Read on Twitter
1/14
Earlier this week, Akash — the first decentralized cloud computing marketplace — hosted a Serum DEX UI as its first DeFi app. https://twitter.com/gregosuri/status/1335407599299256320
Pretty neat that Serum got to claim that spot in DeFi history.
Earlier this week, Akash — the first decentralized cloud computing marketplace — hosted a Serum DEX UI as its first DeFi app. https://twitter.com/gregosuri/status/1335407599299256320
Pretty neat that Serum got to claim that spot in DeFi history.
2/14
“Decentralized cloud” felt a bit buzzword-y to me, and where there are buzzwords there’s often a distinct lack of substance. So we looked into what it actually meant in the context of Akash: turns out there’s a lot that’s interesting here!
“Decentralized cloud” felt a bit buzzword-y to me, and where there are buzzwords there’s often a distinct lack of substance. So we looked into what it actually meant in the context of Akash: turns out there’s a lot that’s interesting here!
3/14
NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE
NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE
4/14
When devs want to deploy a service, where do they go? The answer is very often one of the few household names: AWS, GCE, Azure, Alibaba Cloud.
When devs want to deploy a service, where do they go? The answer is very often one of the few household names: AWS, GCE, Azure, Alibaba Cloud.
5/14
These are great options, but they have a few problems. They're centralized and in something of an oligopoly: they can charge high prices, and their failures can be devastating.
These are great options, but they have a few problems. They're centralized and in something of an oligopoly: they can charge high prices, and their failures can be devastating.
6/14
AWS is awesome, but it’s not without its issues. Centralized crypto exchanges have run into unexpected AWS issues a couple times in recent memory: datacenter cooling broke, EBS problems clogged AWS’ internal networking rails and brought down other services, etc.
AWS is awesome, but it’s not without its issues. Centralized crypto exchanges have run into unexpected AWS issues a couple times in recent memory: datacenter cooling broke, EBS problems clogged AWS’ internal networking rails and brought down other services, etc.
7/14
So what if you weren't tied to AWS and found a way to deploy your service using some of the world’s remaining vast and underutilized compute -- whatever was available, healthy, and offered cheap at the time? Akash is building a way for you to do just that.
So what if you weren't tied to AWS and found a way to deploy your service using some of the world’s remaining vast and underutilized compute -- whatever was available, healthy, and offered cheap at the time? Akash is building a way for you to do just that.
8/14
You submit a bid specifying a deployment configuration for your app on the Akash network, and get matched against a compute provider via an auction.
Once matched, you send your containerized app (pushed to Docker Hub) to that provider. And then they run it.
You submit a bid specifying a deployment configuration for your app on the Akash network, and get matched against a compute provider via an auction.
Once matched, you send your containerized app (pushed to Docker Hub) to that provider. And then they run it.
9/14
There’s a ton of unused compute in the world, but not all of it is high quality, and verifying compute is hard. So providers have public reputations — you’re not obligated to deploy using the provider you matched against.
There’s a ton of unused compute in the world, but not all of it is high quality, and verifying compute is hard. So providers have public reputations — you’re not obligated to deploy using the provider you matched against.
10/14
Quality compute providers don’t seem like they’ll be a bottleneck short-term: Equinix Metal is currently providing on Akash. And there’s an argument for this not being an issue long-term either: some estimates have 85% of global datacenter capacity as unused, on average.
Quality compute providers don’t seem like they’ll be a bottleneck short-term: Equinix Metal is currently providing on Akash. And there’s an argument for this not being an issue long-term either: some estimates have 85% of global datacenter capacity as unused, on average.
11/14
I glossed over a ton of details here, so I recommend jumping into their docs if you want to know more https://docs.akash.network/ on the tech. Or you can check out their guide on deploying a Serum DEX GUI using Akash: https://github.com/ovrclk/awesome-akash/blob/master/serum/GUIDE.md.
I glossed over a ton of details here, so I recommend jumping into their docs if you want to know more https://docs.akash.network/ on the tech. Or you can check out their guide on deploying a Serum DEX GUI using Akash: https://github.com/ovrclk/awesome-akash/blob/master/serum/GUIDE.md.
12/14
Akash has been really picking up steam this week. They have a repo with deployment configurations for tens of your favorite dApps: https://github.com/ovrclk/awesome-akash. And most look like they’re written by people not on the team — so, real adoption!
Akash has been really picking up steam this week. They have a repo with deployment configurations for tens of your favorite dApps: https://github.com/ovrclk/awesome-akash. And most look like they’re written by people not on the team — so, real adoption!
13/14
I’m interested to see where this all goes. Among other things, secure hardware enclaves certainly seem like they’d pair _very_ nicely with decentralized deployment platforms.
I’m interested to see where this all goes. Among other things, secure hardware enclaves certainly seem like they’d pair _very_ nicely with decentralized deployment platforms.
14/14
There’s a lot of work to do before really replacing AWS, but so far, Akash is definitely demonstrating a neat vision for one possible future for app deployment. Check em out at https://akash.network/about/ and @gregosuri.
There’s a lot of work to do before really replacing AWS, but so far, Akash is definitely demonstrating a neat vision for one possible future for app deployment. Check em out at https://akash.network/about/ and @gregosuri.
