Cocoon Decentralized AI Network Launches on TON Blockchain

Cocoon Launches: A Decentralized AI Network on TON

In a significant step towards the development of decentralized AI, the Cocoon network, a privacy-preserving distributed computing platform built on The Open Network (TON), went live. TON is an independent layer-1 blockchain associated with the Telegram messaging application.

Cocoon allows owners of graphics processing units (GPUs) to rent their computing power to the network, enabling them to process user queries and requests in return for Toncoin (TON), the native cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain. According to Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov, the decentralized network has already processed initial user requests, and GPU owners are beginning to profit from renting out their hardware.

Addressing Challenges of Centralized AI

Durov highlighted that centralized compute providers like Amazon and Microsoft act as costly intermediaries, increasing prices and reducing privacy. Cocoon aims to solve both the economic and confidentiality issues associated with traditional AI compute providers.

Durov announced the release of Cocoon at the Blockchain Life 2025 conference in Dubai, UAE, last October, in response to user demand for an AI platform that protects privacy and data from large, centralized AI service providers.

Advocating for Decentralized AI

The blockchain community and privacy advocates have long cautioned against the negative social implications of centralized AI, championing decentralized AI networks as a public good. Centralized AI systems can grant governments and corporations immense leverage over individuals, potentially compromising user privacy, threatening traditional cybersecurity safeguards, and facilitating social conditioning by organized entities.

David Holtzman, chief strategy officer of the Naoris decentralized security protocol, emphasized that applying blockchain technology to AI can mitigate these threats by verifying information sources, ensuring tamper-proof records, and enabling nodes on distributed computing networks to communicate in a trustless manner.

The Future of AI: Decentralization and Ethics

In 2024, AI researchers from the Dfinity Foundation, a non-profit organization guiding the development of the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), and executives from decentralized AI developer Onicai outlined seven rules to ensure ethical AI. These included running AI through permissionless blockchain networks to ensure transparency and data integrity.

A poll conducted by the Digital Currency Group (DCG) in May revealed that 77% of the 2,036 respondents surveyed believed that decentralized AI would benefit society more than centralized systems.