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Darkbloom – Private inference on idle Macs

darkbloom.dev

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Re: Darkbloom – Private inference on idle Macs

#51

Post by thih9 »

kennywinker wrote: post #8

I have a hard time believing their numbers. If you can pay off a mac mini in 2-4 months, and make $1-2k profit every month after that, why wouldn’t their business model just be buying mac minis?

> These are estimates only. We do not guarantee any specific utilization or earnings. Actual earnings depend on network demand, model popularity, your provider reputation score, and how many other providers are serving the same model.

Others are reporting low demand, eg.: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47789171

Re: Darkbloom – Private inference on idle Macs

#53

Post by znnajdla »

kennywinker wrote: post #8

I have a hard time believing their numbers. If you can pay off a mac mini in 2-4 months, and make $1-2k profit every month after that, why wouldn’t their business model just be buying mac minis?

The numbers are obviously high, because if this takes off then the price for inference will also drop. But I still think it’s a solid economic model that benefits low income countries the most. In Ukraine, for example, I know people who live on $200/month. A couple Mac Minis could feed a family in many places.

As a business owner, I can think of multiple reasons why a decentralized network is better for me as a business than relying on a hyperscaler inference provider. 1. No dependency on a BigTech provider who can cut me off or change prices at any time. I’m willing to pay a premium for that. 2. I get a residential IP proxy network built-in. AI scrapers pay big money for that. 3. No censorship. 4. Lower latency if inference nodes are located close to me.

Re: Darkbloom – Private inference on idle Macs

#55

Post by znnajdla »

ramoz wrote: post #29

Unfortunately, verifiable privacy is not physically possible on MacBooks of today. Don't let a nice presentation fool you. Apple Silicon has a Secure Enclave, but not a public SGX/TDX/SEV-style enclave for arbitrary code, so these claims are about OS hardening, not verifiable confidential execution. It would be nice if it were possible. There's a lot of cool innovations possible beyond privacy.

As if you get privacy with the inference providers available today? I have more trust in a randomly selected machine on a decentralized network not being compromised than in a centralized provider like OpenAI pinky promising not to read your chats.

Re: Darkbloom – Private inference on idle Macs

#56

Post by znnajdla »

geon wrote: post #37
ramoz wrote: post #29

Unfortunately, verifiable privacy is not physically possible on MacBooks of today. Don't let a nice presentation fool you. Apple Silicon has a Secure Enclave, but not a public SGX/TDX/SEV-style enclave for arbitrary code, so these claims are about OS hardening, not verifiable confidential execution. It would be nice if it were possible. There's a lot of cool innovations possible beyond privacy.

Every hardware key will be broken if there is enough incentive to do so. Their claims read like pure hubris.

Who cares about AI privacy? Most people don’t. If you do, run locally.

Re: Darkbloom – Private inference on idle Macs

#57

Post by ramoz »

znnajdla wrote: post #55
ramoz wrote: post #29

Unfortunately, verifiable privacy is not physically possible on MacBooks of today. Don't let a nice presentation fool you. Apple Silicon has a Secure Enclave, but not a public SGX/TDX/SEV-style enclave for arbitrary code, so these claims are about OS hardening, not verifiable confidential execution. It would be nice if it were possible. There's a lot of cool innovations possible beyond privacy.

As if you get privacy with the inference providers available today? I have more trust in a randomly selected machine on a decentralized network not being compromised than in a centralized provider like OpenAI pinky promising not to read your chats.

Inference providers don't claim private inference. However, they must uphold certain security and legal compliances.

You have no guarantees over any random connected laptop connected across the world.

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