SONM(Supercomputer Organized by Network Mining) is a platform for decentralized fog computing. With SONM, users have access to universal cloud computing services, including IaaS and Paa. Hosts around the world can use computing power as part of the SONM market.

“SONM is targeting the decentralized computing market with similar products Golem and iEx. So, let SONM find and take its share of the growing market,” says Konstantin Lomashuk, CEO Satoshi Foundation.

SONM, a supercomputer hosted by Network Mining, is a blockchain-based distributed computing platform where users with computing power will be able to rent it out to those who need computing power.

SONM aims to create global market peer-to-peer computing by connecting various types resource providers and replacing traditional Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency analysis. SONM should be a profitable solution for both ex-cryptocurrency miners and anyone with computing power to rent out, even on a smartphone.

Investors other than power suppliers will also be able to receive profits in the form of dividends. The project will be based on a set of open source technology solutions, including Ethereum smart contracts.

Use Cases

Think of the SONM Marketplace as a place to buy and sell computing power. Suppliers can be companies and individuals with computing resources. These providers can begin to generate revenue using these computing resources or increase their current income from these activities. SONM leverages all types of modern PC resources, including network, disk, GPU, CPU, and RAM, so vendors can rent out their various computing instances through the marketplace.

SONM can be suitable for almost any application that requires computing power, making its potential market very diverse, including but not limited to the following:

Customers in the SONM market are people or companies that require computing power, such as servers, virtual machines, and hardware PCs. They determine what capabilities and resources they need and what price they are willing to pay to use those resources. Customers can also benefit from the benefits of fog computing over centralized cloud services, such as future availability, cost efficiency, and scalability.

Architecture

The architecture also includes a p2p networking stack allowing users to operate without a public IP address, particularly with relay and NAT penetration.

There are docker containers, which are isolated environments that ensure parallelism of computations and that any device runs the corresponding device.

Finally, there is Kubernetes, a type of open-source cluster programming software that automatically manages multiple container instances.

Market and competitors

Golem runs on its own computing platform, while SONM leverages an existing Distributed Cloud Computing solution, modifying it to the extent necessary, making SONM more likely to deliver a working product within a reasonable time frame.

iEx.ec uses the XtremWeb-HEP protocol based on Grid technology. According to the SONM team, Grid technologies provide more limited options for project needs and require combining them with Cloud, so SONM decided to use Cloud instead of Grid. Unlike its competitors, SONM is also developing an anti-fraud system based on smart contracts. Full list features available on SONM not found on the competing platform can be found in this blog post.

Conclusion

• The idea is not unique, but the architecture has some innovations and a prototype was already launched before the ICO
• The team seems quite experienced and is supported by several professional consultants
• High degree of decentralization in terms of token distribution: 80% goes to pre-sale and ICO investors
• While the value of SONM tokens is maintained stable market demand on computing power and the project's ability to provide more competitive prices than other services, it can be considered a smart long-term investment
• Until major development is completed, the price of SONM tokens may vary significantly; Dividend yield may be low
• The project may have problems in the future as its token may be perceived as security by regulators due to its proposed dividend policy

Additionally:

• Articles about the Company:
  [S] Decentralized global super-computer for fog computing
  S has developed a unique anti-fraud system
  [S] Fog computing could rival Amazon's cloud computing services in price, speed and convenience
  [S] How to use idle Computing Power
  [S] Data Streams for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Everything (IoE)
  [S] A New Chapter in Data Security – Is Fog Safer Than Cloud?
  How is it different from the Golem Network, iEx.ec and Elastic projects?
  Areas of practical application of fog computing of the SONM platform
  Application Areas: Uber and Large Corporations
  SONM has published details of the ICO Campaign. Start – June 15, 2017 at 17:00 UTC
  Artificial intelligence
  Problems that the platform can easily solve
  – Supercomputer organized by network mining

Team

SONM leaders are co-founder Sergey Ponomarev And technical director Igor Lebedev. SONM uses an agile development structure with a self-organizing cross-functional team. The Product Management Council determines that the market must validate that products meet business requirements. The Architecture Council develops the architecture for various SONM products, providing optimal solutions. The Product Delivery Board synchronizes the delivery of each part of the system module or product.

June 15 companySONM launchedICO.CoinFox discussed with the developers the features of the project, priorities and plans for the future.

CoinFox: How did the project start? Why did this idea arise? What tasks are currently in development?

