Sophon and Aethir Partner to Bring Decentralized Compute to The ZK Community

Sophon and Aethir have announced the beginning of a strategic collaboration between the two networks, connecting the 800,000 strong Aethir decentralized compute community with the over 3M users who signed up for Sophon’s pre-launch campaigns.

As part of the collaboration, Aethir will be launching on Sophon soon after its mainnet, scheduled for Q3 2024. In addition, the projects will execute a node swap between the two communities, as both recently completed highly successful node sales to the public. 

Aethir is a Distributed Compute Network powering GPU-hungry applications like AI/ML training and cloud gaming. The Aethir network has two primary components: the checker and reward infrastructure, and the actual compute providers. The former will be launched on Sophon, which will handle the majority of the verification and rewards distribution process. In addition, Aethir will also be launching a permissionless platform for providing computing, which will be available on Sophon.

In addition, Sophon will run Aethir checker nodes to ensure the resiliency and reliability of the network. As part of the node swap and the wider collaboration, node operators of Sophon and Aethir will receive an allocation of each partner’s tokens, ensuring the communities are mutually interested in the partnership’s success.

“The merging of Aethir’s robust decentralized compute infrastructure with Sophon’s cutting-edge ZK Stack technology heralds a new era for high-performance computing. This collaboration will help make top-of-the-line GPU computing more accessible and reliable for AI, ML, and cloud gaming applications. By leveraging Sophon’s advanced blockchain capabilities, we can ensure increased innovation and expansion of the reach of decentralized compute networks.” – Dan 

“We’re thrilled to be working together with Aethir to represent the very best of what Web3 is offering next,” said Seb, the Co-Founder of Sophon. “The long-term goals of Sophon and Aethir made this a natural partnership that will deliver value to both ecosystem communities, which we’re incredibly excited about”.

“Decentralized compute networks and DePIN are some of the killer applications of blockchain technology, and the high performance and plug-and-play nature of our ZK chain makes it the perfect home for hosting critical components of a distributed compute network.” – Daniel Wang, CEO, Aethir.

Sophon is a modular blockchain built on the ZK Stack architecture spearheaded by ZKsync. Launched by former ZKsync execs and backed by funds including Spartan, SevenX, OKX Ventures, Huobi Ventures, and others, it will be among the first instances of the modular and expanded ZK Stack, which enables projects to launch highly scalable and secure EVM-based chains. Built on the same technology stack behind ZKsync Era, Sophon will benefit from low latency without any security sacrifice, as most competing L2 solutions remain highly centralized in many critical functions.

About Sophon

Sophon is a modular blockchain built on the ZK Stack architecture spearheaded by ZKsync. Launched by former ZKsync execs and backed by funds including Spartan, SevenX, OKX Ventures, Huobi Ventures, and others, it will be among the first instances of the modular and expanded ZK Stack, which enables projects to launch highly scalable and secure EVM-based chains. Built on the same technology stack behind ZKsync Era, Sophon will benefit from low latency without any security sacrifice, as most competing L2 solutions remain highly centralized in many critical functions.

Sophon facilitates the connection between developers and users, backed by a robust strategic collaboration with ecosystems like ZKsync, Beam, Zentry, and Aethir.

About Aethir

Aethir is revolutionizing DePIN with its advanced and distributed enterprise-grade GPU compute infrastructure tailored for AI and gaming. Aethir aims to serve enterprise AI clients who need the world’s most powerful AI chips such as NVIDIA H100s, and also to support cloud gaming players with best-in-class experiences around the world. All of this is accomplished with a decentralized architecture, bringing the GPU cloud to the community and making computing accessible for all.

Backed by leading Web3 investors like Framework Ventures, Merit Circle, Hashkey, Animoca Brands, Sanctor Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC), and combined with a large node sale, Aethir has over $150M to power the ecosystem. Aethir is paving the way for the future of decentralized GPU computing.