How to Make Passive Income Renting Out Your Computer's GPU

A few months ago, we wrote a post on how you can make easy money renting out your computer's bandwidth. Today, we're going to show you how to rent out an even more valuable asset- your GPU, which stands for Graphics processing unit. The GPU enables a computer to process many pieces of data simultaneously, making them useful for editing movies, deep learning, mining cryptocurrencies and of course, gaming applications.

The growth in demand for these services has pushed the need for GPU power to new heights. This poses a problem referred to as "the GPU Cloud Gap". An increasingly large amount of industries are competing for this limited resource. This has enabled centralized data centers like AWS (Amazon Web Services) to boost their prices as they try to meet this demand with expansion. However, there are now peer-to-peer platforms that assist you in putting your idle computer's GPU to work and make a solid amount of money in the process.

In our Bandwidth post, we mentioned how you can rent out both your bandwidth and your GPU on Fluidstack. In this post, we're going to talk about another 5 platforms that specialize in GPU: RNDR, QuantumCloud, Vectordash, Vast and Golem. Each platform has their own specialties, but all require a powerful enough GPU to perform tasks not easily done on a low-end laptop. You can earn anywhere from $60 to many thousands per month depending on the quality of your GPU(s). Let's dive into the first one.

RNDR, Distributed GPU Rendering on the Blockchain

RNDR is a crowdsourced cloud based platform on the blockchain. RNDR reduces the costs of rendering photorealistic images in games and movies through a peer-to-peer network that utilizes a native cryptocurrency called RNDR tokens. These tokens allow the network to connect users looking to perform render jobs with people who have idle GPUs capable of doing these render jobs.

RNDR was created by Otoy, a popular cloud graphics company. With the help of AI and cloud technology, Otoy enables code to transform into 3D moving images for movies, TV, gaming and wherever else. This process is called "rendering" and requires a powerful GPU to do the heavy lifting.

Dr. Eric Schmidt, an Executive Chairman for Otoy said, “Six years ago, I predicted that 90% of computing would eventually reside in the web-based cloud. OTOY has created a remarkable technology which moves that last 10% – high-end graphics processing – to the cloud. This is a disruptive and important achievement. It marks the tipping point where the web replaces the PC as the dominant computing platform.”

For some time, the Otoy team had been contemplating a way to harness the millions of idle GPUs around the world. They finally found one when blockchain technology came to the forefront, specifically the Ethereum blockchain. Blockchain enabled decentralized security in a peer-to-peer network in which buyers and sellers can transact anonymously with a cryptocurrency. In addition, it'd make the rendering process cheaper and faster.

Once a rendering job begins, RNDR tokens will be held in escrow until the job is completed. Throughout this process, users can even observe updates of the render, including video previews. Once the job is complete, tokens are transferred and rendered frames are delivered to the creator/requestor.

Keep in mind, RNDR's network utilizes a clever protocol that selects available GPUs by their rendering power. Therefore, if your GPU isn't powerful enough, you'll likely not get paired with a customer. However, it doesnt hurt to try. If you're interested in putting your computer to work, create an account at https://rendertoken.com.

QuantumCloud, the Sharing Computing Power Platform

With the QuantumCloud platform, you can easily share computing power with customers, especially gamers. Quantumcloud simplifies the whole process by avoiding complicated settings. Just click on GO and you'll be ready to roll. While your fast asleep, your graphics cards can earn you a lot of cash and points, within a safe and stable platform.

Similar to RNDR, you'll be paid with a token called Q-Coin after completing a job with your idle computer. Thereafter, you can withdraw your Q-Coin as cash through popular payment platforms like PayPal. Besides cash, Q-Coin can also be exchanged for points that can be used in popular games.

To take part in their ecosystem and start earning income, you must first register as a member at quantumcloudai, then download the program. Next, launch the QuantumCloud and click once to start sharing. You'll earn Q-Coin as soon as your GPU is put to use. It's really that easy.

QuantumCloud will estimate the Q-Coin you will earn every day. Your actual daily income will vary. It will depend on your graphics card, network status and the time your computer is online.

Vectordash, the Airbnb of GPUs

Vectordash enables anyone to become a cloud computer provider, not unlike AWS (Amazon Web Services), except all you need is the internet. Customers are often cryptocurrency miners or gamers that require computing power beyond what their GPUs possess. This is where you'd come in.

Vectordash payments vary but can easily go into the hundreds of dollars per month, depending on how busy the network is and how powerful your GPU is. Since they are still in Beta, the setup process is more complicated than QuantumCloud. It involves running a few simple commands in a terminal to install their software, plus creating a virtual machine through the dashboard. Once these steps are completed, the desktop client will be able to automatically switch between mining and hosting whenever a customer requests your GPU. At this point, you'll just need to ensure your computer stays online for the entire duration you specify. You can sign up to host by visiting https://vectordash.com/hosting/signup.

Vast, Full Employment for GPUs

On Vast.ai, you can rent out your GPU or better yet, a full mining farm, and earn two to four times more money than if you just mined bitcoin. Through Vast, you'll get connected with customers interested in utilizing your GPUs. As with the previous platforms, you'll get to set your own prices and schedules.

Vast does a great job of simplifying hosting. Their platform analyzes and tests your hardware to see if it's up to snuff. In addition, Vast will suggest pricing based on performance and the current market. In addition, customers with farms can rent out various combinations of GPUs, enabling remaining GPUs to work on background tasks that are not as important.

Vast essentially provides the tools you require to become your own cloud provider. To see recommended GPU models and their rates, visit https://vast.ai/console/create/.

Golem, an Open Source, Decentralized Supercomputer

Golem is a global, opensource supercomputer that anyone can use. Much like RNDR, Golem is a decentralized marketplace built on the Ethereum blockchain for providers, requestors and software developers. A user possessing anything from one computer to a vast data center can share these resources through the Golem platform. As the provider, the payments you'd receive would be in the native cryptocurrency GNT (Golem Network Tokens).

Developers are at the center of Golem’s ecosystem. GPUs are needed for services such as animation, integrating WASP apps, machine learning, test molecular simulations with gLAMBDA and of course render CGI video files. All computations are done isolated from your system, so it remains secure. To sign up, visit the website and download Golem.

What kind of GPUs do these platforms support?

With all these platforms, earnings are calculated on a per-GPU basis. Anyone with a single PC can take part in these ecosystems assuming they have the requirements listed below, plus fast internet and disc space of at least 128 GB.

When it comes to the GPU itself, most Nvidia 10 series, 20 series, and Titan series are supported. AMD GPUs are supported too. Most platforms will not accept Nvidia 9 series GPUs anymore.

A computer's CPU and motherboard must have virtualization support and IOMMU support. This includes Intel VT-x, AMD-V and Intel VT-d, AMD IOMMU respectively. Intel Core i5, i7, Intel Xeon, AMD Ryzen and AMD EPYC are all great CPUs that are supported across the board.

Each GPU must have a minimum of 16 GB of RAM. For instance, if a computer has two Nvidia GPUs, that computer should have at least 32 GB of RAM.

Visit the platform you're interested in using for more information. They'll list requirements and specifications to get started in this lucrative form of truly passive income.

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