Distributed Computing
Moving computation from centralized clouds to the edge and beyond. WebAssembly enables portable code; decentralized networks enable portable infrastructure.
The Compute Spectrum
Traditional data centers (AWS, Azure, GCP). High latency, single points of failure, concentrated control.
Examples: AWS EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute
Servers at the edge of networks, closer to users. Major cloud providers and CDNs.
Examples: Cloudflare Workers, AWS Lambda@Edge, Fastly Compute
P2P networks where anyone can provide compute. No single provider controls the network.
Examples: Akash, Golem, Flux, iExec
Computation on the user's own device. Zero network latency, complete privacy.
Examples: WASM in browser, local AI models, native apps
Technologies
Portable binary format that runs at near-native speed. Write once in any language, run anywhere - browser, server, edge, embedded.
Learn MoreWebAssembly System Interface. Standardized API for WASM to interact with the OS - files, network, clock. Enables portable server-side WASM.
Learn MoreJavaScript/WASM execution at 300+ edge locations. Cold starts under 5ms, scales to millions of requests.
Learn MoreDecentralized cloud marketplace. List your spare compute, rent others'. 85% cheaper than AWS for some workloads.
Learn MoreP2P marketplace for computing power. Focus on batch processing - rendering, ML training, scientific computing.
Learn MoreDeploy apps globally with automatic placement near users. Full VMs, not just functions.
Learn MoreKey Concepts
Processing data near where it's generated rather than sending to centralized data centers. Reduces latency, bandwidth, and privacy exposure.
Code runs in response to events without managing servers. Provider handles scaling, you pay per execution. But still centralized.
P2P networks where anyone can be a provider. No single entity controls the infrastructure. Censorship-resistant by design.
WASM enables code to run identically across different environments - your laptop, a server, a browser, an embedded device.
Use Cases
| Use Case | Description | Best Layer |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time Gaming | Game logic at the edge reduces latency to <20ms | Edge |
| AI Inference | Run models in browser or at edge, no data leaves device | Local/Edge |
| Video Processing | Transcode, filter, analyze video streams near origin | Edge |
| Batch Rendering | 3D rendering across thousands of nodes | Decentralized |
| Scientific Simulation | Climate models, protein folding across P2P network | Decentralized |
| Privacy-Preserving Compute | Process sensitive data on user's device | Local |
Today, "the cloud" means a few massive data centers owned by three companies. Your data travels hundreds of miles to be processed, then back again.
The future is different: computation happens wherever it makes sense. Latency-sensitive code runs at the edge. Privacy-sensitive code runs on your device. Batch jobs run on whoever has spare capacity.
WebAssembly makes code portable. Decentralized networks make infrastructure fungible. The result: computing as a utility, like electricity - you don't care which power plant generated it.
Beyond the Cloud
We're researching distributed compute architectures that don't depend on centralized providers.