‘Airbnb for Computers’: Golem, One of Ethereum’s Most Ambitious Projects, Now Available on Mainnet


On Tuesday, April 10, 2018, the team behind one of Ethereum’s most awaited projects ‘Golem’ announced its launch of the app’s beta version and is finally now available on the Ethereum mainnet. Golem launched two years back in 2016, was Ethereum’s one of the earliest Initial Coin Offering (ICO) projects which gained a lot of limelight in the crypto industry as it managed to garner a whopping $8 million just in 25 minutes from the launch of its GNT tokens.

The recent announcement of the project states: “We’ve come a long way. From being one of the first crowdfunded projects, way past the challenges we had to face while navigating the uncharted territory that is building Golem, the time has come to take the big step: mainnet launch is here.”

Golem is basically a peer-to-peer network that allows its users to put their excess CPU or machine power to use for other people like miners and others who need it. In return, the user is rewarded for letting his CPU be used. The idea behind this project was to create a global market for your ideal computing power that allows users to rent their CPU power and get paid in return in the form of GNT tokens. It has often been dubbed as the “Airbnb” for computers.

Ultimately it aims to bring easy accessibility and affordability for things that require heavy computing like machine learning, scientific calculations, Computer Generated Image (CGI) rendering besides many other things.

However, the Golem team has received a lot of criticism for bringing the product to life especially after it received an overwhelming response from the crypto investing community. It looks like Golen somewhat underestimated what it takes to build a “worldwide supercomputer”. In a word with CoinDesk, Golem founder and CEO Julian Zawistowski said: “This is typical for software development in general, and blockchain in particular, we underestimate the complexity of what we want to do. You always underestimate how difficult it is, and this was obviously the case with us.”

although the final destination of creating a “worldwide supercomputer” is miles away, the mainnet launch marks an important milestone in proving out Golem’s operational capabilities and also Ethereum’s simultaneously. The latest release of Golem Brass Beta is an attempt to check how the technology responds to the real market with actual money.  “We have to see how it behaves in the wild,” said Zawistowski.

After the beta launch, company CTO and co-founder Piotr “Viggith” Janiuk has a sigh of relief saying: “The release is there to prove to us and everyone that we can actually deliver something that can run on mainnet and that’s really usable. And well, it is.”

However, there are always some risks associated with the beta launch of a software, and Golem clearly notifies its users about this saying “… even though this new stage will expose our project to diverse risks, it is not possible (or responsible) to say a product is finalized without real users.”

A shoutout to the Golem would be appreciable as the mainnet release comes after three years of dedicated inputs having tested 14 software implementations till now.

The post ‘Airbnb for Computers’: Golem, One of Ethereum’s Most Ambitious Projects, Now Available on Mainnet appeared first on CoinSpeaker.