Fluence functions as a decentralized, serverless computing marketplace that provides an alternative to standard centralized cloud services. It utilizes blockchain technology to build a global network that is permissionless, scalable, and secure, ensuring the infrastructure is both resilient and verifiable for various applications.
The underlying blockchain integrates Web2 and Web3 data storage and management systems. This design allows Fluence to combine the efficiency of modern web technologies with the security and decentralization of blockchain. By aggregating unused compute power from leading data centers around the world, it creates a reliable, always-on network that is cost-effective.
To maintain security, compute providers are required to stake FLT tokens for every CPU they add. This staking acts as a guarantee of reliability, incentivizing honest participation and discouraging malicious activity, since bad actors risk losing their staked tokens. Governance is handled by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) structured as a Swiss Association, enabling community-led decisions on protocol upgrades and treasury management to ensure transparency.
FLT serves as the native utility and governance token. It is used to reward providers who contribute capacity and to facilitate voting within the DAO. The tokenomics aim to balance the ecosystem, where providers earn FLT through their contributions and must stake them to verify service reliability.
Because it relies on a distributed network rather than centralized facilities, Fluence scales organically as more providers join. This supports diverse uses, from basic web hosting to complex computations. Economically, the platform claims to be up to 80% cheaper than traditional cloud providers by utilizing excess capacity and fostering competition among providers, which helps keep prices low and quality high.
Evgeny Ponomarev, Dmitry Kurinskiy, and Tom Trowbridge founded Fluence in 2017, drawing on experience from projects such as Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR). The mainnet launched in 2024. The FLT token was introduced in February 2024 with a genesis supply of 1 billion tokens. Initial distribution features a liquidity bootstrap pool and a developer reward pool, while additional tokens are generated for providers via staking, aiming to keep the network decentralized and reward early participants.