Curious about Golem coin and whether the GNT (Golem Network Token) is worth investing in? Let’s deep dive into this unique cryptocurrency to find out everything you need to know about what it is, what it does and what all of that means for you.
The first thing most people think about when it comes to cryptocurrency has to do with money, transactions and finances. Which is not surprising – after all, it’s right in the very name: cryptocurrency. But more and more people are catching onto the fact that the real beauty of cryptocurrency is that it can be used for a variety of purposes – not just to conduct transactions. Use cases don’t have to be limited to banks and money, merchants and contracts or investments and savings.
In fact, they can be used to make everyday life a lot easier for a lot of us.
There’s a large group of developers out there who are trying to do just that – to use the blockchain technologies that make cryptocurrency possible to benefit society as a whole by giving them access to resources that would otherwise be impossible.
What is the Golem Network?
Golem Network is an example of a cryptocurrency that is trying to solve a different kind problem – the lack of computing power for a majority of the public.
Headquartered in Poland, the company comprises of mostly Polish team members who have sought inspiration from Jewish folklore to design a system that will help create a distributed supercomputing network.
In Jewish folklore, the Golem is a mythical being that arose from inanimate matter to become a polymorphous creature of infinite power and potential. This is an ideal metaphor for what company is trying to do, which is provide raw computing power to the world so that they can create infinite solutions to many urgent questions and problems that are in dire need of tackling.
What Does Golem Do?
In theory, Golem can do anything. Anything that can be done with a computer, that is. Since most of our work is now done with the help of computers, the potential of Golem is only limited by what a computer can do. As the world is becoming more reliant on computers to tackle everything from climate change to art, we can expect Golem’s ambitious dreams to be a very useful one.
To be brief, Golem is simply trying to give everyone the power of having access to supercomputing resources. Today, that’s limited to high tech laboratories, the military and tech industry giants. The public has no access to powerful computation and even for a fraction of that power, they must turn to corporate giants who demand a unfair sum for resources.
Golem plans to circumvent this by creating a network in which the users themselves will offer their resources which, collectively, give other users on the network access to previously unattainable computing power.
Think of it this way: instead of asking one corporate entity for its single enormous cloud computing server, you ask all your friends for a bit of power from each. The company’s goal is to let people and their computers team up to solve problems using the power of a decentralized network.
There have already been demo runs of the network, the first of which was CGI rendering, a computer intensive task. They expect to expand this use to DNA analysis, scientific calculation, stock market prediction and machine learning. What would usually take weeks or months to complete could be solved in a matter of minutes or hours.
Golem’s ambitions go even further than that, however. They themselves stated that they wish to change the way the internet works. On their website, they call themselves an Internet-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service provider. We’ll get into this ambitious statement shortly.
How Does Golem Network Work?
Essentially, Golem wants to decentralize and democratize computing power. Currently, it is disproportionately in the hands of companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon. For a regular individual, purchasing resources from these companies can be expensive.
The system works by letting peers on the network rent out their CPU cores, RAM and disk space to other users on the network. Golem Network Tokens can be used to purchase these resources. The company likens it to AirBnB. If you choose to rent out your computing power, you earn tokens, aka Golem coins.
A Task Definition Framework has also been designed that carefully allocates resources across the network. A reputation system dictates your credibility on the network – the better your node behaves, the more reputable your node will be considered. This also functions as a check on inappropriate behaviour in nodes.
Golem will also run an app store on their platform that lets developers create apps which they can sell on the network. This incentivizes developers to join the platform and create useful software, which helps in the growth of the cryptocurrency. If you don’t know, developers make up an integral part of a coin platform. Any coin with a poor developer base is doomed to fail.
There are three entities in the Golem ecosystem: providers, requestors and software developers. Requestors request computing resources, through tokens, from the providers. Software developers can monetize their applications on Golem’s app store.
There is a lot to be said about Golem and their work, but we’ll leave that for another, more detailed post. But for now, let’s take a look at the team behind Golem.
Who’s on Golem’s Team?
As we mentioned, the team is situated in Poland. The company is led by Julian Zawitowski, who is also the CEO of imapp and a graduate from the Warsaw School of Economics. The CTO of the compnay is Piotrek Janiuk, who also works at imapp. Lastly, the COO is Andrzej Regulski. He too works in imapp, as a Managing Director.
The team seems like a closely knit one that is determined to solve the supercomputing and decentralized web problems.
There are 14 members on the team, with a desire to expand to 20. They’ll need that as the work ahead of them is significant.
The Pros and Cons of Golem Coin
If you’re considering Golem coin as an investment, you’ll want to know the pros and cons of the technology. Here’s what you need to know!
Multiple use cases
The flexibility and potential of the Golem Network is arguably its strongest point. So many urgent problems remain unsolved and computing power is what we need to solve it. The resources can be used for anything from CGI rendering to medical diagnosis.
