租赁处理能力的成本下降对区块链企业来说是一个福音

Akash、Render 和 Hyperbolic 等去中心化市场为处理能力的买家和卖家提供了匹配的场所，为人们提供了出租硬件的场所。

Blockhain businesses are cashing in on the falling cost of renting processing power to train artificial intelligence programmes like ChatGPT.

区块链企业正在利用租赁处理能力的成本下降来获利，以训练 ChatGPT 等人工智能程序。

Decentralised marketplaces that match buyers and sellers of processing power, such as Akash, Render and Hyperbolic, have provided a place for people to rent out their hardware.

匹配处理能力买家和卖家的去中心化市场（例如 Akash、Render 和 Hyperbolic）为人们提供了出租硬件的场所。

“A lot of people who are unable to use their compute are reselling their contracts,” said Greg Osuri, founder of Akash, a decentralised graphics processing units marketplace, told DL News.

去中心化图形处理单元市场 Akash 的创始人格雷格·奥苏里 (Greg Osuri) 告诉 DL News：“许多无法使用计算能力的人正在转售他们的合同。”

“The price is going lower and lower. It really doesn’t matter, because it is volume for us — the more we can do, the better.”

“价格越来越低。这真的不重要，因为这对我们来说就是数量——我们能做的越多越好。”

Decentralised GPU marketplaces are still small, but they’re growing fast. Active leases on Akash grew 69% over the past month, while the total amount users spent renting GPUs increased tenfold since the start of the year.

去中心化 GPU 市场仍然很小，但正在快速增长。过去一个月，Akash 上的活跃租赁量增长了 69%，而用户租用 GPU 的总金额自年初以来增加了十倍。

Investors bullish on such marketplaces have pushed Render’s RENDER token up to a $1.9 billion market value, while Akash’s AKT token sits at a $600 million valuation.

看好此类市场的投资者已将 Render 的 RENDER 代币的市值推高至 19 亿美元，而 Akash 的 AKT 代币的估值为 6 亿美元。

The AI industry is predicted to hit a $3.7 trillion market value by 2034. Hardware rental marketplaces are poised to tap into that growth.

预计到 2034 年，人工智能行业的市场价值将达到 3.7 万亿美元。硬件租赁市场已准备好利用这一增长。

AI buzz

人工智能热潮

Crypto has benefitted from the AI hype. Investors have already ploughed over $400 million into projects innovating at the intersection of AI and crypto in 2024, according to DefiLlama data. Venture capitalists have promised to invest even more.

加密货币受益于人工智能的炒作。根据 DefiLlama 的数据，到 2024 年，投资者已经向人工智能和加密货币交叉领域的创新项目投入了超过 4 亿美元。风险投资家承诺加大投资力度。

The combination of AI and crypto could add $20 trillion to the world economy by 2030, according to Bitwise estimates.

据 Bitwise 估计，到 2030 年，人工智能和加密货币的结合将为世界经济增加 20 万亿美元。

Some Bitcoin miners have used the buzz to diversify their revenue streams and hedge against the cryptocurrency’s price volatility by leasing their data centre space to AI firms. Many outside of crypto have done the same.

一些比特币矿工利用这一热潮来实现收入来源多元化，并通过将数据中心空间出租给人工智能公司来对冲加密货币的价格波动。许多加密货币领域之外的人也做了同样的事情。

However, the skyrocketing supply has outstripped demand. The result is that the cost of renting the hardware has dropped by 30% over the last two months, per analysis by AI research and analysis company SemiAnalysis.

然而，飙升的供应已经超过了需求。根据人工智能研究和分析公司 SemiAnalysis 的分析，过去两个月硬件租赁成本下降了 30%。

While 2023 estimates suggested that hardware owners could cash in between $4 to $8 per hour by renting out their hardware, the price is now as low as $1 per hour, according to Osuri.

Osuri 表示，虽然到 2023 年预计硬件所有者可以通过出租硬件赚取每小时 4 至 8 美元的收入，但现在价格已低至每小时 1 美元。

“There’s too much supply,” said Osuri. “I don’t think the rest of the market is pricing it right.”

“供应太多了，”奥苏里说。 “我认为市场的其他部分定价不正确。”

That’s where marketplaces like Akash, Render and Hyperbolic come in. They give hardware owners a chance to recoup some of their costs by renting out their processing power to the highest bidder.

这就是 Akash、Render 和 Hyperbolic 等市场的用武之地。它们为硬件所有者提供了通过将处理能力出租给最高出价者来收回部分成本的机会。

“You might as well take a loss instead of getting nothing,” said Osuri.

奥苏里说：“与其一无所获，不如承受损失。”

Surplus GPUs

过剩的 GPU

For many crypto enthusiasts, decentralised GPU markets present an additional tangible use case for blockchains. Most allow users to pay for GPU rentals using crypto stablecoins.

对于许多加密货币爱好者来说，去中心化 GPU 市场为区块链提供了另一个切实可行的用例。大多数允许用户使用加密稳定币支付 GPU 租金。

Proponents say the decentralised nature of such markets can help solve coordination issues and increase market efficiency, greasing the wheels of AI advancement.

支持者表示，此类市场的去中心化性质有助于解决协调问题并提高市场效率，从而推动人工智能进步。

The GPU markets may also be contributing to falling prices as more people who normally wouldn’t rent out their GPUs can now do so.

GPU 市场也可能导致价格下跌，因为更多通常不会出租 GPU 的人现在可以出租。

“By enabling any data centre or individual to contribute to our platform, we’ve created an abundant supply, driving down costs for our users,” Jasper Zhang, CEO at Hyperbolic, told DL News.

“通过允许任何数据中心或个人为我们的平台做出贡献，我们创造了充足的供应，降低了用户的成本，”Hyperbolic 首席执行官 Jasper Zhang 告诉 DL News。

Early stages

早期阶段

Decentralised GPU markets look promising, but the AI industry is developing fast, and they quickly could become obsolete.

去中心化 GPU 市场看起来前景广阔，但人工智能行业正在快速发展，它们很快就会被淘汰。

Both Microsoft and xAI, Elon Musk’s AI firm, are investing in new, bigger data centres, opting to build their own dedicated power sources instead of taking a decentralised approach.

微软和埃隆·马斯克的人工智能公司 xAI 都在投资新的、更大的数据中心，选择建立自己的专用电源，而不是采取分散的方法。

Taking this step does have significant advantages. As AI training becomes more complex, the power needed increases to the point where having a dedicated power plant will no longer be a nice-to-have — it will be a requirement.

采取这一步确实有显着的优势。随着人工智能训练变得越来越复杂，所需的电力也随之增加，以至于拥有专用发电厂将不再是可有可无的，而将成为一项要求。

Additionally, co-located GPUs are much better at training AI, because of the decreased latency from having hardware located in the same physical location.

此外，并置 GPU 更适合训练人工智能，因为硬件位于同一物理位置可以减少延迟。

It’s something that both Osuri and Zhang acknowledge.

这是奥苏里和张都承认的事情。

“Decentralised compute is still in its nascent stages, and mainstream adoption by enterprises like Microsoft and xAI will take time,” said Zhang.

“去中心化计算仍处于初级阶段，微软和 xAI 等企业的主流采用还需要时间，”张说。

But for now, decentralised GPU markets are rolling in digital green.

但目前，去中心化 GPU 市场正在数字化发展。