A DePIN newcomer with 65,000 devices connected, understand in three minutes the upcoming public sale of Acurast on CoinList.

Author: 1912212.eth, Foresight News

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

Although the wealth effect of CoinList is not as significant as before in this cycle, it still has a certain level of influence. Its open public offering projects Ondo Finance, Nillion, and WalletConnect have all performed reasonably well so far.

What exactly is Acurast? What are its features?

1. Decentralized 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 such as AWS and Google Cloud that rely on centralized servers, Acurast provides decentralized computing resources through the Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) of smartphones, 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 leverages TEE technology in smartphones to ensure the security and verifiability of the computing process. TEE can verify the authenticity of the hardware and protect data privacy without needing to trust the device owner, thus creating a highly secure computing environment.
• High Scalability: The testnet has processed over 240 million transactions, connected to more than 65,000 computing units (smartphones), covering over 120 countries worldwide.
• 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 decentralized AI model training, Web3 infrastructure, and high-security workloads.

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

2. Decentralized Computing Based on NPoS

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

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

Acurast uses the NPoS algorithm, where the Orchestrator matches the computing needs of developers with the resources of computing providers. The reputation engine dynamically updates the reputation score based on the performance of the processors (smartphones), incentivizing honest behavior and penalizing malicious nodes. Developers submit computing tasks to the Acurast network, and the root orchestrator allocates tasks to suitable smartphones based on task requirements and processor reputation. The processors complete the computing tasks, return the results, and TEE ensures 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 collaborative interests of developers, computing providers, and network maintainers through economic incentives and reputation mechanisms, creating a sustainable decentralized 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 at TGE, prioritizing incentives for early users and contributors. Early Investors (6.5%): A lower allocation ratio to support the project's funding needs from testnet to mainnet, with a lock-up period of 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 ACU token has multiple uses within 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 receive 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 decide the development direction of the protocol.

Despite the reasonable design of ACU's token economic model, it still faces potential risks. For instance, the incentive balance mechanism, if the rewards are too high or too low, may affect user participation or lead to token price fluctuations. Market competition also requires competing 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. Raised millions in seed round 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 deep accumulation in decentralized computing, TEE technology, and NPoS consensus mechanism, successfully processing 240 million transactions on the testnet and connecting 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 received support from multiple foundations (such as those related to the Polkadot ecosystem), with participation from 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.