really feel instantly tied to the price of actual compute energy.
And talking of that transparency – I noticed in your whitepaper that mining 1 GNK at the moment prices round 7–9 cents, primarily based on GPU hire charges.
That degree of readability is fairly uncommon in crypto. Do you suppose this mannequin might really reshape how the business costs entry to compute – turning it right into a measurable, market-based asset?
David Liberman:If Bittensor had been a PoW community, with its present FDV, it could have round 40-50K H200 GPUs within the community. Far greater than it has now. With that degree of compute, its FDV could be a lot increased (at a degree of a serious centralized GPU supplier), and the community would preserve increasing. Unfortunately, most of their rewards are wasted on stakers
The value adjustments day by day because the community grows; it’s arduous to maintain up.
Yes, we consider that. Especially as soon as AI ASICs start to dominate the community, Gonka will change into the usual that shapes the complete business
BeInCrypto: Let’s discuss in regards to the neighborhood. From 6 hosts and 80 GPUs in early assessments to over 500 GPUs throughout 28 hosts right this moment – that’s quick development.
Who’s becoming a member of the community proper now? Are these miners, researchers, or new sorts of individuals totally?
David Liberman: I feel Gonka not too long ago handed 60 energetic hosts. These embrace skilled miners (e.g., 6Block), VC companies (e.g,. Hard Yaka), GPU information facilities (e.g., Hyperfusion), and people who consider in decentralized AI.
We at the moment have 1,400 members in our Discord neighborhood, a 3x improve in simply the previous two weeks, and most of them are miners and builders
UPD: for the reason that interview, Gonka community has 142 hosts and ~2,270 H100 GPUs.
BeInCrypto: And since Gonka is totally community-governed, how do you deal with upgrades and proposals?
Is it purely on-chain voting, or is there some hybrid governance mannequin?
David Liberman: All voting for upgrades and proposals is finished purely on-chain. Our neighborhood may be very supportive on the subject of bettering the community’s capabilities
BeInCrypto: The community’s development has been fairly spectacular – from just some early hosts with 80 GPUs to now tons of throughout dozens of individuals.
Who are these new contributors? Are they principally conventional miners increasing into AI, or builders and smaller groups in search of decentralized compute energy?
And how does governance really work in observe – how do individuals suggest or vote on upgrades to the protocol?
And since constructing one thing like this isn’t precisely easy, what’s been the hardest a part of getting Gonka from thought to the place it’s now? Was it extra in regards to the technical challenges or about convincing people who decentralized AI compute might really work?
David Liberman: I don’t know all of the miners, we attempt to talk with most of them over Discord, although not everybody responds. From what I can see, they’re pretty evenly distributed amongst these teams.
Proposals are first distributed on Discord, then posted on-chain (it may be posted by any energetic participant with a payment) after which on-chain voting takes place utilizing the Gonka CLI or node dashboards.
First, the know-how itself turned out to be far more difficult than we initially anticipated
We thought “it could be straightforward to exchange the hash perform with a Transformer-based one,” however in actuality, it took an incredible quantity of effort to do it proper.
Then there’s the problem of “competing” with essentially the most useful firms on this planet. People had been typically skeptical that it’s even doable to win. But the concern of a world the place these firms management the whole lot has really helped draw consideration to our trigger, and the instance of Bitcoin evokes us all.
BeInCrypto: That’s extremely insightful 0 and truthfully, it’s spectacular the way you managed to push by way of each the technical and psychological limitations. Competing with the largest gamers on this planet whereas constructing one thing from scratch is not any small feat.
Before we wrap up, let’s finish on a forward-looking observe. If Gonka succeeds – if compute actually turns into open, censorship-free, and community-owned – what does that future appear to be 5 to 7 years from now? Who stands to profit essentially the most from that shift… and who would possibly lose their grip on energy?
David Liberman: AI will change into so reasonably priced that the productiveness it allows will improve the lives of each human on earth. We’ll transfer towards a future the place every of us owns private robots, powered by brokers that belong to us and align with our particular person objectives
Frontier labs like OpenAI and Anthropic, in addition to main tech firms, will nonetheless exist. But greater than 50% of all compute will happen on protocols owned by the folks
At the identical time, decentralized protocols will surpass $10 trillion in worth, and those that contribute to the ecosystem would be the largest winners. Thank you for such a tremendous dialogue.
Please observe us on x.com/gonka_ai
And be part of our Discord: https://gonka.ai/ – hope to see you all there.
Conclusion
The AMA session with David Liberman gave us an inside have a look at how Gonka is remodeling decentralized compute for the AI period — turning Proof-of-Work into one thing actually productive. David shared how Gonka maximizes effectivity, cuts prices, and empowers the neighborhood to contribute actual computing energy to AI innovation.Big due to David Liberman for becoming a member of us and sharing how Gonka is constructing the way forward for decentralized AI with the BeInCrypto neighborhood!
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