Just recently, two AI concept projects, $IO and $ATH, consecutively conducted TGE, so I'd like to briefly discuss them.

In essence, this is a very classic business model:

First, let's talk about a scenario. On the left hand, there are some AI startups and some game rendering companies. I'm talking about startups, not those very mature large companies, such as openAI. On the right hand, there are people with a lot of GPU resources who hope to utilize those idle GPUs, such as 4090, 3090, A100, H100.

AI startups can use these idle GPUs to bring income to those with GPUs, while also offering slightly lower quotes than traditional ones. So, if there is a platform that connects these demands and resources, a classic platform business model is born.

So @ionet and @AethirCloud discovered this market opportunity and are preparing to build a platform to "introduce" idle GPUs to AI or rendering companies. This is meaningful in itself because these AI companies may not have the ability to purchase a large number of GPUs.

First, these AI companies do not want to purchase a large number of GPUs themselves because the cost is too high. They prefer to be able to flexibly rent GPUs at any time. Secondly, GPUs are still in short supply internationally, and there are even some embargoes. Therefore, many companies are forced to choose some overseas third-party intermediaries, which also brings a lot of costs and gray areas. Therefore, a decentralized facility becomes very important, which is also the market demand that the IO and Aethir projects have discovered.

However, the "chicken or egg" problem still needs to be solved. AI startups are willing to join because they need to first recognize that there are many GPU resources on the platform, and those with GPUs are willing to hang on the platform because they need to first believe that there will be many orders.

But if the platform starts from scratch without many GPUs and companies, the launch will be very difficult. So, this is also why these companies or platforms need Crypto, because Crypto can help them break this cycle.

IO chose a path of having "chickens" first. It doesn't matter if there are no orders, token subsidies can first accumulate GPUs. They launched a ignition plan, and at its peak, there were tens of thousands of GPUs hanging on IO.

This is also the significance of a decentralized computing power platform with a token model. Many people may ask, can these coins only be used for subsidies, do they have any meaning or function in themselves?

IO and Aethir both independently chose a common and effective approach. Of course, their future platforms support the use of fiat currency or stablecoins as payment, but they also thoughtfully provide the option to pay with IO tokens or ATH tokens, which can eliminate some fees.

I think this is a very good choice, not forcing users to use their own tokens, while also giving their tokens some functionality. Whether it's a 2%, 3%, or 5% discount, every little bit helps, and this will also encourage those who need to pay to indirectly hold these tokens, regardless of whether they will be cashed out in the future, which is a very good thing for chip diversification.

In terms of building the ecosystem, IO and Aethir have some differences in their approach. The Aethir team has taken a different approach because there are many AI computing platforms now, as far as I know, there may be no less than 20. So how do you gain an advantage in the competition?

Aethir previously sold a virtual mining machine called CheckerNode, and later sold the Edge mining machine. This method is very effective in maintaining the community's basic support. Because when many people have some sunk costs in your platform, they will focus more on this community and are less likely to leave.

Whether it's purchasing the virtual mining machine CheckerNode or the physical mining machine Edge, once sold, users are less likely to migrate to other platforms. So, in a bull market, time and progress are everything, and Aethir has chosen a strategy similar to enclosing land, first enclosing everyone in the community, which is also a very effective strategy.

What is CheckerNode for? So, Aethir assumes a scenario: these idle GPUs may come from all over the world, which has a disadvantage compared to data centers, which is that stability may be affected, and those familiar with network architecture may know this.

So they added a new role. Originally, the left hand is the person with demand, the right hand is the person with the device, and they added a third party, the role of the inspector, who constantly checks the working condition of the GPUs and the processing of orders to earn tokens through inspection.

In terms of tokenomics, ATH has left a portion of the token distribution to the inspectors. CheckerNode is a virtual mining machine, which has allowed many people to join the ecosystem early on, and this is an effective market strategy. The market response has also been very good. According to official data, CheckerNode has sold for over a billion dollars on Arb, which is a very strong achievement.

At the same time, many people also like real mining machines, so Aethir has also launched the Edge mining machine. The Edge mining machine is a physical mining machine that can be purchased and placed at home. This approach is to meet the needs of different customer groups, some people need virtual mining machines, some people need physical mining machines, and Aethir has gained a certain advantage in the competition by launching these products.

Both projects are computing power platform projects, so it will be easy to cooperate with external partners because they will both be dealing with standardized products such as GPUs. This may also be the reason why GPU computing standardization companies like Dbunker @Dbunker_Network can cooperate with both companies. Because they are dealing with GPUs, many people say that GPUs are the new oil, which is a pretty good analogy. Dealing with such standardized products also allows their cooperation scope to be relatively large.

The last difference is that IO is in the SOL ecosystem, and it is well known that Aptos has also invested in it, so it is very likely to be on Aptos. Aethir is mainly on Ethereum and Arbitrum, and the ATH token is on Ethereum, while CheckerNode is on Arbitrum. So, in terms of the ecosystem, the two projects vaguely have a kind of autonomy, dividing their spheres of influence.

But coincidentally, both projects have cooperated with each other, and they even have an intimate "token swap", turning the originally vaguely competitive situation into a harmonious state of "peace & love".

Finally, the tickers of both projects are also interestingly chosen. IO is an abbreviation for input & output of the calculator, and it is also a classic domain name suffix. While ATH is an abbreviation for all time high, which is a common term in crypto, and it seems to subtly imply the difference between the two.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。