Acurast Raises 5.4M to Power Decentralized Cloud with Smartphones

Imagine turning the smartphones in your pocket into powerful nodes of a global cloud computing network. This is exactly what Acurast aims to achieve after raising $5.4 million in a community-led investment round facilitated by CoinList. With a fully diluted valuation of $90 million, Acurast is pioneering a decentralized cloud infrastructure that leverages everyday mobile devices to perform confidential and verifiable compute tasks.

Decentralizing Cloud Computing with Smartphones

Acurast’s protocol transforms over 72,000 smartphones worldwide into secure compute units, creating a decentralized network that spans more than 130 countries. This network has already processed over 256 million transactions, making it one of the most decentralized and verifiable compute networks available today. By eliminating reliance on centralized data centers, Acurast offers a more energy-efficient and accessible alternative to traditional cloud services.

Security and confidentiality are paramount in Acurast’s design. The platform uses Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) embedded in mobile devices to ensure that compute tasks remain confidential and tamper-proof, even without trusting the device owner. This approach guarantees scalable and secure compute power across billions of smartphones.

The Role of ACU Tokens in a Decentralized Economy

At the heart of Acurast’s ecosystem is the ACU token, which facilitates network fees, staking, governance, and settlement layers. With a total supply of one billion tokens at genesis, ACU incentivizes users to contribute their smartphone’s compute power, enabling real decentralization and active collaboration. This token economy supports sustainable growth and empowers participants to become stakeholders in a secure and scalable decentralized compute network.

In the past 24 hours alone, over 300 websites and games were deployed on Acurast’s network using simple prompts with Vibe Code and Deploy, showcasing the platform’s ability to support rapid and decentralized application development. Developers can easily deploy JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, and WASM workloads through a straightforward CLI, with access to thousands of NPM packages, making it a versatile foundation for web3, AI, and beyond.

Why This Matters for the Future of Cloud Infrastructure

Acurast’s approach challenges the traditional cloud model by decentralizing compute power and making it accessible through devices people already own. This shift could reduce the environmental impact of massive data centers and democratize access to cloud resources globally. The use of blockchain to verify hardware authenticity and anchor confidential workloads ensures trustless and verifiable execution, a critical feature for enterprise and developer adoption.

By combining mobile hardware security features with a high-performance Proof of Stake blockchain, Acurast is building the foundational layer for a decentralized compute economy. This innovation opens doors for new applications in web3, AI, and blockchain infrastructure, making compute power more secure, scalable, and energy-efficient than ever before.