Blockless

Blockless is a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) established in 2022 to provide computing power support for applications. The company was co-founded by CEO Butian Li, who previously worked in academic research, consulting, and as a tech investor, alongside Derek Anderson, formerly of Akash Network, Michael Chen, formerly of Binance, and Liam Zhang, a former researcher at New York University. The founding team, based in Palo Alto, California, aims to address what they see as limitations in the Web3 space, such as a lack of focus on user experience and a reluctance to learn from Web2 successes.

The company operates in the decentralized computation market, offering an infrastructure platform for developers to launch, integrate, and secure network-neutral applications (nnApps). These applications are designed to be compatible with any blockchain network, freeing them from the typical constraints of a single chain. Blockless's business model is centered on creating a shared global computing resource by harnessing the idle processing power of everyday devices like laptops and tablets. Users who contribute their device's computing resources are rewarded by both the applications they support and by Blockless itself.

The core of Blockless's service is its WebAssembly (WASM) based application framework, which features a "nestled node" embedded directly within applications. This allows end-users to automatically contribute compute resources simply by opening and using an application, without needing to download special software or run a dedicated node. The network employs a system called Dynamic Resource Matching (DRM) to orchestrate tasks, assigning different workloads to various nodes based on the workload's requirements and the node's capabilities, ensuring efficient and secure operation. For developers, Blockless provides tools like a command-line interface (CLI) and a dashboard to facilitate easy integration and deployment. The platform is blockchain-agnostic and uses the Cosmos SDK for its own native network and token.

In May 2024, Blockless announced it had raised a total of $8 million in pre-seed and seed funding rounds. The $3 million pre-seed round was led by NGC Ventures, and the $5 million seed round was co-led by M31 Capital and Frachtis. Other investors include No Limit Holdings, MH Ventures, Interop Ventures, and Plassa Capital. The company plans to launch its mainnet and native token, BLESS, in the third quarter of 2024. The BLESS token will be used for node staking by resource contributors and as a payment method for executions on the platform.

Keywords: decentralized physical infrastructure network, DePIN, shared computing, WebAssembly, WASM, network-neutral applications, nnApps, decentralized computation, blockchain infrastructure, serverless functions, peer-to-peer network, Butian Li, modular applications, off-chain computation, trustless execution, edge computing, Cosmos SDK, verifiable computation, decentralized hosting, BLESS token