How is elastic different from other coins in the similar area like Golem, Sonm and IExec? Are they all trying to achieve the same results?
@others, feel free to correct me, but here is my tl;dr:
Elastic aims at using the hashing power of the network/of miners directly ot solve bruteforcable tasks
(i.e. trustless, but limits use cases)
Golem is basically supposed to be a payment layer on top of a decentralized computing architecture
(needs a reputation system, is not completely trustless)
SONM looks like a whitepaper with lofty goals to me but I didn't look that much into it
(Dunno, to me, it looks like these guys bit off more than they can chew. This is just my personal view, though)
IExec I don't now anything about.
Here's the remaining comparisons:
iEX.ec
iEx is not a standalone supercomputer software in the same sense as Elastic, since it requires several other pieces of technology to function. It is more a resource for distributed applications. iEx.ec seems to be aiming at providing distributed applications (running on the blockchain) with scalable, secure access to various services, data-sets and computing resources. The technology relies on Ethereum smart contracts and allows building a virtual Cloud infrastructure that provides high-performance computing services on demand.
iiEx.ec relies on XtremWeb-HEP, a open-source Desktop Grid software which implements all the needed features : fault-tolerance, multi-applications, multi-users, hybrid public/private infrastructure, deployment of virtual images, data management, security and accountability, and many more.
SONM
SONM is a collection of technologies used to create their SOSNA technology and not a standalone supercomputer in the same sense as Elastic, since it requires:
Ethereum smart contracts - A consensus system ensuring transparency and security for the systems participants
Fog computing - A decentralized and more efficient computing model compared to cloud
Yandex.Cocaine - An open source Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technology, and a decentralized computing platform
Docker Container - An isolated environment ensuring computing parallelism and appropriate apps running on any device
BtSync - A peer-to-peer system for fast and safe data transfer
Whisper - A peer-to-peer technology for node communication