Akash network is an open source project which lets users run their containers across a global set of compute providers. It's the middle layer inbetween people who need compute resources (buyers) and people willing to sell access to their compute resources (suppliers). Anyone can participate on either side, with any scale or size of compute need and any scale of compute availability.
As an open source project, the intent is to allow anyone to access compute resources, and equivalently anyone to provide that access. This is mediated by user-provided (buyer-side) containers, which are then executed (supplier-side) by a provider specifically chosen by the user. This means the costs to host that container are set by a reverse auction: Every provider bids via their chosen parameters to host that container, including both services provided (such as a dedicated IP or a GPU) as well as by the amount of money they want to host the container. The user (buyer) then picks between all the providers based on their own wants and needs, choosing the price they are willing to pay. The provider then deploys and runs the container within a Kubernetes environment, returning needed details back to the end user.
This coordination works very well because Akash is built on top of a Cosmos blockchain, and the blockchain semantics provide the needed primitives and functionality to make this happen. Every compute provider runs a validator node to participate, so the blockchain nodes gossip amongst themselves and come to consensus. Every provider is represented, and has the opportunity to participate in the reverse auction.
Every compute request on the buyer side is a blockchain commitment. This transaction is submitted to a publicly accessible blockchain node, which commits the transaction to its memory pool. With a 6-second block time, once the block hits finality, every provider sees the buyer commitment and responds with a bid, and that bid is also a committed transaction. So within 12 seconds, the compute requester has a large number of providers available and publicly promising to host their container at their publicly promised price with publicly promised features.
Use of a public blockchain guarantees pricing and feature transparency, so compute buyers know exactly what they're getting. Computer providers know exactly what their competitors are doing and what they're pricing, so it's a fair market. Blockchain permissionlessness allows anyone to participate on either buyer or supplier side. Coordination between the two is done via a reverse auction so competitive pressures ensure fairness and delivery of services. At any point, buyers can cancel their service simply by committing a "cancel service" transaction to the blockchain. Payment, or "rent" is due on every new block, so is paid out on a 6-second basis for 6-seconds worth of provided compute.
The Akash computing platform is an alternative to pricier hosting options, and is a new approach to the distribution of compute resources, and it's worth investigating for many use cases.
