Acurast

<p>As AI compute scarcity accelerates, hyperscalers are finally catching up to a model the DePIN movement has championed for years: The future of compute isn't in new data centers. It’s sitting in our pockets.</p><p>Earlier this month, Google Research published a <a href="https://research.google/blog/a-low-carbon-computing-platform-from-your-retired-phones/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">blog post</a> on "phone cluster computing," where smartphone hardware is repurposed into low-cost, low-carbon compute infrastructure. UC San Diego, with Google's support, is building a 2,000-phone cluster to test the concept at scale.</p><p>This puts weight behind the thesis DePIN has already proven: The world's idle smartphones are a massive, low-carbon alternative to new data center silicon. Google's own benchmarks show a single modern smartphone core can match or beat a data center server core. Acurast has turned those insights into a live, planet-scale decentralized network made up of 265,000 phones across over 175 countries on every inhabited continent. Real workloads, real developers, on-chain verification, and full crowdsourced scalability.</p><h2 id="massive-scale-no-new-silicon">Massive Scale, No New Silicon</h2><p>Over 1.2 billion smartphones are manufactured every year. Most are replaced within two to four years, despite having perfectly functional, high-performance processors.</p><p>Google’s research highlights that a smartphone’s motherboard alone accounts for roughly 50% of its "embodied carbon" footprint. Acurast recovers this wasted potential at a planetary scale. Device owners simply connect to the network, and their phone contributes compute securely.</p><p>Every workload processed across Acurast's quarter-million devices is compute extracted from hardware that already exists, creating a globally scalable cloud that completely bypasses the massive carbon debt of manufacturing new servers.</p><blockquote><a href="https://acurast.com/onboarding/?utm_source=cmc&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=green_cloud" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">-&gt; Join the cloud rebellion and onboard your phone today.</a></blockquote><h2 id="one-of-the-largest-decentralized-compute-networks-already-live">One of the Largest Decentralized Compute Networks, Already Live</h2><p>Acurast is one of the world's largest decentralized compute networks, powered by over a quarter-million everyday smartphones.</p><p>Tapping into this global computing power is now as easy for developers as spinning up a standard cloud server (VPS). This seamless experience has attracted a vibrant community building everything from web scrapers and Web3 automation to cybersecurity tools, all taking advantage of the network's massive global distribution.</p><p>Developers simply deploy their tasks, and they are automatically matched to the right phones and run safely secured by the smartphone’s Secure Element. Unlike centralized clouds, Acurast’s confidential compute ensures neither the network nor the host can access the data, delivering zero-trust security distributed worldwide.</p><p>Phone providers earn ACU (<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/acurast/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ACU</a>), while developers pay for compute in ACU. No intermediary, and no centralized server to trust or fail.</p><blockquote><a href="https://acurast.com/developers/?utm_source=cmc&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=green_cloud" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">-&gt; Start tapping into this compute and deploy workloads today.</a></blockquote><h2 id="why-timing-is-everything">Why Timing Is Everything</h2><p>AI compute demand is accelerating. Data center construction is booming at enormous environmental cost, and regulatory pressure on centralized cloud providers is rising.</p><p>The environmental disruption from data centers is astronomical, and demand for AI services is fueling an unprecedented boom in new data center construction. Acurast offers a different path: no new construction, no new silicon, and no new carbon. Just the compute already sitting in 265,000 pockets put to work.</p><p>The phones are already there. Instead of waiting for the internet's next layer to be extracted from new silicon, tap into the infrastructure that already exists. The future of compute literally lies in your hands.</p><p>(Sponsored)</p>

Google Is Testing a 2,000-Phone Cloud — Acurast Already Runs 265,000

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