The Ghost of Computing Power: AI Hegemony, Physical Limits, and the Inevitability of Decentralization
- Core Viewpoint: Based on an interview with David Liberman, the core argument of this article is that centralized computing power poses risks of monopoly, geopolitical tensions, and single points of failure, representing a potential threat to human civilization. In contrast, decentralized AI computing networks (such as Gonka), by restructuring the production relations of computing power and replicating the successful path of Bitcoin, aim to transform computing power into a distributed digital public utility, thereby building a more resilient and equitable foundation for future technology.
- Key Elements:
- Computing power is rapidly concentrating in the hands of a few cloud giants, creating risks of "digital rent" and technological authoritarianism, which may exacerbate social inequality and suppress freedom.
- The centralized AI computing paradigm faces physical limits, including the geopoliticization of energy, heat dissipation bottlenecks, and sovereignty risks stemming from tying national competitiveness to the decisions of a few entities.
- Gonka proposes a "Proof of Computation" mechanism, aiming to redirect the massive computing power at the scale of Bitcoin mining (e.g., consuming over 23 gigawatts of electricity) towards real AI tasks, replacing institutional trust with algorithmic trust.
- Decentralized AI networks will incentivize the autonomous evolution of specialized hardware (such as AI inference ASIC chips), breaking dependence on single suppliers like NVIDIA and enabling scalable development.
- Decentralized AI faces technical challenges, including communication latency among global nodes, low-cost verification of task results, and how to provide a developer experience comparable to centralized cloud services.
- The long-term value of Gonka lies in providing a "Plan B"—an alternative technological pathway that cannot be shut down at a single point and allows global developers equitable access to computing power.
Author | Gonka.ai
Core Summary: This article is compiled from an interview with David Liberman on the *Cryptopolitan Podcast*. In the interview, David particularly emphasized the potential threat of centralized computing power to human civilization, while also delving deeply into the social contract of technology, the inevitability of hardware evolution, and how decentralized AI can reshape the power structure by replicating the successful path of Bitcoin.
In the narrative of the AI race between Silicon Valley and the world, algorithms, data, and computing power are hailed as the three pillars. However, a hidden and brutal reality is emerging: computing power is showing an unprecedented tendency towards "oligopolization." The world's most advanced GPU resources are rapidly concentrating in the hands of a few cloud giants and super-institutions. As Gonka co-founder David Liberman warned in the interview: this highly centralized physical structure not only erects high "digital rent" at the technical entry point but may also become a tool to suppress human freedom and exacerbate inequality in the future.
Against this backdrop, the significance of the decentralized AI compute network represented by Gonka has long transcended a mere technical experiment. It is essentially a radical reconstruction of the production relations of computing power—an attempt to revert computing power from an "oligopolized resource" back to a "distributed digital public utility."
1. The Physical Wall: Why is Centralized Computing Power Approaching Its End?
For a long time, centralized data centers have been seen as the sole technical paradigm for AI development. However, with the emergence of trillion-parameter models, the physical limits of this paradigm are becoming faintly visible.
David pointed out that the main driver of AI today is scale. Starting with Microsoft's billion-dollar-level computing power provision for OpenAI in 2017, the industry validated the logic of "brute force scaling." But now, we are facing a disconnect between the linear growth of hardware output and the exponential growth of AI demand. Centralized facilities rely on extremely high-density energy input and extremely expensive cooling systems. This model is now caught in a double bind of geopolitical energy supply constraints and physical cooling bottlenecks.
The deeper issue lies in sovereignty and decision-making risk. When AI becomes the foundational base for measuring a nation's competitiveness and innovation capacity, entrusting the lifeline of computing power to a handful of decision-makers essentially constructs a fragile "soft spot" that can easily evolve into a technological authoritarianism. Decentralization is not merely about pursuing "democracy"; it is more about building a "technological antibody" that cannot be shut down by a single point or interfered with by institutions.
2. Mechanism Alienation: The Paradigm Shift from Hash Competition to "Proof of Compute"
The key breakthrough in Gonka's technical path lies in its reinterpretation of the "proof mechanism."
