What is Golem (GLM)?

By CMC AI
06 December 2025 09:11PM (UTC+0)

TLDR

Golem (GLM) is a decentralized computing network enabling peer-to-peer trading of idle computational resources via blockchain, primarily for AI, rendering, and complex calculations.

  1. Decentralized Compute Marketplace – Users rent or sell spare computing power globally.

  2. Ethereum-Powered Tokenomics – GLM tokens facilitate payments and incentivize resource sharing.

  3. Expanding Ecosystem – Supports AI, data layers (e.g., Arkiv), and developer tools via grants.

Deep Dive

1. Purpose & Value Proposition

Golem democratizes access to high-performance computing by creating a decentralized marketplace where individuals and businesses can trade unused computational power. This bypasses centralized cloud providers, reducing costs for tasks like AI model training, CGI rendering, and scientific simulations. By splitting workloads into parallel subtasks, Golem accelerates processing while maintaining cost efficiency.

2. Technology & Architecture

Built on Ethereum, Golem uses smart contracts to automate transactions between “Requestors” (buyers) and “Providers” (sellers) of compute power. Its architecture is peer-to-peer, with tasks distributed across nodes globally. Recent upgrades include Golem Base L3, a blockchain layer for data management, and integrations like Arkiv, a decentralized database leveraging GLM for payments.

3. Ecosystem Fundamentals

The Golem Ecosystem Fund fuels projects like:
- Arkiv: A decentralized data layer for censorship-resistant storage and queries.
- Vanity Address Tools: Generate custom Ethereum addresses using decentralized compute.
- Web3Pi: Infrastructure for running Ethereum nodes on low-cost hardware.

Conclusion

Golem is redefining access to computational resources by merging blockchain’s trustless mechanics with real-world infrastructure needs. As AI and data demands grow, can its decentralized model sustainably rival centralized cloud giants?

CMC AI can make mistakes. Not financial advice.