Nexus, a computation firm, recently had a successful test drive of their in-development decentralized supercomputer, with more than a 1.5 million nodes participating from 187 countries. The nodes came online during a five-day testnet run and provided the computing power needed to take a step towards creating a “Verifiable Internet.”
Raising $25 million in Series A funding in June, Nexus is part of an emerging group of companies and protocols that strive to harness distributed computing power from around the globe towards a synergistic objective. The testnet saw around 800,000 web nodes and 700,000 command-line interface nodes come online, peaking with over 100,000 concurrent nodes.
The successful Nexus zkVM testnet, conducted from Dec. 9 to 13, had company’s CEO, Daniel Marin, stating it as proof of the worldwide demand for progress in blockchain and AI. He emphasized the need to further scale the network to meet the global demand.
A significant metric observed was that 37% of the network traffic during the testnet was from mobile devices. In certain countries, including Ethiopia and Poland, engagement on mobile even outperformed desktop use. Responding to this, Marin highlighted the need to make it easier for anyone to connect to the network using any device.
While the nodes operate in a decentralized manner, Nexus maintains firm control over the supercomputer’s operations. Marin explained that Nexus chooses the programs supplied by the network, with submissions for proven programs accepted only after a stringent review process.
Marin recognizes that Nexus is not the first company to utilize distributed computing power, citing SETI@home’s scientific experiment at UC Berkeley that hunted for extraterrestrial intelligence. Other decentralized computation projects under development include Internet Computer, the Golem Network, and the Zennet.