# Compute can't be commoditized — "it's like diamonds, not like gold"

- **Speaker:** Greg Osuri
- **Attribution:** attributed
- **Said:** 2020-01-12
- **Theme:** GPU Economics — https://www.gregosuri.com/predictions/gpu-economics/
- **Source:** "Hashing It Out \#70 - Akash Network - Greg Osuri" (Hashing It Out (The Bitcoin Podcast Network))
- **Watch at:** 00:37:34 — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hashing-it-out-70-akash-network-greg-osuri/id1000457699?i=1000462229743
- **Canonical:** https://www.gregosuri.com/predictions/gpu-economics/2020-01-12-compute-can-t-be-commoditized-it-s-like-diamonds-n-4ojj/
- **Cite as:** Greg Osuri, "Compute can't be commoditized — "it's like diamonds, not like gold"," "Hashing It Out \#70 - Akash Network - Greg Osuri" (Hashing It Out (The Bitcoin Podcast Network)), 12 Jan 2020, 00:37:34. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hashing-it-out-70-akash-network-greg-osuri/id1000457699?i=1000462229743

## Quote — verbatim

> Every attempt to price compute has ended up in an utter failure, EOS being I think a big example... Every time you commoditize something, turns out... there's always going to be room for people to cheat... compute is very, very hard to commoditize. Instead of trying to commoditize, \[we\] create a free market that's driven by auction... it's like diamonds and it's not like gold.

## Context — site annotation, not spoken

Why Akash uses reverse auctions instead of fixed pricing (spans into the 00:38:20 block); he's equally candid that hardware claims can't practically be proven, hence the web-of-trust reputation model (00:39:04).