What is Grass?

Grass is a decentralized physical infrastructure network and a Layer 2 rollup on Solana. Launched in 2023, it lets people share their unused internet bandwidth through an app or browser extension for ethical and unbiased web scraping for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning training.

The application is a lightweight interface for sharing connection capacity. In contrast, the network represents the technical architecture validating web scrapes. While the app manages user sessions, the network ensures decentralized data integrity across all active nodes.

Participants gain direct rewards by sharing their unused resources. This model offers passive income through token distributions. Users monetize their digital presence without sacrificing privacy, as the system only accesses public information through their local connections, ensuring secure participation.

Important milestones include a $3.5 million seed round and 2 million users by its 2024 mainnet debut. After a $10 million 2025 bridge round, the community reached 8.5 million users in 2026 to provide verified data for AI development.

How Does Grass Work?

Grass is a sovereign data rollup that utilizes a global node network to scrape, verify, and structure public web data for AI training applications. Let's break down its architecture piece by piece:

1. Validator

Grass validators are essential components for initiating web requests and verifying transactions. They create ZK-proofs to checkpoint session data onchain, ensuring a permanent record of data provenance for AI developers to track data throughout its lifecycle.

Initially a single entity, the system is moving toward a decentralized committee. This group will use consensus mechanisms to oversee data sessions, which improves the security and integrity of the network by preventing any single actor from influencing transactions.

2. Router

Grass routers are geographically distributed hubs connecting nodes to validators. They manage web requests while keeping nodes accountable. Operators earn rewards proportional to the total validated bandwidth delivered through their specific relays, incentivizing them to operate and relay traffic efficiently.

The following metrics are reported by Grass routers to assure good network health:

• Performance Monitoring: Tracks byte size, latency, and the status of each node.
• Stake Distribution: Calculates rewards for delegates based on their staked token contributions.
• Network Compliance: Ensures node pools maintain 75 percent connectivity to avoid potential asset slashing.

3. Grass Node

Grass nodes are free, lightweight gateways to the internet run by users. These nodes relay encrypted traffic to public websites and return responses to routers without viewing or accessing personal user activity, ensuring total privacy for every participant.

Running a node is easy and offers the following benefits:

• Operator Compensation: Users earn for data relayed through their local internet connections.
• Broad Accessibility: Available on Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux with specific uptime boosts.
• High Security: Uses digital signatures and encryption to prevent data tampering during transit.

4. Traffic Types

The Grass network supports 2 encryption methods (traffc types) to handle web requests. These options balance the need for validator oversight with user privacy requirements for different scraping tasks and ensure the network can trace data lineage on valid circuits.

• PET Type: Partially encrypted traffic allows validators to assess node quality and verify data.
• FET Type: Fully encrypted traffic provides total privacy but consumes higher gas and lacks reliability.

5. Fee Market

The Grass fee market is dynamic and reflects resource supply and demand. Transaction costs depend on node geography, reputation, traffic type, bandwidth, and current network congestion levels. This model ensures that resources are allocated efficiently across the global node network.

The system uses specific coefficients to determine the impact of each parameter. This flexibility allows the network to adjust costs based on real-time usage, ensuring the market remains balanced for all participants and node operators during high demand.

6. Grass Reputation Scoring

Nodes are graded on 4 characteristics to determine their reputation score within Grass. High scores increase the likelihood of receiving traffic and earning rewards, encouraging operators to maintain consistent and high quality connections for data scraping tasks.

The following dimensions define a node's reputation:

• Data Completeness: Assesses if the data includes all required points for AI models.
• Quality Consistency: Checks for uniform data quality across different sets or timeframes.
• Response Timeliness: Measures if the provided information is up-to-date and ready for use.
• Node Availability: Evaluates the degree to which a node is accessible for requests.

How To Use Grass

Setting up Grass is a simple process that allows you to monetize your idle internet bandwidth by contributing to a global AI data network. Follow these specific steps to begin earning your rewards today:

1. Account Registration: Sign up on the dashboard using a verified email address or your Google account.
2. Software Installation: Download the mobile or desktop app from the official store to enable bandwidth sharing.
3. Node Activation: Launch the application and click connect to start routing traffic through your IP address.
4. Dashboard Monitoring: Visit your personal profile to monitor connection status and view your live points growth.
5. Wallet Integration: Connect a Solana wallet to your profile to ensure eligibility for all future rewards.

Grass Points

Grass Points track your individual contributions to the network and determine the rewards you earn. The system is split into two distinct categories to acknowledge both your availability and actual bandwidth usage.

1. Uptime Points

Uptime Points are awarded based on the amount of time your device stays connected to the Grass network. They represent the foundation of the ecosystem by ensuring a reliable base of active nodes.

You can also boost these points through the following methods:

• Direct Referrals: Earn a 20 percent commission based on the uptime of users you invite.
• Network Growth: Receive secondary and tertiary bonuses from your extended referral tree over time.
• Milestone Bonuses: Gain 5,000 points after reaching your first 100 hours of active network uptime.

Network Points

While Uptime Points measure availability, Network Points reflect the bandwidth actually used to fulfill web data requests. Each day, a fixed pool of 1,000,000 points is distributed among active contributors based on their share of total validated traffic.

Your daily share of these points depends on several dynamic factors:

• Regional Demand: Market forces dictate higher traffic needs in specific geographic locations at different times.
• Connection Stability: The network prioritizes consistent and reliable nodes to ensure successful data scraping tasks.
• Usage History: System algorithms balance requests across various connections to maintain high operational reliability.

Tiers and Epochs

The network utilizes an Epoch system to track progress over specific time periods.

Your rank is calculated solely from Uptime Points, meaning referral commissions and Network Points do not influence your tier progression. As the network matures, Network Points will more directly represent the value you provide to the global AI data marketplace.

