Calling All GPU Providers - Lilypad Network's IncentiveNet Program is Live!

As the CEO and founder of Lilypad, I am incredibly excited to see our ambitious vision come to life and start this new chapter in Lilypad’s journey. What started as a bold idea at Protocol Labs has now blossomed into a growing network and community set to revolutionise access to high-performance computing. Our mission has always been to democratise and better distribute compute power, making it seamlessly accessible to everyone and enabling a truly open web and AI stack - the third pillar of an open and decentralised web and a pressing need for the AI age. Today, I am thrilled to announce a major milestone on this journey—the launch of the Lilypad Incentivized Testnet Program, or in abbreviated form (as us Australian’s like to do) - IncentiveNet.

Lilypad is building a new era of computing with our serverless, permissionless, multi-chain distributed compute platform. Our stack enables the execution of large-scale computation tasks directly from smart contracts, CLI, or traditional SaaS workflows, transforming how high-performance computing is accessed and utilised - if you can containerise it, you can run it on Lilypad, no setup required! By connecting the rising demand for compute services with hardware providers, we create an ecosystem where resources are efficiently matched to tasks. With the launch of IncentiveNet, we are taking a significant step forward in our mission, enabling broader access to our platform and setting the stage for our upcoming mainnet launch.

Introducing the Lilypad Incentivenet

Running continuously from June 2024 until our anticipated mainnet launch in late March to early April 2025, IncentiveNet offers participants the chance to earn rewards through Lilybit_ credits. These credits will be redeemable for the Lilypad ERC20 Utility Token at the mainnet launch.

Getting involved with IncentiveNet is straightforward. Join our Discord community to check out the FAQs and connect with other members. From there, explore various ways to participate, whether running a GPU and checking hardware requirements, contributing to our codebase, helping maintain and update documentation, producing content, and more. Engage with the community and discover how you can make an impact.

Joining IncentiveNet is more than just an opportunity to earn rewards; it’s a chance to make a real difference in creating a new frontier for open infrastructure. For example, by contributing your GPU resources, you support a range of critical use cases—from AI and machine learning to gaming, decentralised finance (DeFi), and decentralised science (DeSci) activities. By participating, you also have the opportunity to make a critical impact on the future of the Lilypad Network, both with your feedback and by contributing to a community-driven platform that stands to revolutionise the industry.

How the IncentiveNet Program works

IncentiveNet runs continuously from June 2024 until the mainnet launch and allows participants to earn Lilybit_ credits. It aims to incentivize actors on the network to help build a robust, secure, and thriving marketplace while also promoting community participation and open source involvement.

Participants can engage by running various tasks and modules on the network, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) workloads, gaming simulations, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) computations, and Decentralised Science (DeSci) experiments. The point system rewards participants based on the usefulness and complexity of the tasks they complete, giving recognition to GPU and hardware providers who are crucial for the network's growth. The more valuable and complex the tasks, the more points you earn as we move through the Incentivized Testnet Program.

As part of the Program, the IncentiveNet is divided into phases to maximise and encourage early contributions. Early joiners can earn more Lilybit_ credits, taking advantage of higher rewards available at the initial stages. This approach ensures steady and growing participation and significantly benefits early adopters for their involvement and contributions. Each stage will focus on a particular segment of network growth or testing, including supply, building, integrations, testing, community, and downstream applications, and provide a new opportunity for actors with diverse skill sets to participate.

In our initial phase, we invite anyone with compatible GPU hardware to join the Lilypad IncentiveNet. To learn more about the requirements, please refer to the Lilypad documentation on hardware requirements. Getting started is as easy as installing and setting up the Lilypad Node. By participating, you gain early access to our technology, earn valuable rewards, and play a crucial role in shaping the future of decentralised high-performance computing. This approach to encouraging early involvement ensures the stability and efficiency of the network, helping to encourage contributions that become a vital part of the Lilypad project as we ramp up to our mainnet launch.

Running a Node

Joining the Lilypad Network as a node operator is a fantastic way to contribute to Lilypad’s decentralised computing ecosystem, contribute processing power, and earn rewards.

Here’s a high-level overview of getting up and running on Lilypad:

1. Check your hardware meets requirements:

• Hardware Requirements for running a Lilypad node

• Please keep in mind that at the moment, Lilypad node deployments are specifically built to function on Linux environments. However, we plan to expand support to include other operating systems such as Windows and macOS in the future.

2. Install Nvidia Container Toolkit:

Ensure your GPU operates correctly by installing the necessary components from the Nvidia Container Toolkit.

3. Install Bacalhau:

Bacalhau facilitates decentralised communication between nodes. Follow the instructions from the docs to set it up.

4. Install Lilypad:

This will allow your node to run and connect to the network using the latest version of Lilypad.

5. Configure Environment:

To ensure your node is correctly set up for module processing, create an environment file with your required private key and other configurations.

6. Setup Systems Units:

Ensure Bacalhau and the Lilypad GPU provider start automatically on your system by setting up systemd units.

7. Check your node status:

To check if your node is running correctly and for detailed logs, follow the steps in our how to run a node docs. Additionally, you can also check out the YouTube tutorial on running a node.

8. Welcome to Lilypad:

Check this page to see if your node is online now!

9. Are you a leading Resource Provider?

Check how many Lilybit_ reward points you’ve earned on the Lilypad Leaderboard

Need more help?

• Live help is available in our discord channel #i-need-help

• For more information on how rewards are calculated, see this blog!

• Visit our IncentiveNet page for more details on other ways to participate.

Join the Lilypad community and get Involved

I am amazed to see how far the Lilypad Network has come since our early days. This is only amplified by the amount of community engagement and involvement we have had as we continue to grow.

With the launch of IncentiveNet, we are taking a significant step towards democratising access to high-performance computing and building a truly open AI ecosystem. By participating in IncentiveNet, you will help test and optimise our network, ensuring it is robust, secure, and ready for widespread use.

Your GPU resources will power a range of critical tasks, from AI and ML to gaming and DeFi, playing a crucial role in shaping the future of decentralised computing. The phased structure of IncentiveNet provides an excellent opportunity for early participants to earn significant rewards, making your early involvement even more impactful.

Whether you're contributing a GPU, building a containerized workload module, or adding to our documentation, your contributions and feedback are invaluable as we work towards building a decentralised future together.

To stay connected and engage with other participants, join our Discord community. Whether you have questions, need assistance, or simply want to connect with like-minded individuals, our Discord is the perfect place to meet. Together, we can push the boundaries of what's possible and create a powerful, decentralised computing network. Let’s work together to make Lilypad an accessible, powerful, and community-driven solution for decentralised compute that powers the next generation of web innovation.