Acurast

Acurast is a decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) that repurposes consumer smartphones as the hardware backbone of a global cloud. Rather than renting compute time from AWS or Google Cloud, developers deploy serverless workloads to a distributed pool of phone processors that execute code inside hardware-backed Trusted Execution Environments, with cryptographic proof that the code ran unmodified on genuine hardware.

How It Works

Acurast's architecture is organized into three layers. The Consensus Layer runs Nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS), hosting an orchestrator that matches developer jobs with available processors, a reputation engine, and an attestation service. The Execution Layer consists of phones running the Acurast Processor app, each providing hardware-isolated execution via the Acurast Trusted Execution Environment (ATEE). The Application Layer is where developers interact—deploying code via CLI, TypeScript SDK, or a Deploy Agent that accepts USDC on Base and requires no ACU tokens.

The ATEE relies on external hardware coprocessors—most commonly Google's Titan M2 chip found in modern Android devices—rather than software virtualization. The coprocessor runs a separate flash memory and minimal microkernel OS with no shared memory or cache with the main system, preventing side-channel attacks. Private keys never leave the secure hardware; instead, the device publishes its public key signed by the attestation service, cryptographically linking the binary hash of any deployed executable to the hardware root of trust. This lets anyone verify that a computation ran exactly as specified, with inputs the device owner cannot read or tamper with.

The orchestrator supports multiple price-discovery mechanisms—auctions and advertisements—and enforces an all-or-nothing commitment: once a processor accepts a deployment it must honor the full schedule or face penalties. A reputation engine developed in collaboration with the University of Zurich tracks processor reliability using a beta probability density function with a discount factor that prevents gaming. Simulations showed the system reduced deployment failure rates by 31.37% and increased rewards to high-performing processors by 51.77%.

Key Products and Use Cases

Acurast supports a wide range of workload types: web servers, REST API integrations, scheduled jobs, Telegram bots, headless browsers via Puppeteer, WebAssembly modules, and LLM inference. Every deployment receives a public HTTPS domain at <clientId>.acu.run with no additional configuration.

The platform's "Cloud Rebellion" program gamifies compute onboarding through seasonal quests, awarding MIST tokens and ACU rewards to participants who contribute processing capacity. As of mid-2026 the program is in its sixth season with active global participation.

Use cases documented in Acurast's January 2026 whitepaper include market intelligence (confidential web scraping), AI/ML federated learning, IoT privacy-preserving data collection, zero-knowledge proof offloading, and blockchain infrastructure such as decentralized sequencers and cross-chain oracle services. A publicly demonstrated deployment running a complete LAMP stack (Apache, PHP, MariaDB) on a single Acurast processor illustrates the breadth of what the platform can host.

Token: ACU

ACU is the native token with a total supply of 11 billion. Inflation is distributed in fixed proportions: 70% to the Staked Compute Pool (rewarding processors based on benchmark metrics weighted toward RAM at 46% and CPU at 46%), 15% to the Treasury, 10% as Base Benchmark Rewards (hardware-based compensation even without active deployments), and 5% to block producers and collators. Processors must stake ACU as collateral; committed compute is capped at 80% of measured hardware capacity. The staking cooldown ranges from 28 days to roughly 3.68 years.

A public sale on CoinList in May 2025 priced ACU at $0.09, raised $5.4 million, and was oversubscribed, giving the project a fully diluted valuation of $90 million at launch. ACU subsequently appeared in Binance Alpha distribution events in mid-2026.

Network Scale and Team

The network surpassed 100,000 active smartphones across 130+ countries by July 2025 and processed more than 106,000 computational tasks in the seven months following mainnet launch. Acurast's whitepaper notes that 1.39 billion smartphones are sold annually worldwide versus 13.6 million servers deployed per year, framing the addressable hardware pool as orders of magnitude larger than traditional cloud infrastructure. Ecosystem integrations span more than 70 partners including Polkadot, Tezos, and Astar, as well as DeFi protocols and oracle networks. The reputation system was developed in collaboration with the University of Zurich.

Solana Ecosystem Fit

Acurast added Solana wallet support to its Android and iOS Processor apps in May 2025, letting contributors connect via Phantom and other Solana-native wallets. At the same time, Acurast Processor Lite launched on Solana Mobile, enabling users of Solana Mobile devices to contribute compute with minimal setup and earn rewards. The project's roadmap targets embedding Acurast as native compute infrastructure for Solana developers—providing a decentralized, confidential alternative to centralized cloud services for application backends, oracle feeds, scheduled automation, and off-chain computations that settle on-chain.