In the first decade of cryptocurrency, computing power was largely wasted on meaningless hash collisions. David mentioned that the Bitcoin network consumes over 23 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, exceeding the total computing power facilities of global tech giants. The Proof of Compute mechanism proposed by Gonka attempts to solve a core proposition: how to redirect this massive, proven-successful "mining energy" towards real AI inference and training tasks?
The essence of this mechanism is replacing "institutional trust" with "algorithmic trust." When you send a command to ChatGPT, you are trusting the company OpenAI; in the Gonka network, you are trusting mathematics. Compute providers earn rewards by actually completing AI tasks. This means computing power is no longer mere hardware stacking but a measurable, real-time generated liquidity. It ensures every watt of electricity serves real intelligent production, not meaningless numerical calculations.
3. Hardware Evolution: Replicating Bitcoin's ASIC Path
A thought-provoking point in the interview is that Gonka's vision extends beyond just software and protocols.
David predicts that just as Bitcoin gave birth to ASIC miners tens of thousands of times more efficient than CPUs, decentralized AI networks will trigger the second half of hardware evolution. When millions of nodes assemble via the Gonka protocol, it will incentivize hardware manufacturers (like Bitfury, etc.) to develop specialized chips designed for distributed AI inference. This hardware autonomous evolution, independent of the single-supply system of Nvidia, is the true killer feature for decentralized networks to achieve "Stargate" scale and compete with tech giants.
4. The "Technical Deep Waters" Behind the Idealism
However, stripping away the grand vision, the path of decentralized AI is fraught with unknown deep waters:
- The Curse of Communication and Latency: How to achieve synchronization of large-scale parallel tasks across globally distributed nodes with varying bandwidths?
- The Game of Verification Logic: In a permissionless open network, how to verify at low cost that nodes have not "fabricated results" or "cut corners"?
- The Friction of User Experience: Developers are accustomed to the simple and easy-to-use APIs of AWS. Decentralized networks must provide an equally smooth experience while maintaining protocol transparency.
5. Conclusion: Computing Power as a Future "Basic Human Right"
If we extend the timeline to the next decade, computing power will become a "basic survival resource" for maintaining the operation of digital society, much like electricity, water, and internet access.
The true value of Gonka lies not in whether it can defeat Google, but in providing a "Plan B": a technical path that cannot be unilaterally shut down by a few institutions, cannot be completely blocked by geopolitical factors, and allows global independent developers fair access.
As David said, AI can either be a tool for universal prosperity or a blade to suppress the majority. Building a decentralized AI compute network is essentially paving a global **"Intelligence Highway"**. It heralds the arrival of a new era—an era where the generation of intelligence no longer depends on whether you are in the shadow of a super data center, but on how global computing resources achieve optimal collaboration through protocols.
Born from dispersion, achieved through consensus. In the second half of the AI computing power race, whoever can most effectively coordinate every chip globally holds the true ticket to the future intelligent civilization.
Endnote: This article is compiled from the interview content of David Liberman on the *Cryptopolitan Podcast* and the core viewpoints of the Gonka protocol. It does not constitute any investment advice. As an emerging AI infrastructure, Gonka still faces risks from technological iteration and market volatility. Investors are advised to remain rational.
About Gonka.ai
Gonka is a decentralized network designed to provide efficient AI computing power, aiming to maximize the utilization of global GPU resources to complete meaningful AI workloads. By eliminating centralized gatekeepers, Gonka offers developers and researchers permissionless access to compute resources, while rewarding all participants through its native token GNK.
Gonka is incubated by the US AI developer Product Science Inc. The company was founded by Web 2 industry veterans, former Snap Inc. core product directors, the Liberman siblings, and successfully raised $18 million in 2023, with an additional $51 million in 2025. Investors include OpenAI backer Coatue Management, Solana investor Slow Ventures, Bitfury, K5, Insight, and Benchmark partners, among others. Early contributors to the project include leading companies in the Web 2-Web 3 space such as 6 blocks, Hard Yaka, and Gcore.
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