Medical problems like a cure for cancer, Alzheimer’s all utilize computing power for analysis, so Golem’s services can assist the healthcare industry, one of the largest economies in any country. Furthermore, these calculations will happen at a much faster pace, effectively increasing the productivity of individuals and organizations.
We also talked about how Golem wants to build a decentralized web. This is widely considered to be the holy grail of the internet – a place where everyone’s digital presence is safe, secure and free from manipulation.
To do this, the company is trying to network different machines so that they can perform the large operations required to run this decentralized web. While Golem is working towards this, it requires multiple other technologies to be built simultaneously.
Democratized computing
Cryptocurrency is all about democratization. In fact, that was one of Satoshi Nakamoto’s guiding principles when he designed Bitcoin.
In the modern world, computing power is nearly on par with money in terms of importance. It is unfair that that kind of power resides with a select few entities. It’s good to see that an attempt is being made to offer equal opportunities. The public is likely to take to this, on top of the fact that Golem is offering something that has very practical uses.
Golem vs Corporations
The big question in Golem’s attempt to upend the computing world is whether they can offer a challenge to the cloud computing services of Microsoft and Amazon.
These mega companies already have a large portion of the market and the resources to invest in the business. It may so happen that Golem will not be able to gain a foothold on the market and offer resources comparable to the services these behemoths offer. It all depends on whether they can get their platform right and attract enough users.
Technical hurdles
Golem’s goals are dependent on a lot of technical progress. For a decentralized web, they will have to design protocols and systems that don’t yet exist. Even for a distributed computing network, they will have to ensure that the system functions efficiently while remaining accessible to the public. This is a hefty obstacle. Time will tell us if they succeed.
Where can You Buy Golem Network Tokens (GNT)?
Golem conducted its ICO in November, with a total of 833 million coins available. It has not yet placed its coin in any exchange, so you can’t purchase the Golem coin at the moment. Golem coin will become available when Golem becomes available to the general public.
Fortunately, you can earn GNT by renting out your computing power, so when the time comes, that’s an easy way for you to earn some coins.
How Do You Store Golem Coin?
Storing Golem Network Tokens is no different from storing any other cryptocurrencies. You’ll need an exchange and a wallet that supports the token, nothing more.
On whatever exchange Golem is listed, you’ll simply have to purchase GNT with, presumably, either dollars, euros, Ether or Bitcoins, and exchange that for the GNT. This will then be stored in your wallet.
Remember, you can also earn GNT by renting out your computing resources, so the earlier you do that, the more you’ll stand to gain!
The Future of Golem
Golem is currently valued at $0.71, with its value fluctuating greatly over the year. In the past few months, it has been slowly going up, no doubt in part due to the fact it has been receiving some good publicity. Right now, its market cap is just under $600 million. In their ICO, about 6% of the coins went to the team.
As for the future of whether Golem will make it – although most would hope so, it isn’t entirely certain if Golem will succeed. True, they have an excellent use case that is backed by a strong technical platform and a sound business plan. The team has divided their growth into four phases, each with incremental additions to the platform. They are also extremely transparent about the process and offer regular updates.
However, one could say that their are highly ambitious, perhaps too much so. The total potential market for their services is somewhere in the region of $64 billion, a staggering sum. It is not known how corporate giants will react to the challenge that Golem is posing.
We can see the public being attracted to what Golem has to offer, but until the company actually launches their platform, we will not have an accurate prediction of its future.
There’s another important thing to consider, which is that they are still in the alpha stage. They very recently released this alpha version and while it’s a good sign that they’re working, it’s also a sign that they are very far away from achieving their final targets.
You’ve got to start somewhere, yes. There will be a lot to invent and solve on their way through the 24 month development cycle – will they come out of it fine? What if you make an investment and it so happens that one of their features cannot be implemented because of a technical impasse? This is a difficult bet to make.
On the one hand, you know that have on their hands something exceptional, but you can’t know for sure whether it will succeed, especially so early on in the race.
Still, they are more likely to succeed than not, because of the benefits they offer. The only real hurdle that they have to cross is the successful implementation and execution of their services. If that works, both developers and users will flock to it for the wonderful power it gives them.
Final Word on Golem Coin
Golem is a moonshot in the cryptocurrency market. Nothing about what they are doing is impossible, just extremely ambitious. If they can pass the technical challenges and successfully create a viable distributed computing network, then they are all set for success. They are unlikely to be challenged by anybody and should be ripe for long-term success.
The question is, can they do so? They are only in the alpha version at the moment, which is a little disappointing. The strong business plan that structures their developments across 24 months lessens that disappointment somewhat, but it still keeps some doubt in your mind.
For all of the people in the world, we hope that they succeed. The goals that they are working on stand to have a large impact on society and can help us find solutions to some difficult problems. It could make the world a better place and, for that reason alone, they should be given some consideration.