The next Grass? What are the highlights of Nexus’s web mining mechanism?

Nexus uses a web mining model that allows users to participate without professional equipment, greatly expanding its user base, similar to Grass (Distributed Computing Power Network), but emphasizing low thresholds and instant benefits. Nexus’s ultimate goal is to compress all verifiable calculations into a single certificate, merging millions of chains with applications to create a unified world computer.

ID: PandaLY Hotspot Insights Broadcast No. 012

Nexus is an innovative project centered on high-performance blockchain technology. It focuses on the web-side CPU mining (i.e.,”CPU head mining”) model. It aims to lower the mining threshold and attract ordinary users to directly participate in computing power contributions through browsers. At the same time, combining decentralized finance (DeFi) and distributed artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystems, Nexus’s ultimate goal is to compress all verifiable calculations into a single certificate, and integrate millions of chains with applications to create a unified world computer.

Its core advantages include:

• High concurrent processing capacity: The Nexus public chain claims to be able to process more than 3000 transactions per second, far exceeding the throughput of Ethereum and meeting large-scale commercial needs.

• Integration of Web 3.0 and mining: Through the web mining model, users can participate without professional equipment, greatly expanding the user base, similar to Grass (Distributed Computing Power Network), but emphasizing low thresholds and instant benefits.

• Decentralized financial optimization: Built-in Oracle, native Swap and other functions to optimize DeFi scenarios in a targeted manner, with the goal of replacing traditional centralized financial infrastructure.

Project vision and technical highlights

• Project vision: NEXUS is committed to “connecting a decentralized world”, building a global pool of computing resources, integrating global computing resources, achieving cross-chain interoperability, and providing developers with efficient serverless platforms similar to traditional cloud computing (such as AWS Lambda).

• Technical highlights: The project is based on Nexus zkVM technology and combines on-chain and off-chain computing methods to reduce development barriers and ensure system security and data immutability. Adopt cutting-edge technologies such as zero-knowledge proof, off-chain computing, and multi-party computing to ensure low cost, high security and high scalability.

• Development status: The project recently announced the launch of a new blockchain based on Layer 1, and gradually opened test networks (such as Nexus Testnet II). The detailed architecture and roadmap will be announced in the next few weeks. In addition, the team will launch the Nexus Testnet II on February 18, 2025, and the testnet will remain open until February 21, 2025. The goal of Testnet II is to prepare for the integration of the Nexus Layer 1 blockchain.

Nexus background: “industry-university-research” combination led by Xueba + top capital support

Main team members:

CEO Daniel Marin: A recent graduate of Stanford, medalist of the International Physics Olympics, active developer of Github, and solid technical background.

Consultant Dan Boneh: Professor of Cryptography at Stanford and academician of the National Academy of Engineering, providing academic authority for the project.

Executive Team: The other core members of Nexus are also composed of highly professional cryptography teams and have a rich history in the Web3 industry, covering working experience in multiple organizations such as Difinity, Jump Crypto, Matter Labs, and a16z Training Camp.

Financing scale:

The Nexus project has attracted a lot of capital in its early stages. According to public information, the project has completed approximately US$2.2 million in Seed Series financing and received approximately US$25 million in Series A, bringing the total financing amount to approximately US$27.2 million.

Top Capital Endorsement:

Investors include well-known institutions such as Pantera Capital, Lightspeed Venture Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Alliance DAO, Faction, SV Angel and Blockchain Builders Fund, which shows that the capital market has a high degree of recognition of the project technology and business model.

Nexus Airdrop and Participation Process

Currently, the Nexus Network is in the initial Beta testing stage, and users can participate in mining through the official (https://beta.nexus.xyz/). Participation includes connecting to the Nexus Network using a web application or command-line interface. It should be noted that at the current stage, there is no need to bind a wallet, and it is not yet clear whether there is a reward, which belongs to the blind mining stage. Therefore, users are advised not to clear the browser cache during participation to prevent points from being lost.

For users interested in participating in mining, it is recommended to follow the following steps:

Step 1: Visit the official Nexus website

Step 2: Click the “Connect” button to connect and start mining.

Step 3: Keep the page open and avoid refreshing or closing to continue mining.