SONM: Sergey Ponomarev and Andrey Voronkov were at the origins of the SONM project. The start of the project can be considered February 2016. Initially, it was conceived as a project in the spirit of PrimeCoin - a system of useful calculations inside a cryptocurrency, using loads instead of universal scripts. The problem was that useful calculations must be sequential; it is impossible to insert everything we want into the blockchain. Therefore, we came up with a hybrid application based on BOINC: the blockchain within its framework was to be used only as a payment for the P2P Cash system.

Subsequently, we began to pay more and more attention to cloud computing systems and existing standards; tried to understand why clouds are not used in blockchain. As a result, we came to the problem of node trust, which has not yet been solved. Its essence is as follows.

You can check calculations only if they are deterministic. We compare the stream that comes to us with the standard, thus controlling how the calculation is performed and whether the miner is trying to cheat. So, if you take any application that performs deterministic tasks, from a website to pizza delivery applications, they work according to general scheme: you send some initial data and in return receive a result within a certain time. This data is easy to check. But if we are dealing with services that simply run in time, then how can we check the result? No way. This means we need to look for new opportunities.

One of these opportunities is hybrid verification systems: we do not check the operation of the program, but the results of calculations, we check the integrity of the container. If the container we placed on the node has not been modified, then it works correctly. This is a kind of “fool protection”.

We also built an anti-fraud system based on Ethereum, which works like the algorithm in Dash. Its idea is that if a miner wants to receive a greater reward, he must be more “trusted”. And in order to become more “trusted”, he needs to “hold” a certain amount of coins in his wallet. The same applies to the hub: the more tokens you keep “hoarded”, the better your reputation. At the same time, the system works in such a way that only our wallets issued from factory contracts can be used in it: we know for sure that these wallets have the code that we gave them, they are not forged. We came up with a system of payment transfers inside wallets.

A hub (cryptocurrency pool) has two main states: an “idle” state and a running state. In the state of work, he performs actions, makes payments, but cannot take the profit for himself; in the “simple” state the opposite is true. In working condition, the hub temporarily blocks 30% of each operation in its wallet, and when it goes into a simple state, this 30% is unfrozen, and 0.5% of DAO is paid. Therefore, if the hub is a fraudster who wants to take all the funds from the wallet for himself, he will lose 30% of his funds. And if he works honestly and just wants to get his share of the profit, then he pays half a percent. This motivates participants to work honestly. We are developing this and a huge number of other problems.

CoinFox: What is the conceptual difference between SONM and similar systems?

SONM: One of our main differences is more open communication with the outside world and openness to new experiences. Communication with our development team is more accessible. Moreover, we understand that it is necessary to constantly change, change the paradigm, and accept technological innovations.

At the initial stage, it was possible to use those technologies that already existed and worked: for example, BOINC computing. It was possible to continue along this path, without changing anything, to conduct an ICO... But we have an understanding that the subsequent project should always surpass the previous one. Accordingly, the process progressed, and there was a constant search for new technological opportunities.

While working, we realized that we should use some kind of opensource technology, in particular, we came to Yandex Cocaine. Our team includes Anton Tyurin, he worked at Yandex, was the founder and developer of this technology, and we work with it.

Everything that exists in the world of cloud technologies is far from perfect, just as technologies in the world of blockchain are imperfect. We have thrown a serious challenge at the industry by deciding to link standard cloud technologies with blockchain. In particular, a number of Ethereum codes are being rewritten and the messaging system is being expanded.

What SONM does is suitable for both deterministic (streaming, website and game hosting, deployment of various applications) and non-deterministic tasks. Key moment is support for determinism. With non-deterministic tasks, everything is more or less clear - for example, a game server will work for 3 years, and during all these 3 years there must be a load (collecting information about the server’s operation, what capacity, how many resources are spent). How is this paid to the miner who deploys the game server? There is no finite number of tasks, the number of users is constantly changing, the load on the server is changing - all these aspects must be taken into account. Thanks to the fact that we have great specialists on our team, we can imagine how we will consider this. Every week, the average statistical load indicators of all elements of the miner’s computer or miner’s server will be taken; the data collection process will be automated. Based on the results of these reports, a reward will be paid in the future - even for deploying a server, this is a very interesting point.

CoinFox: You mentioned streaming. Do you already have a prototype of a boxed solution? What can you offer to interested companies, such as YouTube?

SONM: Firstly, there are Internet channels of different orders - slow and fast, expensive and cheap. Users who want to watch videos are located anywhere. We have come to a conceptual solution that will satisfy their needs, enable our video delivery clients to save on traffic and storage, and, in fact, not wait for the user. There is no existing case (not a test one).

