Study claims Pearl blockchain's 320,000 GPUs consume 112 megawatts with zero useful AI computation
By
Etiido Uko
Summary
A new research preprint claims that Pearl, a Layer-1 blockchain marketed as turning cryptocurrency mining into useful AI computation, is actually performing no useful AI work. The study estimates Pearl's network runs at roughly 24 exahashes per second (EH/s) — equivalent to about 320,000 RTX 3090-class GPUs drawing an estimated 112 megawatts of power — while producing "zero useful AI computation." Researchers observed a roughly 38% jump in budget GPU rental prices on the marketplace, likely driven by the mining rush, while the mining protocol does not verify whether work came from real AI training or inference workloads.
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bskyStudy claims Pearl blockchain's 320,000 GPUs consume 112 megawatts with zero useful AI computationtomshardware.comKey quotes
· 3 pulledzero useful AI computation
The mining protocol does not verify whether work came from real AI training or inference workloads
Pearl's cards are doing random matrix math, study claims
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