Didn't sfcompute launch with a vision of something like this and then cancel it because CFTC decided it was running an unregulated futures exchange? How are you getting around regulatory issues like this?
Good question. this is something we built around from day one. Users pay 100% up front for specific nodes on the exact weeks they want. No leverage, no margin, no cash settlement. This is honestly not that much different from you booking a hotel.
So yes, you do get cash. when i said cash settlement, i was referring to how the contract itself ends, unrelated whether you can sell it. A cash-settled contract means it never delivers anything and at expiry it just pays out the difference between your price and an index price, which makes it a pure price bet.
on computable, whoever holds the reservation when the week arrives gets the actual nodes when they redeem for usage. so selling your reservation to someone else beforehand is no different from reselling a concert ticket. and when you sell, the buyer takes over the claim, you get their money, and the contract still ends with someone getting the GPUs.
I work on a GPU cloud, so this is close to home. You mention “buy” and “sell,” - but from what I can tell the GPU node is effectively just being rented. What’s the practical difference here? Aside from price volatility, as a buyer, if I need GPU access I’d usually just go to a cloud or on-demand provider and rent a dedicated server for 1–2 weeks. What’s the real advantage of bidding and going through this process?
Also, can buyers choose the hardware location they want? And once the auction ends, how are shipping and the other operational details handled?
All the verifications without being able to see what it even does fully feels like pretty a big barrier, even more so than being login gated. Gives it a big banking/gambling vibe too.
Then again, I was only curious how it compares to other GPU rent options in general. Somebody going to bid on something right away might not care.
Interesting approach. How do you ensure liquidity if buyers and sellers want different weeks? Is there a market maker, or is everything matched through the auction?
I imagine they’re building the supply side as well, where you can bid your fixed GPU. My question with this stuff is how do I know my data is secure on these for-rent boxes? What steps are taken to sanitize the GPU between runs etc.
we take this pretty seriously. we lock down the nodes themselves so that only the hypervisor has direct access. and between customers, we don't just sanitize disks. we actually delete them entirely and spin up a fresh VM from a clean qcow2 base image, so no prior customer data persists.
Great question. When we list a capacity from a provider, the capacity lists only after it's contracted and attested, and the provider guarantee travels with the claim. If delivery fails, that's on us to remedy, not on the buyer to chase a stranger.
Interesting approach. Who do you see as the primary users—AI startups, researchers, or individual developers? How do you ensure GPU availability matches reservations?
tldr is that the game is not zero sum, it's against the waste in the current setup. Today capacity sits idle on one side while someone overpays for flexibility on the other. An opaque and fragmented market today creates a lot of dead weight loss.
here' what we want to see:
Providers can sell weeks forward at wholesale instead of letting them sit unsold. More of the calendar monetized, revenue known in advance. Great working capital. Buyers can pay for exactly the weeks you use, resell if they change their mind anytimes. providers want long commitments, buyers want short ones. So on Computable, whoever values January less sells it to whoever values it more, and both do better than the lease they'd have signed.
Traders can ofc buy and sell too. They are great for providers and buyers because they help the market run more efficiently.
You don't need to be a nation state to defeat this even if it's set up "properly", you can use low-cost interposer attacks like https://batteringram.eu/ to alias the guest's memory into another guest that you control.
Didn't sfcompute launch with a vision of something like this and then cancel it because CFTC decided it was running an unregulated futures exchange? How are you getting around regulatory issues like this?
Good question. this is something we built around from day one. Users pay 100% up front for specific nodes on the exact weeks they want. No leverage, no margin, no cash settlement. This is honestly not that much different from you booking a hotel.
What does "no cash settlement" mean? If I sell a reservation, do I not get cash?
So yes, you do get cash. when i said cash settlement, i was referring to how the contract itself ends, unrelated whether you can sell it. A cash-settled contract means it never delivers anything and at expiry it just pays out the difference between your price and an index price, which makes it a pure price bet.
on computable, whoever holds the reservation when the week arrives gets the actual nodes when they redeem for usage. so selling your reservation to someone else beforehand is no different from reselling a concert ticket. and when you sell, the buyer takes over the claim, you get their money, and the contract still ends with someone getting the GPUs.
hope that clears up.
I work on a GPU cloud, so this is close to home. You mention “buy” and “sell,” - but from what I can tell the GPU node is effectively just being rented. What’s the practical difference here? Aside from price volatility, as a buyer, if I need GPU access I’d usually just go to a cloud or on-demand provider and rent a dedicated server for 1–2 weeks. What’s the real advantage of bidding and going through this process?
Also, can buyers choose the hardware location they want? And once the auction ends, how are shipping and the other operational details handled?
All the verifications without being able to see what it even does fully feels like pretty a big barrier, even more so than being login gated. Gives it a big banking/gambling vibe too.
Then again, I was only curious how it compares to other GPU rent options in general. Somebody going to bid on something right away might not care.
Will imagine the team want to make sure they stay more compliant. Google login was easy enough for me though.
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Interesting approach. How do you ensure liquidity if buyers and sellers want different weeks? Is there a market maker, or is everything matched through the auction?
I imagine they’re building the supply side as well, where you can bid your fixed GPU. My question with this stuff is how do I know my data is secure on these for-rent boxes? What steps are taken to sanitize the GPU between runs etc.
we take this pretty seriously. we lock down the nodes themselves so that only the hypervisor has direct access. and between customers, we don't just sanitize disks. we actually delete them entirely and spin up a fresh VM from a clean qcow2 base image, so no prior customer data persists.
How do you prevent sellers from fraudulently selling future capacity they don't actually have?
Great question. When we list a capacity from a provider, the capacity lists only after it's contracted and attested, and the provider guarantee travels with the claim. If delivery fails, that's on us to remedy, not on the buyer to chase a stranger.
So in other words, you're screwed?
we are as screwed as going to a taylor swift concert if she doesnt show up
More like if you resold tickets that turned out not to be valid, at the ticket gate. At scale.
providers directly list on us and/or authorize us to resell and redeem. in other words, listing is not permissionless. hence the taylor swift anaolgy.
Interesting approach. Who do you see as the primary users—AI startups, researchers, or individual developers? How do you ensure GPU availability matches reservations?
curious how you'd keep all parties winning at once on the platform (supply&demand& traders maybe?)
Are you planning to make money on float / spread / flat fee?
tldr is that the game is not zero sum, it's against the waste in the current setup. Today capacity sits idle on one side while someone overpays for flexibility on the other. An opaque and fragmented market today creates a lot of dead weight loss. here' what we want to see: Providers can sell weeks forward at wholesale instead of letting them sit unsold. More of the calendar monetized, revenue known in advance. Great working capital. Buyers can pay for exactly the weeks you use, resell if they change their mind anytimes. providers want long commitments, buyers want short ones. So on Computable, whoever values January less sells it to whoever values it more, and both do better than the lease they'd have signed.
Traders can ofc buy and sell too. They are great for providers and buyers because they help the market run more efficiently.
how do you deal with data security
we lock down the nodes themselves so that only the hypervisor has direct access. we take this pretty seriously.
State level actors will snoop the bus.
You don't need to be a nation state to defeat this even if it's set up "properly", you can use low-cost interposer attacks like https://batteringram.eu/ to alias the guest's memory into another guest that you control.
nice brother
I need to login to see anything. I walk away.
same, I closed that tab so fast
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