CoinFox: So, in general, you are positioning this story as a replacement for CDNs and storage systems?

SONM: It can be divided into several parts. This is a cloud (it should work exactly like a cloud, be read predictably; the user does not need to think about what resources he will need if he is willing to pay). Fog in this sense is relatively more effective, since it is cheaper due to the fact that it is a large number of individuals and legal entities whose equipment is idle. They can host. There are niche tasks that require separate processors and video cards. In this case, SONM can be used as a convenient management of a farm or a cluster of farms, it is convenient to use it as a CDN, as a queue storage system, a system for storing small but organized data that needs to be geographically distributed as widely as possible.

There is a solution with Internet operators, negotiations have been held with them, and after the final launch, perhaps interesting solutions related to content delivery in cooperation with suppliers will appear. The equipment that providers install is “boring” and can also be monetized.

There is no need to talk about long-term prospects, but market analysis shows that one way or another Ethereum will switch to proof-of-stake. Interesting conclusions can be drawn from this. We have calculated the power that is used in Ethereum; It turned out that if Ethereum switches to proof-of-stake, all the power that is represented by a video card and a standard set: computer, processor, hard drive, video cards will be freed up. And the rest of the market will in no way be able to absorb the mining capacity.

Ethereum currently has 30% proof-of-stake, and there will be a complete transition by the end of the year. If Bitcoin has very primitive ASICs, a simple hashing system is involved and no complex tasks can be performed, then video cards have more extensive functionality: There are a lot of containers that help parallelize tasks. Video cards on this moment used by anyone who deploys neural networks - this is the ideal solution for neural networks. All the power that exists in Ethereum is free, and it is growing every day. In March, when the calculations were carried out, there was one figure; Now this figure has increased 4 times. Accordingly, the total complexity of the Ethereum network is 100 times greater than all supercomputers in the world; Bitcoin is thousands of times superior. Such orders of numbers are only available for scientific calculations, but in the future these calculations will open new horizons for human consciousness.

CoinFox: Do we understand correctly that in any unused computer resource you see opportunities for your project?

SONM: Yes, of course, it is much easier to use a standard PC circuit, but in the future the Internet of Things can be used.

CoinFox: Since we're talking about the Internet of Things, what are the requirements for the client machine on which your software will be installed?

SONM: Everything very much depends on what exactly will be running, but our platform only takes up about 50 MB of RAM, it’s just a regular Docker container, 100 - 150 MB on the hard drive. Now Cell phones have at least 8 GB of RAM, so using our software is not at all problematic, but in the future this volume will be optimized.

CoinFox: On June 15, the ICO of your project started. Tell us what you are raising funds for?

SONM: Our whitepaper presents a roadmap that concerns the technical part of the project, as well as a description of the marketing part of the project. We tried to connect these two parts as much as possible. Since the release of version 1.0, we plan to begin interacting with real sector, creating devices, and ensure the most convenient integration at the production stage. This, of course, is a distant prospect, but it is the most interesting - the possibility of the initial implementation of SONM containers and SONM applications. Accordingly, we plan to spend the bulk of the expenses from fees on wages specialists: a good specialist, especially one versed in blockchain and cloud technologies, is a very highly paid specialist. We have distributed by percentage what part will be spent on developers and what part on marketing; more detailed information can be read in the whitepaper.

CoinFox: Who is more on your team: developers or “humanities”?

SONM: There are more developers. But the bulk of the developers are outsourced, there are only 5 people in Moscow, the rest are from Perm and other cities, it’s difficult to find everyone in one city. Development does not necessarily require presence in the office: each developer performs his part of the tasks, they meet once in a certain period of time and show each other what has been done. The end result is a whole product.

CoinFox: Why did you refuse legal entity in Switzerland in favor of Singapore?

SONM: Everything is very simple: in Switzerland, tax legislation regarding cryptocurrencies has been tightened, they require that “cryptocurrency” be placed on the company’s balance sheet, in the future it will be taxed (for this reason, Ethereum left Switzerland). This happened just a few days before we registered the fund there, and we were very lucky that we were able to quickly refocus on Singapore. Of course, this affected the timing of the ICO; the original start date was scheduled for May 25, but had to be postponed to June 15 in order to finish everything without haste. Singapore has more flexible legislation regarding cryptocurrencies. In addition, it is much easier to work with the American audience from there.

