P2P Cloud vs Akash Comparison

Overview:

As it stands, the top leading cloud providers are AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. This centralization creates a risk of censorship and limits the applications and usage that can be conducted on their hardware. In Web3 or traditional tech, maintaining a decentralized network is essential. Emerging companies such as P2P Cloud, Akash, and Pocket Network are creating decentralized alternatives to conventional infrastructure ecosystems.

For developers, server admins, RPC providers, startups, small and medium-sized businesses(SMBs), etc., deploying on one of the major cloud providers can be costly for the resources or server(s) needed to perform any intensive operation. This cost makes it difficult for anyone to sustain their concept or project.

Because of this, we have seen an emergence of companies like P2P Cloud, POKT, Golem, Akash, and more aiming to disrupt the space by creating a more decentralized alternative to how we interact in traditional and web3 ecosystems.

This post will explore how P2P Cloud and Akash Network are working to decentralize the world’s infrastructure ecosystem. This post will explore how P2P Cloud and Akash Network are working to decentralize the world’s infrastructure ecosystem.

What is P2P Cloud:

P2P Cloud bridges the gap of security and reliability through a decentralized marketplace connecting anyone from developers, startups, SMBs, RPC providers, etc., to providers offering virtual machines (VM), granting security and reliability in a trustless way.

P2P Cloud handles security by creating a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) every time a user books and launches a VM. Users can securely run any application without worrying about outside tampering, which creates a trustless ecosystem where clients don’t have to trust the provider.

Because every provider owns the hardware(or data center), providers can charge less than a third of the cost compared to the big 3(AWS, Azure, GCP). So if you’re a web developer, hobbyist, SMB, or midsized business, you can efficiently build and scale your business without any compromises.

Our TEE is secured through an attestation process to encrypt its infrastructure. It encrypts the enclave using the user’s Metamask signature on the provider’s machine, guaranteeing local encryption, so only the user can access the virtual machine. However, there are limitations on who can be a provider since P2P Cloud can only run on hardware with AMD EPYC processors.

What is Akash:

Akash is an open-source cloud marketplace that allows anyone to buy or sell computing resources. Akash utilizes two technologies, Cosmos and Kubernetes, enabling it to grow and scale with demand.

Cosmos allows Akash to keep on chain record of on-chain records of requests, bids, leases, and settlement payments using the Akash Token (AKT) that is being facilitated on the marketplace. Kubernetes allows Akash to deploy and manage containers at scale to trusted providers across the network. By doing so, users can run any cloud-native application on Akash.

Akash made it easy for tenants to connect and allocate resources to single or multiple providers when deploying any application by defining specific parameters in a manifest(YAML) file. The parameters tenants can specify are price, location, RAM, storage, etc.

How do they help decentralize the web:

Akash and P2P Cloud technologies help decentralize the web by allowing anyone to lease out unused resources, redefining how we deploy and manage applications in an open market for a third of the cost. By lowering the cost of leasing idle hardware and resources, P2P Cloud and Akash provide access for individual devs, SMBs, and people in developing countries who otherwise can’t afford to be in a long-term contract or monthly subscription.

Because independent providers run every provider on both networks, it eliminates any single point of failure, making it secure and redundant.

How are they different:

While P2P Cloud and Akash Network aim to decentralize the web by providing alternatives to traditional infrastructure ecosystems, their approach and services differ.

First, Akash allows individuals to deploy applications in containers, whereas P2P Cloud lets individuals spin up an encrypted VM.

As for security, P2P Cloud is secured by default through its attestation process, which encrypts the enclave using your Metamask signature on the provider’s machine, guaranteeing a TEE that no one but you can access the VM. However, there are limitations on who can be a provider since P2P Cloud can only run on hardware with AMD EPYC processors.

Akash doesn’t natively offer any security for the providers regarding TEE or secured enclaves. Still, they have audited attributes that allow clients to choose which providers to use based on their trustworthiness.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the current centralized infrastructure ecosystem risks censorship and limits the types of applications and usage that can be conducted on their hardware. However, emerging companies such as P2P Cloud and Akash Network are creating decentralized alternatives to traditional infrastructure ecosystems, which offer more secure and private data sharing and more efficient resource utilization.

Akash is an open-source, decentralized supercomputer that connects users to providers leasing out their idle hardware and resources in a peer-to-peer fashion through their decentralized marketplace. On the other hand, P2P Cloud is a decentralized marketplace that brings reliability and security to virtual machines(VMs) for less than a third of the cost.

While both companies help decentralize the web by creating a distributed network of computers and enabling peer-to-peer interactions, they differ in their approach. Akash allows individuals to access resources as needed to process requests, whereas P2P Cloud will enable individuals to spin up a VM through any provider without needing to trust the provider’s thanks through a Trusted Execution Environment.

By creating a more decentralized alternative to how we interact in traditional and Web3 ecosystems, we can move toward a more open and censorship-resistant internet that benefits all users.

To learn more about P2P Cloud, visit our website and join our telegram community.