Understand Acurast, which will be in public sale on CoinList, in three minutes.

Acurast is a Decentralization verifiable computing network.

Written by: 1912212.eth, Foresight News

CoinList recently announced that it will launch the Acurast (ACU) token sale at 1:00 AM Beijing time on May 16, with the end time set for 1:00 AM on May 23. 100% of the tokens will be unlocked at TGE. The public FDV is 90 million USD. The price per token is 0.09 USD, with a total of 60 million tokens available for purchase (6% of total supply). The purchase limit is a minimum of 100 USD and a maximum of 2 million USD.

Although the wealth effect of CoinList is not as significant as before in this cycle, it still has certain influence, and its open public offerings such as ondo Finance, Nillion, and WalletConnect have shown acceptable return performance so far.

What exactly is Acurast? What are its features?

1. Decentralization Computing Networks Empowered by Smartphones

Acurast is a decentralized verifiable computing network designed to build a secure, scalable, and data center-free computing infrastructure by leveraging the idle computing power of smartphones. Unlike traditional cloud computing giants like AWS and Google Cloud that rely on centralized servers, Acurast provides decentralized computing resources through smartphones' Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), balancing privacy and efficiency.

Acurast liberates computing power from a few tech giants through mobile devices, giving ordinary users and developers more control. Its core features include:

• Decentralization and Verifiability: Acurast utilizes the TEE technology of smartphones to ensure the security and verifiability of the computing process. TEE can verify the authenticity of the hardware and protect data privacy, eliminating the need to trust the device owner, thus achieving a highly secure computing environment.
• High scalability: The test network has processed over 240 million transactions, connected to more than 65,000 computing units (smartphones), covering over 120 countries globally.
• Cross-ecosystem compatibility: Acurast supports various development environments such as JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, and WASM, and integrates with mainstream blockchain ecosystems like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot, and TON.
• AI and Web3 Application Support: Acurast is particularly suitable for scenarios with high security and privacy requirements, such as Decentralization AI model training, Web3 infrastructure, and high-security workloads.

By transforming smartphones into computing nodes, Acurast not only reduces computing costs but also provides users with the opportunity to earn rewards by contributing idle computing power. This "everyone can participate" model makes it stand out in the DePIN track.

2. Decentralized Computing Based on NPoS

The operational logic of Acurast revolves around its core protocol architecture, integrating the Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS) consensus mechanism and a reputation engine to ensure the efficient operation and security of the network. Its ecosystem is mainly composed of the following roles and mechanisms:

• Developers: Deploy applications through Acurast's command-line interface (CLI), utilizing the network's computing resources to run JavaScript, TypeScript, or WASM workloads. Developers pay fees (in $ACU or other tokens) to access computing services.
• Computation Providers (Processors): Refers to smartphone users who contribute their idle computing power by installing the Acurast Processor application, earning ACU token rewards. Each phone can earn a fixed amount of 250 cACU per month (testnet points, which will be exchanged for ACU in the future).
• Validators and Nominators: Based on the NPoS consensus mechanism, validators are responsible for maintaining network security, while nominators support trustworthy validators through staking ACU, jointly ensuring the network's Decentralization and economic security.
• End users: Use decentralized applications built on Acurast to enjoy low-cost, high-privacy computing services.

Acurast adopts the NPoS algorithm, where the Orchestrator matches the computational needs of developers with the resources of computing providers. The reputation engine dynamically updates reputation scores based on the performance of processors (smartphones), incentivizing honest behavior and punishing malicious nodes. Developers submit computational tasks to the Acurast network, and the root orchestrator allocates tasks to suitable smartphones based on task requirements and processor reputation. Processors complete the computational tasks and return results, with TEE ensuring the privacy and verifiability of the results.

Developers pay fees, processors receive ACU rewards, and validators and nominators share network fees. This operational logic achieves the benefit coordination of developers, computing providers, and network maintainers through economic incentives and reputation mechanisms, creating a sustainable Decentralization computing ecosystem.

3. Token Economics

The total supply of Acurast token ACU is 1 billion pieces, and the TGE is expected to be completed in Q3 2025.

Community (69.5%): Includes Community Treasury, TGE community activation (such as airdrops, Launchpad participation), operational funds, and liquidity supply. These tokens will be unlocked during TGE, prioritizing incentives for early users and contributors. Early Investors (6.5%): To support the project's funding needs from testnet to mainnet, the allocation ratio is lower, and the lock-up period is at least 24 months, gradually released to ensure fairness. Team and Advisors (24%): Tokens for core contributors, advisors, and future team members have the longest lock-up period (at least 24 months).

The token ACU has multiple uses in the Acurast ecosystem:

• Network fees: Used to pay transaction fees, the fees will be burned to reduce circulation and enhance the scarcity of the tokens.
• Staking: By staking ACU, participants provide economic security to the network and earn fee rewards.
• Settlement: As a unified settlement token, it measures processor reputation and service quality, supporting the abstraction of multi-token payments.
• Governance: Holders can participate in on-chain governance and vote to determine the direction of the protocol's development.

Although the token economic model of ACU is reasonably designed, it still faces potential risks. For example, the incentive balance mechanism could affect user participation or lead to token price fluctuations if the rewards are too high or too low. Market competition needs to contend with traditional cloud computing giants like AWS and Google Cloud, as well as other DePIN projects. The hardware performance of smartphones, network bandwidth, and battery life may also cause fluctuations in computing resources.

4. Secured hundreds of millions in seed and strategic round financing

Acurast has not publicly disclosed the specific names of its members, but their background and achievements can be inferred from the project's progress and partnerships: the team has a strong foundation in Decentralization computing, TEE technology, and NPoS consensus mechanism, successfully driving the testnet to process 240 million transactions and connect with 65,000 devices. In terms of ecosystem cooperation, Acurast has established deep integration with the ecosystems of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot, TON, and other chains.

In terms of financing, Acurast received a grant of $1.5 million in 2023, followed by $2 million in seed round and strategic round financing, and has received support from several foundations (such as those related to the Polkadot ecosystem), with participation from notable individuals including Dr. Gavin Wood (co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Polkadot), Leonard Dorlöchter (founder of PEQ), Michael van de Poppe (founder of MN Capital), Ogle (founder of GlueNet and influential figure at CoinDesk), and Vineel Budki (CEO of Sigma Capital).

The official roadmap shows that its mainnet will officially launch in the second half of this year.