The GRASS Token

The GRASS token is the native utility and governance asset of the Grass Network. It operates under the contract address: Grass7B4RdKfBCjTKgSqnXkqjwiGvQyFbuSCUJr3XXjs.

With a fixed total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens, it facilitates a user-owned web data layer where every participant has a stake in the infrastructure.

Token Utility and Governance

GRASS is the functional engine of the ecosystem. Holders use the token to interact with the network through several primary channels:

• Power Transactions: Used to pay for web scraping tasks, structured dataset purchases, and LCR usage.
• Network Governance: Holders propose and vote on improvements, determining incentive mechanisms and organizational partnerships.
• Staking Rewards: Participants earn for contributing to network security by delegating assets to active routers.

Tokenomics and Supply Allocation

The distribution of GRASS ensures that both early supporters and future contributors have a stake in the network's success. The allocation is divided into 4 primary categories:

• Community (30%): Includes 170,000,000 tokens for future incentives, 30,000,000 for router rewards, and 100,000,000 for the initial airdrop.
• Early Investors (25.2%): These tokens are subject to a 1-year cliff and a 1-year vesting period to ensure alignment with project longevity.
• Foundation & Ecosystem (22.8%): This portion supports ongoing operations, partnerships, and research directed by DAO governance.
• Core Contributors (22%): Reserved for current and future team members with a 1-year cliff and a 3-year vesting schedule.

Airdrop One

Airdrop One was the first major distribution event, allocating 100,000,000 tokens to reward early adopters who helped build the initial network map. This 10% of the total supply was distributed based on specific contribution tiers:

• Network Snapshot (9%): Awarded to users who earned over 500 Grass Points during the initial stages of the project.
• GigaBuds Holders (0.5%): Distributed 515 tokens per eligible NFT to holders who were not listed at the time of the snapshot.
• Bonus Channels (0.5%): Dedicated to users of the Desktop Node or Saga Application who met the 500 point threshold.

While the primary claiming window closed in early 2025, this event established the precedent for recognizing the value provided by individual node operators and community members.

Staking and Network Security

Staking GRASS allows token holders to secure the network by delegating assets to routers. This shared-reward model aligns the financial interests of holders with the technical performance of the infrastructure.

• Delegation Process: Users can stake tokens with routers to help them win more traffic requests, which increases rewards for both parties.
• Reward Distribution: Staking rewards are distributed every second, providing immediate feedback for participating in the network's security.
• Unstaking Period: While there is no minimum lock-up, a 7-day unstaking period applies before tokens become available for withdrawal.
• Slashing Risks: Future updates may introduce slashing, where a portion of a router's staked GRASS is destroyed if they report invalid data or act maliciously.

Network Economy and Fees

All stakeholders in the ecosystem are ultimately compensated in GRASS. While the Grass Foundation allows purchasers to pay in USD or USDC, the network converts these revenues into the native token. This revenue is then used to pay stakeholders who provide network resources on a pro-rata basis.

Blockchain technology is necessary for this system for 3 reasons:

1. Efficiency: It allows for seamless global settlement in over 190 countries.
2. Transparency: Onchain proofs provide evidence that rewards are distributed equitably and verify data provenance.
3. Ownership: It ensures users own their contributions rather than being exploited by large technology companies.

Security and Slashing

Staking GRASS to routers ensures they remain in compliance with network protocols.

Routers must correctly facilitate bandwidth traffic and accurately report resources consumed during every transaction. While slashing for malicious activity is currently triggered manually, the system will move toward autonomous slashing as it reaches full decentralization.

Grass Founders

Grass was founded in 2023 by Andrej Radonjic, Connor White, and Chris Gordon. Andrej is the CEO of Wynd Labs, leveraging a background in mathematics and physics to shape the architecture. Together, they decentralize global web data collection.

The three founders established Grass to challenge centralized data monopolies by offering a transparent alternative. Their collective vision focuses on democratizing web data collection. This ensures users finally own and profit from the digital resources they provide daily.

Risks and Considerations

While watching points grow is satisfying, joining the Grass ecosystem requires understanding technical, financial, and privacy factors before you commit your bandwidth and assets.

Keep these considerations in mind during your network journey:

• Market Volatility: The value of rewards fluctuates based on the trading price of the native token across various decentralized and centralized exchanges.
• Slashing Risk: Future updates will introduce penalties for routers that report invalid web traffic or act maliciously, potentially reducing your staked assets.
• Hardware Dependency: Maintaining high uptime requires your device to stay powered on and connected, which may increase local energy consumption and wear.
• IP Reputation: While the system scrapes public data, routing external traffic through your home IP might occasionally trigger security flags on certain websites.
• Regulatory Changes: Shifting laws regarding data privacy and decentralized networks could impact how the protocol operates in certain global jurisdictions and regions.
• Centralization Concerns: The current validator set is moving toward decentralization, but early stages still rely on a single entity for transaction verification.
• Variable Demand: Rewards for Network Points depend on geographic demand, meaning users in less active regions might earn fewer points than others.
• Technical Bugs: As a newer protocol, smart contract vulnerabilities or application glitches could occasionally disrupt the accumulation of points or token claims.
• Lock-up Periods: Staking your tokens requires a 7-day unstaking period, which prevents immediate access to your capital during sudden market price movements.
• Resource Allocation: The app uses a small amount of your system resources, which could slightly impact performance on older computers or mobile hardware.

Final Thoughts

Grass is scaling in 2026 to provide live context retrieval and immediately available inference data. This infrastructure supports global AI models with verified web sources.

The network roadmap prioritizes transitioning to a decentralized validator committee. This includes autonomous slashing and full token utility for governance and secure onchain transactions.