philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Otoy Wants to Make Light-field Rendering Affordable with a Supercomputing Cluster You Get Paid to Be Part Of

Introducing the Render Token from Render Token on Vimeo.

Otoy has announced the Render Token, a blockchain-based currency that underpins a distributed GPU rendering network.

One problem with the practical application of light-fields is that they’re expensive to render, both computationally and temporally. If you want to farm your render out to the cloud to get it done in a reasonable amount of time, you can expect to pay a hefty fee.

And so on a quest to make GPU rendering dramatically more affordable, Otoy is mashing up the ideas of distributed supercomputing clusters and the blockchain with the hopes of creating a decentralized cloud rendering network that runs rendering tasks on idle GPUs in exchange for payment in the form of a cryptocurrency.

The result is what Otoy calls the Render Token (RNDR). It’s a cryptocurrency coin based on the Ethereum blockchain, and the company says it’s the payment that will be used to incentivize and compensate participants in the rendering network for the use of their GPU power.

Urbach says, the fundamental mining work that underpins crytocurenies could be used to produce valuable output in the form of rendered imagery.

Otoy plans to make an ‘Initial Coin Offering’, which is a sale of the first Render Tokens. It’s both a way for Otoy to raise capital for their initiative and to establish the initial value of each Render Token. The company will offer a limited number of tokens, and, according to the Render Token White Paper, hopes to sell $134 million to support the project, presumably cutting off the supply after that amount is raised. That wouldn’t be the largest ICO to date (that would be Filecoin at $250M+, according to The Cointelegraph), but it’s not far off. Here’s how Otoy says they’ll spend the funds:

40% – will go to future development of each expansion phase (I-IV) and will support the team dedicated to the operations and engineering of the Render Token platform.

25% – running, maintaining, and scaling the network – this will include developing and creating new and more efficient solutions for rendering through custom built GPU solutions, effectively lowering the price of rendering across the network and the world.

20% – will be allocated to marketing and expanding the applications and reach and use-cases of the network.

10% – for third party services and contractors providing guidance and efficiencies to the project.

5% – for unforeseen roadblocks and circumstances.

See the full story with video here: https://www.roadtovr.com/otoy-render-token-rndr-light-field-vr-ar/