iExec (RLC) Review – Decentralizing the Cloud

iExec aims to develop a scalable, high-performance, secure and manageable decentralized infrastructure where big data and high-performance computing (HPC) applications, highly valued data-sets and computing resources (e.g. storage, CPU, GPU) will be monetized on the blockchain. iExec envisions itself as becoming the main platform delivering this service in the future. Its goal is to provide this infrastructure with the highest level of transparency, resiliency and security.

Article Summary

• The Idea and the Team Behind iExec
• iExec Partnerships
• iExec Price History
• The iExec Technology
• The iExec Network
• How to Purchase RLC
• How to Store RLC
• Roadmap and Future Updates

The Idea and the Team Behind iExec

Centralized cloud computer is estimated to be a $400 billion industry by 2020. That’s because it serves to cut organization’s expensive hardware investments, location data and processing center and allow them to focus on growing their business. One of the best examples of centralized cloud computing is Netflix, which is powered entirely by Amazon.

Decentralized applications, theoretically, would use Ethereum to power their applications. But there’s a problem. Ethereum’s virtual machine, which is responsible for the execution of smart contracts, is still not capable of performing heavy-duty computations quickly and in a cost-effective manner. The solution iExec provides is called off-chain computing, which means that dApps can do their heavy-duty computing off the blockchain, making it faster and less expensive.

The iExec team has extensive experience in Desktop Grid computing since 2000. Desktop Grid computing is a type of distributed computing in which organizations use their existing computers to mange long-running computational tasks.

Its team members have contributed over 80 scientific papers in the field of large scale data processing, data management, parallel computing, security and depenability, QoS technologies and interoperability.

As late as 2014, team members Gilles Fedak, Haiwu He, Oleg Lodygensky and Mircea Moca face a major challenge in their work in implementing a distributed cloud based on Desktop Grid technology.

They believe that the answer lies in the integration of Desktop Grid computing and blockchain. The company’s headquarters are in Lyon, France, with a subsidiary in Hong Kong.

iExec Partnerships

iExec is a member of the OpenFog Consortium, a consortium of high-tech industries and academic institutions aimed at standardizing and promoting fog computing. It is also a member of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance.

It has partnerships in the blockchain community such as the one with RSK, the first general smart contract platform secured by the Bitcoin network. It also entered into a partnership with Stimergy, a French startup aimed at energy efficiency.

iExec recently entered into a partnership for privacy-preserving offchain computing with Intel.

iExec Price History

iExec raised $12 million in its ICO in just under 3 hours, making it the world’s 5^th largest ICO to date.

After the token was sold for an ICO price of $0.25, it rose to $4.47 by early January, coinciding with its listing on Binance.

The iExec Technology

iExec goal is to create a network of providers that form a virtual Cloud Infrastructure, which you can either access to run your application or use by renting out your storage space to other people. The platform provides fair and full access to everyone, removing all barriers to entry. It does this with the help of XtremWeb-HEP, an advanced software developed for cloud computing, which is a peer-reviewed, open-source technology.

What really makes iExec stand out is the Proof of Contribution protocol, whose goal it is to provide trust between the different agents (application providers, users, and workers) and prevent bad behaviour on the network. It does this by certifying resources and crediting them to external providers, keeping the records on the blockchain.

Several industries will benefit greatly from a decentralized blockchain-based cloud computing platform, including the Internet of Things, decentralized applications (DApps), fintech and medicine, among others.

The iExec Network

iExec is run by RLC tokens, which is an acronym for “runs on lots of computers.” The total market cap for these tokens is $79 million.

The token distribution will be as follows:

• 69% released in the ICO
• 2% by the iExec team and board
• 9% held as an emergency fund
• 9% help by iExec for incentives and development

However, iExec’s long-term goal is for their network to run for free in order to provide safer, cheaper and more reliable cloud computing for everyone as technology continues to scale.

The iExec network has three main components that bring decentralized cloud computing to everyone:

The DApp Store

iExec launched the first DApp store for decentralized applications ever in mid-December of 2017. Applications from the industries of artificial intelligence, big data, IoT, and fintech that require heavy-duty computing will be able to build on top of iExec. To encourage the development of more applications on the blockchain, iExec will have competitions to fund the most innovative applications running on its network. The DApp Store is connected to both the Cloud Computing Marketplace and the Data Marketplace.

The Data Marketplace

The Data Marketplace provides anyone, whether an organization or individual, the opportunity to sell data. The data can be from a wide range of industries, including fintech, user behavior or anonymized medical data. Applications can develop algorithms that use this type of data.

The Cloud Marketplace

The Cloud Marketplace gives users the ability to buy and sell computing resources, such as cloud storage. This will help to keep costs down while allowing scalability at the same time.

“Right now,” says Wassim Bendella, Blockchain Business Developer for the iExec team to the Hackernoon publication, “iExec provides computing power for free. In May 2018, computing providers will be able to monetize their own resources on our marketplace.”

How to Purchase RLC

The main way to purchase RLC is through Binance, either through trading bitcoin or  ether. Binance currently has the largest volume of RLC trading and allows you to exchange RLC with BTC, ETH and BNB currencies.

RLC is also available on the following exchanges:

Upbit (Trade RLC with BTC on Upbit)

• Bittrex (Trade RLC with BTC on Bittrex)
• Ethfinex (Trade RLC with ETH on Ethfinex)
• HitBTC (Trade RLC with BTC on HitBTC)
• Liqui (Trade RLC with USDT on Liqui)

How to Store RLC

RLC can be stored in any wallet that supports ERC-20 tokens such as Coinomi, MetaMask and Myetherwallet.

For maximum security, however, you should store your RLC on hardware wallets such as Ledger Nano S and Trezor.

Roadmap and Future Updates

iExec has an extensive roadmap for the next four years.

At the end of the year, it deployed its Ethereum Mainnet, listing on Binance by early January on 2018.

The company aims to launch the second version of its Cloud Marketplace by the end of May.