What is the operating mechanism of @ boundless_xyz, a rising star in the ZK race with over 70000 addresses participating in voting within 3 days and a viral sensation across the entire network? '' Amidst the recent surge in ETH prices, Boundless's main network Odyssey task attracted a total of 74000 addresses to participate within 3 days, with over 140 ETH invested, demonstrating the immense popularity! It is also one of the projects that I am currently most interested in on the ZK track. Firstly, Boundless has opened up the commercialization of ZK computing. Before deciding to run the node, I conducted a detailed study of the operating mechanism of the Boundless protocol. I found that although the form is similar to the familiar DePIN network, Boundless has made many innovations in task scheduling and incentive mechanisms. It was also because I felt the advantages and competitiveness in the mechanism that I made the decision to try running nodes. Let's get started! Firstly, let me introduce the operation process of the Boundless protocol. To make it more intuitive, let's go straight to the above figure: Simply put, the Boundless protocol process consists of three steps: bidding to grab orders, pledging to prevent wrongdoing, and returning guarantees for delivery. Can you briefly explain the core mechanism involved one ⃣ Reverse Dutch Auction The user (Requestor) initiates a task request and sets the maximum payment limit. The protocol initiates a reverse auction, and the price gradually increases from low to high. The first prover willing to perform the task at the current price can lock in the task. 📌 Advantages: Competitive task taking, avoiding order grabbing/malicious behavior; Dynamic pricing without the need for manually setting fixed costs. two ⃣ Locking mechanism After the Prover locks a task, it needs to deliver the zk proof within the set time. If the delivery is not made on time, the pledged ZKC assets (stake) will be confiscated. 📌 Advantage: Preventing malicious order grabbing and non delivery "witch attacks". The punishment mechanism motivates Prover to complete on time. three ⃣ Fallback Auction mechanism If the Prover fails to deliver within the time limit, the system will automatically initiate a second auction using the funds pledged. Ensure that the Requestor ultimately obtains the results and guarantees the user experience. 📌 Advantage: Users do not bear the risk of calculation failure, and the experience is stable and reliable. four ⃣ Verifiable Service Agreements Major clients or parties can establish long-term service contracts with Prover. Customizable: calculation type, response time SLA、 Punishment clauses, etc. Generate and upload using ZKP method, completely trustless. 📌 Advantages: Similar to AWS's long-term cloud service agreement, but more transparent and verifiable. The user's computing needs are guaranteed in the long term, and the Prover can also know the workload in the long term, which facilitates resource investment and planning. five ⃣ Proof of Verifiable Work PoVW is the first mechanism that can measure the complexity of each ZK proof on the chain and accurately pay the prover to complete the work. Each Boundless proof is embedded with an immutable label that records the number of proven cycles and is accompanied by a unique nonce to prevent replay. At the end of each epoch, PoVW will summarize the periodic labels of all final proofs determined during that window period. Casting a fixed quantity of ZKC in each epoch and allocating it proportionally to the cycle share 📌 Advantages: Rewards are directly proportional to the workload of cryptographic verification; Any node that meets the requirements for delay and staking can receive a reward that perfectly matches its proof. In summary, Boundless is a trusted marketplace protocol tailored for ZK computing. After understanding it, my intuitive feeling is fairness. Requesters who have a demand for ZK computing can obtain guaranteed results at reasonable and dynamic costs; Validators compete fairly and receive verifiable rewards based on their true contribution value. I will personally test the process and benefits of running Boundless nodes in the future. Please stay tuned. Boundless zk ZKProofs