AI Depin Protocol Grass Sets Out to Take Back Control of the Internet, Announces Limited-Time Bonus Epoch & End of Closed Beta

Grass Wraps Up Epoch 7: Solana-Based AI Project Marks End of Closed Beta

Grass, an artificial intelligence (AI) Decentralised Physical Infrastructure Network (Depin) project built on the Solana network, announced the conclusion of its closed beta version with its final epoch on 13 August.

On its website, Epoch is stated as:

“Epochs are distinct time periods during which you can accumulate points, viewable in a snapshot on the dashboard. Our epoch system will visualizes your monthly points earnings. Your total number of points will stay the same for beta, but the dashboard will show you how much you've earned each month.”

Grass confirmed that the beta phase allowed it to verify its ability to reach 100% of the web, a feat achieved by only two other companies, thereby capturing and monopolising the value accrued by AI development.

During the beta, the network successfully onboarded two million users, with plans to expand its user base significantly in the future, enhancing the reach and scope of its activities.

On 15 August, Grass announced the end of the Closed Beta, indicating that more details on user eligibility for the upcoming airdrop and further information on tokenomics would be provided in the coming weeks.

It is noted that users' network participation, weighted by epoch, will serve as a baseline for their rewards.

As a prelude to the airdrop, Grass also announced a limited-time Bonus Epoch, designed to incentivise users to download the new Desktop Node.

This Bonus Epoch is additive to the existing epoch rewards, ensuring that users’ earlier efforts remain intact and are not impacted.

The Desktop App offers benefits to both users and the network, as it uses less than 5% of the resources of a Chromium browser while handling 10 times more bandwidth compared to the Lite Node.

In essence, the Desktop App provides a more efficient scaling solution for the Grass network.

Grass x Solana

In June, Grass announced its plan to leverage Solana to automate the distribution of rewards for every node.

This strategic move is tied to Grass's advancements in data tracking procedures.

With this new implementation, Grass can precisely track which node scraped the data and the specific sites from which the data was sourced, ensuring that these records are permanently recorded on-chain.

This approach enhances trust in the collected data among developers, as it provides a comprehensive provenance record of the information gathered.

This is particularly beneficial in addressing the issue of "poisoned" data being fed to other applications, as there is no reliable way for AI projects to guarantee the accuracy of training data unless they scrape the data themselves.

Users also stand to benefit from the trustworthiness of the data fed to AI agents, reducing the likelihood of trusting a biased AI due to data poisoning.

However, the most immediate reason for this implementation is to prepare for an upcoming token distribution, decentralising the rewards process to ensure users are compensated fairly for their contributions to the network.

Grass had stated:

“When we have a wallet address associated with each node, we're then able to distribute the value of AI back to the exact node that provided the data.”

What is Grass?

The internet is a collective creation, yet only a few corporations reap the financial rewards.

The rise of AI has exacerbated this imbalance, with a select number of centralised AI labs profiting from public data—a resource built by all of us.

Grass aims to disrupt this dynamic by empowering the broader community.

In April, Grass announced it had surpassed two million connected devices, which will contribute to a decentralised data layer for AI over time.

The project’s mission is to democratise and decentralise internet resources, ensuring fair compensation for everyone involved.

Through its Chrome extension and mobile app, Grass offers a decentralised residential proxy market, allowing users to monetise their unused bandwidth.

By participating, users help create a more equitable internet ecosystem, where raw data is collected and processed for AI training.

Grass has committed to rewarding participants with cryptocurrencies, gift cards, and PayPal payments.

The process is seamless—users install the Grass application or browser extension, which automatically delegates idle bandwidth to the network. Importantly, this occurs without slowing down the user’s own internet experience.

Grass is also developing proprietary datasets and AI models to further decentralise AI, aiming to make the vast knowledge of the internet open-source and accessible.

Relationship between AI models and the Grass protocol

Additionally, Grass is focused on transforming unstructured web data into formats that can train large language models (LLMs), making this data available via APIs.

This effort is part of a broader goal to turn the internet into an open and structured knowledge base.

Users who contribute to Grass earn Grass Points, which can be converted into network ownership and sold to verified companies for web scraping, market research, and other uses, with cryptocurrency as the primary medium.

The platform is also exploring additional payout options, including fiat through PayPal, gift cards, and participation in network governance.

Grass prioritises security, collecting only essential information such as uptime, IP address connections, sign-up emails, and passwords, while strictly avoiding access to personal data on user devices.

To further safeguard user information, Grass employs a zero-knowledge (ZK) processor, allowing builders to verify AI model training without compromising data privacy.

Full architecture of Grass

Grass's ultimate vision is to become the foundational layer for AI decentralisation, contributing to a global, open-source repository of human knowledge.

Background on Grass

Grass, the flagship product of Wynd Network, revolutionises internet usage by enabling users to monetise their unused bandwidth—essentially selling their "view of the internet.”

This decentralised bandwidth monetisation network operates seamlessly through a web extension that users simply download, activate, and forget about.

Behind the scenes, Grass facilitates access to public web data for others, rewarding participants with the protocol's native token.

With a network of over two million users, Grass empowers everyday individuals to contribute to and benefit from the growth of AI, aiming to decentralise AI development and prevent its concentration in the hands of a few.

Through this model, Grass not only democratizes internet resources but also offers a way for ordinary people to share in the rewards of AI's advancement.

Andrej Radonjic, Co-Founder of Grass, recently spoke at length about how Grass is democratising access to web data, its potential impact on the AI industry, and more.

The direct interview can be viewed below:

Andrej Radonjic, Co-Founder

Radonjic, co-founder of Wynd Network & Grass, brings a strong academic background to his work, with a Master's in Mathematics and Statistics from York University and a Bachelor's in Engineering Physics from McMaster University.

His socials: X and LinkedIn

Grass' Socials

Website

X

Discord

Grass: Rewriting the Rules of the Internet

Following the conclusion of its Closed Beta, Grass has embarked on a pivotal shift, moving from the construction of foundational infrastructure to fostering the growth of applications that harmonise user objectives with the network's goals, all while maintaining scalability.

In a significant development, Grass disclosed the successful completion of a $3.5 million seed funding round in December.

This round was spearheaded by Polychain Capital and Tribe Capital, with additional contributions from a consortium of investors including Bitscale, Big Brain, Advisors Anonymous, Typhon V, and Mozaik, among others.

Chris Nguyen, the Chief Technology Officer of Wynd Network, has outlined the strategic use of these funds to bolster Grass's technological framework, broaden its network of nodes, and streamline its data verification mechanisms.

The vision of empowering users to reclaim control over the internet may seem ambitious, yet Coinlive is optimistic that with an impending airdrop and a robust infrastructure in place, Grass is on the cusp of reshaping the internet landscape.

Grass noted:

“We have a limited amount of time to rewrite the rules of the internet, and Grass intends to be at the forefront of the revolution. Let's take back control of the internet.”