Grass
$GRASS
4/19/20241 min read
Abstract
Grass, developed by Wynd Network, is a decentralized residential IP proxy platform that allows users to sell excess home bandwidth in exchange for financial compensation and token rewards. This disrupts traditional IP proxy business models through its decentralized approach. Users sell their unused network resources to entities like companies and labs through Wynd Network. These buyer entities seek unused network resources for diversified IP access to conduct market research, web scraping, and AI training. Users earn points from Grass, which will be retrospectively converted into network ownership at the end of the product's beta phase. Grass received $3.5 million in seed funding led by Polychain and Tribe Capital on December 20, 2023, and is currently in a testing phase.
Current State of Residential IP Proxy Market
The market is dominated by a few highly centralized providers that create large proxy networks with residential IPs globally. These providers aim to maximize their profits by minimizing costs to bandwidth providers and maximizing fees to buyers. Often, users unknowingly sign terms that donate their excess bandwidth to these providers without compensation.
Introduction to Grass
Grass is a decentralized alternative to the traditional residential IP proxy network, allowing users to sell their excess bandwidth. Unlike exploitative middlemen, Grass ensures fair value distribution. It issues native tokens, not only rewarding bandwidth providers but also giving them a stake in the governance of the protocol. This democratic and secure approach challenges the risks inherent in centralized control, promoting fairness and equity in resource distribution.
Who Buys Bandwidth from Grass?
Industries like AI labs need substantial internet bandwidth. Grass helps by allowing direct access to internet data for AI training and providing datasets managed by its node network. Besides AI labs, reviewed companies including Fortune 500 firms and academic institutions also buy bandwidth for diversified IP access for market research.
When Will Grass Launch?
The launch depends on the number of active nodes. As of November 29, 2023, Grass has 103,000 downloads and 1,450,000 unique IPs but needs more active nodes. An Android version is set to launch soon to increase node numbers, leveraging the predominance of mobile internet activity.
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