Please note that mining speed is related to computer configuration, and devices with higher performance will gain higher mining efficiency and benefits. In addition, ensure that the network connection is stable to avoid affecting mining efficiency due to dropped or stuck connections.

For more information and updates, you can follow Nexus’s official Twitter account or visit its official website.

*PandaLY safety tip: Be sure to participate through official channels and pay attention to preventing phishing links.

The next grass? competitive analysis

Comparison of project advantages:

dimension	Nexus	Grass	Traditional financial public chains (such as Solana, Ethereum)
user threshold	Direct mining on the web side, zero hardware costs	Client needs to be installed and depends on network bandwidth	Need to pledge and operate nodes, with a high threshold
Mining model	Device-less mining (web side), combined with zkVM	Distributed GPU/CPU computing power sharing	Relying on PoS or PoW
technical positioning	Financial public chain +AI integration	Distributed computing network	Ethereum has smart contracts at its core, and Solana has high-performance DeFi at its core.
Ecological expansion	Built-in DeFi tool, developer friendly	Focus on computing resource sharing	Bias towards the financial ecology and strong versatility
safety	zkVM + decentralized storage + smart contract	Focus on the security of computing power scheduling	Relying on L1 or L2 solutions

Nexus has lowered the threshold for participation through its web mining model. Compared with the high requirements of Grass and Solana, ordinary users can contribute computing power and receive incentives without professional hardware.

The technology positioning is more oriented towards the integration of finance + computing, while Grass focuses more on decentralized computing power trading, and Solana/Ethereum focuses on the financial ecosystem.

The ecosystem is highly scalable. It optimizes smart contract execution through zkVM technology, is compatible with AI computing and DeFi applications, and forms a more comprehensive Web3 computing infrastructure.

Market awareness: Grass has accumulated a stable user base, and Nexus needs to quickly break through its differentiated mining model.

Nexus Security Analysis:

Nexus web mining has built a mining network with technical depth and user-friendliness through three core highlights: efficient integration with zero-knowledge proof, decentralized parallel computing and low-threshold user experience. However, it is only in the testing stage. The core technology and security of the project have not yet been verified on a large scale in the market. In addition, web mining has higher requirements for technical security.

Especially in the field of Web3, security has always been one of the key factors that determine the life and death of a project. Especially decentralized computing networks like Nexus involve multiple aspects such as smart contracts, mining security, and user privacy. They rely on centralization. Issues such as script deployment and partial code not fully open source still require continued attention.

Potential risks:

• Code security and vulnerabilities: If there are vulnerabilities or backdoors in the web mining code, it may be used by hackers to carry out malicious operations; at the same time, the project’s node software may also face vulnerability risks.

• Data privacy issues: Users may need to provide email addresses and other information during the mining process, and need to ensure the security of data transmission and storage.

• Phishing and counterfeiting risks: Due to the high popularity of mining projects in the market, counterfeiting websites or phishing attacks may occur, and users are easily deceived.

• Resource abuse and performance impact: Long-term hanging up on the browser may cause user equipment to overheat and increase power consumption. If malicious code is implanted, it may turn into a “cryptojacking” attack.

Safety recommendations and protective measures:

• Code Audit and Vulnerability Scanning: It is recommended to conduct a comprehensive security audit of Nexus mining front-end code and node deployment software to discover and fix security vulnerabilities in a timely manner.

• Data encryption and transmission security: Ensure that user data uses encryption protocols such as HTTPS during transmission to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.

• User education and risk warning: Clearly disclose the risks during the testing phase to users, and advise users to use separate devices or virtual machines to try to prevent resource abuse caused by malware.

• Multi-layered protection architecture: For node deployment, it is recommended to adopt security measures such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS) to protect the server from external attacks

conclusion

In the blockchain industry, technological innovation and ecological prosperity are often accompanied by security challenges. As an emerging Layer 1 blockchain, while promoting the integration of global computing resources, Nexus must also face a series of security issues such as decentralized mining, smart contract vulnerabilities, governance security, and economic model stability. Security is not only a technical issue, but also the lifeline of the long-term development of the Nexus ecosystem.

Security is not a one-time task, but a process of continuous optimization and iteration. If Nexus wants to become a new generation of high-performance public chain, it must focus on security and continuously consolidate its own defense capabilities. Only then can it truly become the mainstay of the global decentralized computing network.