Akash Network (AKT)
System: Akash Network — Trusted Data and Identity
Akash Network is a decentralised cloud-compute marketplace where tenants deploy containerised workloads and independent providers bid to supply central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), memory, storage, network connectivity and optional internet protocol (IP) leases. Akash mainnet launched in 2020, and the system uses a Cosmos SDK/CometBFT application chain, provider software, provider-operated compute hardware, marketplace modules, escrow accounts, Burn-Mint Equilibrium (BME) modules, Akash Compute Token (ACT) accounting balances, validators, delegators, tenants and providers. ACT is a non-transferable compute-credit mechanism, not a profiled token.
Market Data
| Price | $0.676294 |
| Market Cap | $197.57M |
| Fully Diluted Valuation | $199.62M |
| 30d Change | -22.71% |
| 365d Change | -39.74% |
Token Functionalities
Payments
- Native Resource Fee (Weak)
Right to consume Akash chain transaction resources by paying AKT-denominated fees. Strength is Weak because AKT is used for chain transaction resources, while the core compute service is funded through Akash Compute Token and Burn-Mint Equilibrium settlement.
- Prepaid Credit
Right to redeem or burn AKT into Akash Compute Token, a closed-loop compute credit used for Akash lease invoices. Akash Compute Token is a non-transferable mechanism of AKT, not a profiled token.
Collateral
- Performance-Bond
Right to post AKT as a validator performance bond, subject to slashing for rule-verified misbehaviour. Validator self-bonded and delegated AKT are folded activation states; downtime and double-signing can trigger slashing, jailing or tombstoning under Akash slashing rules.
Governance
- Treasury Control (Unilateral)
Right to direct on-chain community-pool or treasury assets through supported governance proposals. Strength is Unilateral within the supported on-chain spend/message scope because approved proposals execute through the governance module.
- Technical Parameter Control (Partial)
Right to approve protocol upgrades and technical architecture changes affecting Akash chain code, execution environment and core technical components. Strength is Partial because governance can approve software upgrades, but validators and node operators must run the upgraded binary at the upgrade height.
- Economic Design/Parameter Control (Partial)
Right to set or amend economic design and parameters that affect monetary flows, incentives, Burn-Mint Equilibrium, fee/take-rate logic, issuance, rewards and slashing economics where those surfaces are exposed to governance. Strength is Partial because upgrade-delivered changes require validator or node-operator execution.
- Process and Meta Parameter Control (Unilateral)
Right to modify governance-process parameters, including deposit, voting period, quorum, threshold and veto-threshold settings. Strength is Unilateral for exposed on-chain governance-module parameters because approved parameter-change proposals execute through the governance module.
- Actor Set Permissioning (Unilateral)
Right to re-weight validators that perform privileged consensus roles by staking or delegating AKT under staking-module rules. The active validator set is determined by voting power; provider admission is not included in this row.
Service Provision
- State Transition Execution and Transaction Sequencing
Right to execute deterministic state transitions and decide transaction inclusion or ordering for Akash blocks by staking AKT and operating as a validator. Staked or delegated AKT is the activation mechanism.
- Generalised Off-Chain Computation
Right to supply off-chain compute resources and execute tenant workloads on Akash by registering as a provider and locking or spending AKT as required for bids, leases and transaction fees.
System Attributes
Operating Model
<p>Akash is an On-Chain Protocol. Independent providers register on the Akash blockchain, publish resource capacity and pricing, monitor orders and submit bids, while tenants create deployments and accept bids that become on-chain leases. The deployment, market, provider, and escrow modules coordinate the economically critical marketplace state, including orders, bids, lease creation and payment accounting. Provider hardware performs the workload execution off-chain, but the core marketplace coordination, lease state and settlement path are enforced by Akash chain modules.</p>
Value Creation
<p>Akash has Hybrid Value Creation. The buyer-facing service is produced off-chain by provider-operated compute hardware that runs tenant containers and supplies CPU, GPU, memory, storage and networking. The on-chain side creates the marketplace and settlement layer: tenants create deployments, resource requirements generate orders, providers submit bids, tenants accept bids into leases, and escrow accounts account for lease payments. BME, oracle and escrow modules coordinate ACT funding, ACT-to-AKT conversion logic, provider withdrawals and circuit-breaker conditions. The core service, therefore, depends on both off-chain workload execution and on-chain lease, escrow and settlement modules.</p>
Value Capture
<p>Akash has On-Chain Value Capture and Routing. Tenants fund deployments with ACT, either by burning AKT or through the Console/card path that buys AKT and mints ACT. Lease spend is held in escrow accounts, paid block-by-block in ACT, and withdrawn by providers; validators and delegators receive block rewards and transaction fees through the distribution module. Mainnet 17 removed AEP-23 take-rates on BME payouts. Console and the Console application programming interface (API) are material off-chain access and funding components with managed wallets and credit-card billing, but current evidence does not show a material retained Console fee, spread, or off-chain revenue recipient for core compute spend.</p>