Why Fluence?
The internet is dominated by a handful of tech giants who control both user data and infrastructure. The position of "data totalitarians" allows them to use and misuse personal user data while also threatening businesses continuity with single points of failure and the ability to simply turn off entire software ecosystems. Such centralized data ownership presents a single point of failure and an easy target for censorship and government manipulation.
Credible neutrality of internet infrastructure is crucial for changing the status quo. Decentralized models are neutral by design as they do not have centralized ownership or control and operate like truly democratic systems. Their design architecture makes it nearly impossible for a participant to take control of the system as the incentives of other participants prevent this from happening.
Fluence is an open, distributed, peer-to-peer protocol, designed to be credibly neutral and enables the following features:
Permissionless
Similar to internet protocols such as HTTP, the Fluence protocol applies no limitations on who can join as providers and who can be a customer. There is no approval, KYC, or similar procedure to enter the compute marketplace or rent resources from the marketplace. There are no requirements for hardware performance, location, or ownership.
Censorship resistance
There is no way to censor who uses Fluence or what is being executed on Fluence. Customers and providers use the protocol to find each other and perform the work. Providers are free to filter what they are executing if they are restricted by local regulators, but as customers are not locked into a particular provider, there are always options to meet a customer’s criteria.
Trust minimization
The Fluence network runs on the Aqua protocol, which ensures cryptographic security, authentication of all application requests, and adds proofs and auditability for every execution. This dramatically decreases the reliance on provider good name, brand, or reputation. Customers now trust the protocol and not a particular provider.
Collective ownership
The Fluence network is governed by the Fluence DAO in which any Fluence token holder may participate. The DAO manages the protocol development, updates, and distributes funds from the treasury to enhance and grow the network. Fluence is managed collectively by its community and not by a traditional company structure.