Hassan Maishera
io.net, the DePIN providing access to high-performance GPU clusters, has announced its strategic partnership with NovaNet, the decentralized network for zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP).
In a press release shared with Cryptowisser, io.net said the partnership will enhance the security and reliability of decentralized compute with cryptographic guarantees.
The collaboration will focus on developing zero-knowledge GPU Identification (zkGPU-ID), an advanced solution that provides cryptographic guarantees that GPU resources on io.net are genuine and perform as claimed.
zkGPU-ID will leverage NovaNet’s advanced ZKPs to ensure that the computational resources provided by io.net suppliers are fully validated, secure, and meet stated performance levels.
With zkGPU-ID, io.net and NovaNet will build a system to verify that GPU specifications meet or exceed the declared performance, enabling enhanced reliability and transparency within the decentralized compute landscape.
While commenting on this strategic collaboration, Tausif Ahmed, io.net VP of Business Development, said,
“Building a permissionless and enterprise-ready decentralized compute network requires optimizing coordination and verification across a massive group of distributed GPU suppliers. With NovaNet’s zkGPU-ID, we can increase our ability to continuously validate and test our network of GPUs at a global scale. By partnering with NovaNet and layering their solution on top of our internal verification mechanisms, we are ensuring that our customers can rest assured that the GPUs they are renting from io.net are reliable, trusted, and exactly what they asked for.”
Wyatt Benno, Technical Co-Founder of NovaNet, added that,
“For privacy and local verifiability, it is essential that ZKPs can run on many different types of devices and in various contexts. Using NovaNet’s zkVM will support a safe and secure way to identify GPUs using only software. The resulting cryptographic proofs can be cheaply verified by anyone.”
io.net explained that the zkGPU-ID process works by running a specialized protocol for GPUs through a zkVM-backed secure software channel. This generates a ZKP that a GPU’s specifications meet or exceed the lower bounds of its claimed performance. This protocol utilizes NovaNet’s zkVM to rigorously test and identify GPUs across the io.net platform.
However, any tampering or attempt to reroute the process results in an invalid or downgraded proof, protecting against manipulation.
NovaNet is a decentralized incentive network for privacy-preserving and locally-generated verifiable compute using zero-knowledge proofs. Its folding scheme-based zkVM is at the forefront of ZKP technology, facilitating secure, transparent, and memory-efficient proofs that protect user data while enabling strong cryptographic guarantees of authentic computation . By leveraging ZKPs for zkGPU-ID, NovaNet, and io.net are jointly working on setting a new standard for reliability and transparency in the decentralized compute space.
Meanwhile, io.net is a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) that deploys and manages on-demand, decentralized GPU clusters from geo-distributed sources. Hundreds of thousands of GPUs are accessible today in IO Network, and this Internet of GPUs is specifically architected for low latency, high processing demand use cases like AI/ML ops and cloud gaming. io.net democratizes access to GPU compute capacity while reducing costs, expediting lead times, and expanding choice for engineers and businesses.
