Computation firm Nexus has reported significant interest in its decentralized supercomputer, drawing over 1.5 million nodes from 187 countries during a recent five-day testnet period. The project aims to aggregate computing power globally from computers and mobile devices to create a “Verifiable Internet.” Nexus raised $25 million in Series A funding in June to support this ambitious initiative.
The testnet, which ran from December 9 to 13, included around 800,000 web nodes and 700,000 command-line interface nodes, with over 100,000 concurrent nodes at full capacity. The results indicate strong early enthusiasm for a shared supercomputer model. “The testnet validates the global demand for trust-driven innovations in blockchain and AI,” said Nexus CEO Daniel Marin, while noting that further scaling efforts are needed to ensure worldwide adoption.
One notable finding from the testnet was the high level of participation from mobile devices, which accounted for 37% of total network traffic. In countries like Ethiopia and Poland, interaction from mobile devices even surpassed desktop usage. Nexus CEO Marin emphasized the importance of accessibility, stating, “We knew we had to lower the barrier of entry to scale this global distributed prover network, so we made it easy for anyone to connect to the network with any device.”
Despite the decentralized nature of the nodes, Nexus retains tight control over the supercomputer’s processes. The company selects programs to be run on the network, although it plans to accept submissions through a review process. Marin acknowledged that Nexus is not the first to explore distributed computing, citing precedents like UC Berkeley’s SETI@home project, which utilized internet-connected computers to search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Other entities in the decentralized computation space include Internet Computer, the Golem Network, and Zennet, which are all working toward similar goals of harnessing distributed computing power for various applications.
The Nexus zkVM testnet marks a significant step toward achieving a global, decentralized supercomputing network. If the project can address scalability challenges and secure widespread adoption, it has the potential to transform how computing resources are utilized in fields such as blockchain and artificial intelligence.