CoinFox: How do you resolve the issue of system security? After all, hacking can lead to a real riot of machines around us. Is your software distributed to users' machines in open form?

SONM: Most things are open source, but there are also keys that are private. What's the point of breaking a free-standing machine that communicates with the world in a completely new way? Fog implies that all machines work together, but remain separate, that is, not clustered. Hacking a car is essentially hacking individual; hacking a farm has nothing to do with us, because miners, at the first sign of compromise, are placed in the pool of unreliable ones. Even if you break through to one miner, what to do next? What's the point of this? Hubs become cohesive only for the duration of some task that requires shared resources. Any tasks go through several stages of identification; There are means that ensure the safety of processes, preventing a person or miner from performing actions that would be unprofitable for him. These funds guarantee that a person will not commit actions that will burn his deposit. In other words, there are many ways to avoid network hacking. But in any case, the connection is encrypted and signed, can be wrapped in some kind of certificate - and this applies to each container, each task, each user, provider or hub: each hub has an external IP. Even if, theoretically, one thing is decrypted or intercepted, it will not yield anything.

Interviewed by Tatyana Maksimenko and Vladimir Pirogov

SONM (Supercomputer Organized by Network Mining) is a blockchain-based platform that offers a decentralized system for redistributing computing power among network users. This approach, according to the developers, will allow companies to obtain the necessary resources for Internet projects without intermediaries quickly and inexpensively.

SONM development

The SONM platform was organized in 2017 and already during the ICO showed its relevance by attracting large investments. To understand the idea of ​​​​functioning in more detail, we should highlight the concepts of cloud and fog computing.

The functionality of an official website, blog, service, game or other platform requires a certain amount of computing power. The standard option for obtaining it is to organize your own data center - a server that will meet the needs of the organization. In some cases, these resources are rented from specialized companies.

Such a system is called cloud computing. Fog Computing within the framework of the SONM platform, they do not imply the creation of a separate server that rents out its resources for processing, analyzing and storing data, but the formation of a decentralized network in which each participant can rent out the computing power of their devices or receive appropriate resources as part of an agreement.

A simplified interaction diagram in the SONM system looks like this:

• User A has a computer at home and every time he leaves for work, the device sits idle;
• to receive passive income, the user includes his computer in the fog computing system while he is not using it;
• User B decides to open his own blog and decides to use the services of the SONM platform for this;
• To do this, he also connects to the system and rents the power needed for calculations - user A’s computer is just enough to run a blog;
• the device owner receives passive income, renting – the necessary resources.

The issue of redistribution of resources within the system becomes relevant. The principle of the SONM platform is to ensure the sustainability and stability of the decentralized network. If a device is disconnected from the system, the required resources are transferred from other devices. That is, user A came home and disconnected the computer from the system - the rental capacity for blogging is switched to another device.

Cryptocurrency SONM

The SONM cryptocurrency in the context of the functioning of the platform becomes payment for the use and provision of computing power. To use the proposed functionality, the user will need to purchase the SONM cryptocurrency - with it he pays for the rented equipment.

In this direction, the demand for rental computing power also increases the cost of cryptocurrency. The user who rents out his computing power also receives income in the SONM cryptocurrency. If he immediately exchanges it for fiat or other digital money, the stable value of the tokens is maintained. If he keeps them as an investment, the value of the cryptocurrency increases.

As a result, the functioning of SONM digital money is based on the operation of the platform and is ensured by a steady growth trend. This factor creates certain prospects for investing in cryptocurrency as in company shares.

Development prospects

The potential of the SONM platform was revealed already during the ICO. At its preparatory stage, half a million dollars were collected. And the presentation of the project itself collected 42 million in a few days. Similar start-up capital not only ensured the development of the platform, but also aroused some interest in the development from other investors.

The developers emphasize that almost every Internet resource, from a simple forum or blog to a massively multiplayer game, needs computing power. Creating your own server or renting one in a cloud system is not cheap. And the use of fog computing within the SONM platform will allow you to avoid intermediaries and use any required volumes for analysis, processing and storage of data.

Such a project has significant potential for development and will provide investment profit if the technical side is properly implemented. However, the complexity of the development, innovative model and possible errors create serious risks for investment.

Most experts, however, positively assess the prospects for the development of the project and the SONM cryptocurrency. Despite its low cost, the token is gradually increasing in price. And the idea of ​​​​creating a decentralized worldwide computer has excellent chances of implementation and support, which creates significant potential for making a profit based on long-term investment.