Page 63 - INC Magazine-November 2018

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The businesses being built on
your computer while you sleep.

haven’t been any breaches yet, but there could be in the future.)
Consider the Golem Network, a startup that allows users
to exchange idle power for Golem tokens (a cryptocurrency).
Anyone can lease spare computation resources to the network. nyone can lease spare computation resources to the network.
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Requesters are matched with such renters; prices will be based
on machine performance and reputation. Devices will process
tasks like training machine-learning algorithms or rendering
graphics. Once tasks are completed, payment is sent.
And there’s a lot of money going around. Cryptocurrencies
magine getting into bed tonight. You are wildly volatile, but in June, Golem was worth more than
dock your phone in its charger, set the $300 million, according to CryptoBriefing.com. Its network is
alarm, and, just before dimming the expected to include video-game developers, graphic designers,
lights, you start up your new app. It and movie producers who seek supercomputing power without
invites hackers to take over your phone. super computing costs. Gridcoin, a startup built on Boinc,
This isn’t a nightmare. It’s the future rewards volunteers with coins they can use at online market-
of the gig economy. places like Cointopay, which sells vintage Gucci handbags and
In the coming year, you’ll hear a lot Hermès belts. (It also sells less savory items—it is a crypto
about the next wave of the decentral- market, after all.) Golem and Gridcoin represent a new kind of
ized sharing economy. But it’s meta-platform, where consumers, businesses, and the platform eta-platform, where consumers, businesses, and the platform
m
not about vacation homes or developer can all benefit.
cars. It’s about distributing Gigware works for barter markets of interest to businesses,
computing power over a large t too. Washington, D.C.–based Gladius is a startup that trades oo. Washington, D.C.–based Gladius is a startup that trades
network of computers and spare bandwidth and processing power for tokens that pay for
devices to accomplish complex private web hosting—it promises to use all that power to thwart
tasks, ranging from mathemati- denial-of-service attacks, which can bring a company’s website
cal calculations to cryptocurrency mining. All it takes is what down for days.
I call “gigware”: a benevolent form of the malware hackers My favorite just might save America’s beleaguered news
use to break into your computers and phones that generates industry. Technologist and entrepreneur Orlando Watson is
a tangible benefit to companies and individuals. building Honeycomb, gigware for a free press. Eventually,
Nearly four billion internet users are spread around the it will invite consumers to let their mobile phones be used for
world. Each owns an average of three devices. So there’s always complex calculations overnight, to earn credits that pay for
digital subscriptions to newspapers and magazines. Who igital subscriptions to newspapers and magazines. Who
a gigantic pool of processing power sitting dormant. Sharing d
and pooling such power isn’t exactly new. In 2002, researchers knows? Soon, you might be paying your favorite writers directly
at Berkeley’s Open Infrastructure for Network Computing with credits you earned while sleeping.
(cheekily nicknamed Boinc) realized that if some of us allowed
our devices to be hijacked while we slept, it would be possible
to simulate the power of a supercomputer, which could then be
put to good use. Today, more than 156,000 people donate idle
processing time to worthy projects such as the Quake-Catcher
Network, which looks for seismic activity, and SETI@home, Amy Webb
which searches the universe for extraterrestrial life. (@amywebb) is an
What’s new is that consumers can now use mobile devices— author and futurist
and will soon be able to use other connected devices in the and the founder of
home—to do the same thing. Entrepreneurs are building smart the Future Today
businesses on that idle time. Just as people use platforms like Institute, a leading
Airbnb to rent out their properties, and Turo to lend their cars, forecasting and
the newest gigware lets businesses use your smartphones and strategy firm.
computers in exchange for credits you can spend elsewhere, or
for real money. Since the systems are distributed and decentral- Shayan aSgharnia
ized, private data is safeguarded. (Still, caveat usor: There

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