Acurast

Acurast is a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) that aims to redefine cloud computing by transforming underutilized smartphones into a global mesh of secure compute nodes. Founded in 2022 by Pascal Brun and Alessandro De Carli and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the company provides a decentralized, serverless cloud platform that challenges the traditional reliance on centralized data centers. The founders' journey stems from deep expertise in mobile cybersecurity and confidential computing, having developed secure systems for major financial institutions and defense contractors. This background directly informs Acurast's core value proposition: leveraging the built-in Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and security modules of consumer mobile devices to offer verifiable and confidential compute services.

The business operates on a two-sided marketplace model within the Web3 ecosystem. On the supply side, individuals with spare Android or iOS devices can install the Acurast Processor application, contribute their phone's computing power to the network, and earn rewards in the native $ACU token. This approach significantly lowers the barrier to entry for compute providers, as it repurposes existing hardware and reduces the energy consumption associated with traditional servers. On the demand side, Acurast serves developers, Web3 projects, and enterprises that require scalable and secure computational resources. These clients can deploy workloads written in JavaScript, TypeScript, or WASM for use cases such as confidential AI, on-chain automation, decentralized data scraping, and providing back-end infrastructure for dApps. The platform is designed for universal interoperability, supporting integrations with major blockchain ecosystems like Polkadot, Ethereum, and Solana.

Revenue and network operations are centered around the ACU token, which has a total supply of one billion. The token serves multiple functions: it is used for network transaction fees, as a settlement token for compute jobs, for staking to provide economic security, and for governance, allowing token holders to vote on the protocol's development. The company has secured funding through multiple rounds, including a $2M Seed round in 2023 and a $5.4M community-led sale via CoinList in May 2025, which gave it a fully diluted valuation of $90 million. Acurast has demonstrated significant traction, with its testnet onboarding over 70,000 devices across more than 130 countries and processing millions of transactions, signaling strong interest ahead of its planned mainnet launch in Q3 2025.

Keywords: decentralized compute, DePIN, confidential computing, serverless cloud, Web3 infrastructure, mobile compute, blockchain, Polkadot ecosystem, smartphone nodes, trusted execution environment, verifiable compute, on-chain automation, crypto-economic model, ACU token, Alessandro De Carli, Pascal Brun, decentralized AI, data oracles, cloud computing, edge computing, serverless backend, tokenomics, Layer 1 blockchain, universal interoperability