TL;DR
Golem Network and its decentralized supercomputers are back in the spotlight with changes to the network and its Golem token. Going on its 8th year in crypto, I’m sure you might be as surprised as I am to discover that Golem is still a very relevant project. The reason for this can be summed up in one word, “DePin”. With this newly named narrative becoming increasingly relevant, Golem has found itself back in the upper echelons of crypto. But, is Golem’s recent price action something you should pay attention to or write off as the final hooray of this classic cryptocurrency?
It’s important to understand that combining the computing power of unused machines into a supercomputer is nothing new for Golem. However, the usage of this system was originally designed for operating CGI and other rendering services.
It’s only recently that Golem has moved away from this limited use case and opened up GPU Beta testing for more generalized computing usage, fundamentally changing Golem from being CPU-focused to GPU-focused.
Pair this with the transition of Golem native tokens to ERC-20 tokens and you have the two main reasons Golem is still relevant in 2024.
What is Golem Network?
Founded in 2016, Golem spent the majority of its freshman years in beta testing. Building out its experimental supercomputer until officially launching the Golem Mainnet in 2021. This release introduced the Golem Chess and Golem Slate applications. Unfortunately, both products were sadly discontinued shortly after.
Giving rise to the Thorg mining application. This application helped make use of Golem Networks CPU infrastructure to allow dual mining on Golem and Ethereum. However, with the shift to Proof of Stake on Ethereum. Thorg was pushed out of the market and is no longer relevant to Golem.
This constant reinvention of Golem has been a survival tool and saving grace for the network. Most recently Golem has focused on providing accessibility for the network. Developing better tools for creators to access and interact with Golem by simplifying the installation and deployment of nodes.
This shift has also included a new opt-in reputation system that stores the identity of users and providers on the Golem network. As well as a frontend marketplace called Portal where Developers can launch applications and users can gain access to Golem resources. Something we’ll touch more on in the ecosystem portion of this review.
However, the biggest advancement in the Golem tech stack comes in the form of their newest flagship product called Cache. Similar to the way information on your computer is cached to provide easier access to that information in the future. Cache on Golem is an open-source compatibility system that operates to allow higher throughput for applications designed using Golem.
This high-speed storage layer allows future requests of a similar nature to be expedited faster than if that information was stored in a single location. Allowing applications to reuse old information from previously computed data to accelerate the speed of applications. While Cache is currently limited to proof-of-concept and has no performance guarantees. It’s the main development focus of Golem at this time.
Golem Network has three main groups that it focuses on providing…
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“The swarm is headed towards us” -Satoshi Nakamoto
