In the race to scale blockchain and decentralize AI, one barrier keeps arising: computing power. Whether it’s rising costs for generating zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs or the closed infrastructure behind AI inference, developers are increasingly constrained by centralized, costly, and often inaccessible computing power.
One protocol attempting to eliminate this bottleneck is Cysic, a decentralized marketplace for computing power built to deliver ZK proofs and verified AI inference. The mainnet's alpha was officially launched today, with over 260,000 nodes already onboarded and integrations with Scroll, Succinct, and NetworkNoya ecosystems. With such early success, the team describes this shift as the beginning of the 'ComputeFi' era, where computing power becomes a verifiable resource on-chain, with the computing power itself becoming a verifiable, on-chain asset.
This development comes at a time of significant transformation in both the blockchain and AI sectors. Ethereum's transition towards ZK-native architectures, the emergence of modular stacks, and the rise of AI agents have all contributed to increased demand for decentralized computing power. Projects like zkSync, which recently rose 150% thanks to new ZK infrastructure and privacy integrations, demonstrate how interest from investors and developers is gathering around verifiable computing as a foundation, not just as a feature.
New trends such as Proof-of-AI, decentralized GPU markets, and tokenization of computing power mark a larger shift towards verifiable, programmable infrastructure layers. With downtime, such as AWS's recent outage, highlighting the vulnerability of centralized solutions, more developers are seeking more robust and transparent alternatives.
Why compute has become a central infrastructure challenge.
Scaling blockchain and AI integration is rapidly increasing the demand for computing power, but traditional infrastructure struggles to meet the unique needs of decentralized systems:
ZK proof generation: Zero-knowledge proofs are central to many scaling strategies, providing privacy and validation without revealing underlying data. However, generating such proofs requires significant specialized computing power, often performed by a few centralized actors — limiting decentralization and potentially making it more expensive.
AI verification: As AI models are integrated into on-chain workflows and autonomous agents, the need arises not only for outputs but for verifiable results that can be audited or proven to follow specific logics. Traditional cloud APIs deliver performance but lack built-in verifiability when connected to blockchain logic.
These challenges point towards a larger shift in how developers think about infrastructure: it is no longer sufficient to merely execute computing power when applications increasingly require cryptographic guarantees of how that computing power was performed.
Cysic's role in the new computing economy.
Cysics mainnet goes live just as verifiable computing power transitions from a theoretical promise to an ecosystem necessity. Instead of relying on centralized servers or closed APIs, the network distributes ZK proofs and AI inference tasks across a global node network — from consumer GPUs to custom ASIC hardware — creating a marketplace for provable computing.
In the testing phase before the mainnet, the protocol has processed over 10 million ZK proofs, onboarded 260,000+ nodes, and attracted 1.4 million wallets. It is now integrated with projects like Scroll, Succinct, and Polygon CDK, demonstrating real use rather than just speculative hype.
The network aims to deliver scalable, verifiable computing power at a lower cost. Within AI, partners like NetworkNoya have reported over 70% faster performance and 91% reduced costs with Cysics infrastructure. In ZK environments, teams like Succinct and Scroll have used their prover networks to enhance efficiency on active workloads.
The project positions its method as an attempt to make computing power more provable, decentralized, and programmable.
Decentralized computing power is an ecosystem trend, not an isolated race.
The launch of Cysic is one part of a larger pattern within Web3 and decentralized systems. While projects vary in their approach, the main challenge they are trying to solve remains the same: reducing reliance on centralized providers of computing power and enabling a more trustworthy and accessible infrastructure.
For example:
Decentralized AI networks like NodeGoAI are exploring ways to monetize unused hardware for AI tasks in distributed environments.
Decentralized resource networks, powered by the DePIN movement, aim to incentivize sharing of computing power at scale — a theme that has gained attention following events like the AWS outage that affected parts of Web3 infrastructure.
Broader discussions about decentralized AI infrastructure indicate that trust, verification, and auditing are now central concerns, not just niche research.
These signals in the ecosystem show that decentralized computing power is not a one-off idea, but a structural response to real limitations on how computing power is delivered, priced, and trusted.
The way forward: ZK, AI, and beyond.
Although Ethereum rollups are a natural entry point, Cysics' ambitions stretch far beyond the blockchain scaling narrative. The network is already being used to deliver verifiable AI inference — a feature that allows smart contracts and autonomous agents to confirm that an outcome comes from a specific, approved model. This is particularly relevant as AI-generated content increases and demands stronger guarantees of provenance.
Cysic is also targeting scientific workloads, such as genomics and climate simulations, where reproducibility and transparency are crucial. Concurrently, the network supports a class of two-sided devices like DogeBox1, which can switch between mining and zero-knowledge proofs based on real-time market conditions, allowing infrastructure owners to optimize profitability dynamically.
Together, these use cases point towards a larger shift: computing power is no longer just infrastructure. It is becoming programmable, verifiable, and liquid — now the backbone of what Cysic refers to as the ComputeFi economy.
