io.net

io (IO Coin) is the native cryptocurrency of the IOG Network, an open-source/decentralized AI-compute platform. It connects GPU/CPU renters who deploy clusters, run inference, or build applications with suppliers such as data centers and miners that contribute idle hardware. IO also gives holders a way to stake and help secure network participation. The project positions its network as an alternative source of on-demand compute, with official homepage claims of 30,000+ GPUs in 130+ countries and up to 70% lower costs than AWS/GCP.

AI/ML workloads require rapidly growing, distributed compute, while conventional hyperscaler GPU capacity can be expensive and difficult for startups to access. io.net addresses the supply problem by aggregating underutilized GPUs/CPUs from independent providers into deployable clusters and connecting workers with a secured mesh VPN for lower-latency, resilient communication. This is intended to make distributed training, inference and other GPU-heavy workloads more accessible without relying on a single centralized provider.

IO is used as the network's common economic rail: customers may pay in fiat, USDC or supported crypto, with payments ultimately converted to IO in the documented model; suppliers are compensated in IO, though they may convert earnings to USDC. Paying in IO avoids the documented 2% USDC facilitation/payment fee (a 0.25% reservation fee still applies). Suppliers must stake IO to operate devices and qualify for block rewards; the base minimum is 200 IO per card, adjusted by device earning multiplier, and a 14-day cooldown applies when unstaking. The token has an 800M maximum supply: 500M genesis supply and 300M disinflationary emissions over 20 years, beginning at 8% annual inflation in year one; network revenue is used for programmatic IO purchases and burns. Workers are coordinated over io.net's mesh VPN, and the platform also offers IO Cloud GPU/CPU clusters and related AI services.