What is Akash Network and what does it do?

Akash Network is a decentralized cloud computing marketplace where developers rent computing power, including GPUs for AI, from independent providers instead of one big cloud company. Providers range from data centers to people with spare servers, and they set their own prices. The project was co-founded by Greg Osuri and Adam Bozanich in March 2018.

What does Akash Network do?

Akash connects two groups. Tenants are the people who want to run software, such as an AI model, a website or a database. Providers are the people who own the hardware. According to Akash's documentation, the network uses a reverse auction, so a tenant posts what it needs and providers bid to host it.

To take part, providers must stake AKT as collateral. Akash added Nvidia GPU support with its Mainnet 6 upgrade in 2023, The Block reported, and much of its focus since then has been GPU capacity for AI work. The idea is similar to GPU networks such as Render, though Akash rents out general-purpose cloud servers rather than focusing on rendering jobs.

What is Akash Network AKT?

AKT is the network's native token. Ledger Academy lists its uses as staking with validators, voting on governance and making transactions in the ecosystem.

Payments have changed over time. Paying only in AKT made costs swing with the token, which put off business customers, so an earlier proposal let tenants pay in USDC. Akash's blog says that helped adoption but cut demand for AKT. A newer model, called Burn Mint Equilibrium and set out in proposal AEP-76, was scheduled for mainnet on March 23, 2026, and AEP-76 is now marked final. Under it:

• A tenant burns AKT to create ACT, a compute credit pegged to about one US dollar that cannot be transferred and can only pay for leases.
• When a job is settled, the ACT is burned and the provider receives newly minted AKT at the current price.
• If AKT's price rises between those two steps, more AKT is burned than minted, and if it falls, the reverse happens.

The pattern resembles the one explained in what is a token burn.

What is Akash Network built on?

Akash was launched as its own blockchain, built with the Cosmos SDK and linked to other chains through IBC, the system covered in what is Cosmos. In October 2025 Greg Osuri said Akash would retire that chain and move to a network that could secure it, according to The Block. He called Solana a strong contender but named no final choice.

Akash then published AEP-79, a request for proposals from established layer 1 blockchains willing to provide shared security. The reason given is cost, since running its own chain means locking up large amounts of AKT for security and paying for upgrades and infrastructure. As of its August 2026 update, the page did not name a chosen network and gave an estimated completion of December 31, 2026. Details could change, so check Akash's own roadmap for the latest status.