# Flux > Fair-launched decentralised cloud with several thousand nodes. GPU mining, FluxCloud, FluxEdge. Freedom Score, Returns Score and honest assessment. - Scores: Freedom 7.4/10 (grade B), Returns 5.7/10 (grade C) - Category: compute · Token: FLUX - Published: 2026-03-06 · Updated: 2026-10-04 - Canonical: https://ownyourmind.ai/projects/flux/ - Data (scores + integrity verdicts, JSON): https://ownyourmind.ai/api/projects/flux.json - Cite as: Own Your Mind (ownyourmind.ai), licence CC BY 4.0. Link the canonical URL. Charts and interactive widgets are omitted here; their data is in the JSON above. --- ## What it does Flux is a blockchain-powered decentralised cloud computing platform, one of the oldest in the space. Originally launched in January 2018 as ZelCash (a Zcash/Equihash fork), it rebranded to Flux in March 2021 and evolved from a privacy coin into a full cloud infrastructure stack. The platform comprises several components: - **FluxCloud**: autonomous deployment platform for containerised dApps with CDN and real-time monitoring. Think decentralised Docker hosting. - **FluxEdge**: GPU compute marketplace for AI/ML workloads, recently graduated from alpha in 2025. - **FluxNodes**: user-operated infrastructure across three tiers: Cumulus (2 cores, 8GB RAM), Nimbus (4 cores, 32GB), and Stratus (8 cores, 64GB). Plus Titan fractional staking from just 50 FLUX. - **ArcaneOS**: secure Docker container operating system for node operators, released 2025, replacing the legacy FluxOS. Features encrypted disk pre-allocation. - **FluxAI**: private AI solutions including FluxINTEL (document intelligence) and FluxGPT. - **SSP Wallet**: MultiSig wallet audited by Halborn. - **Fusion**: cross-chain parallel asset swap system enabling 1:1 ratio swaps across ten chains (Ethereum, BSC, Solana, TRON, Avalanche, Polygon, and others). Flux's [21 September 2026 post](https://runonflux.com/ten-chains-become-two/) plans to keep only Ethereum and BNB Chain. The other eight go one-way in March 2027 and shut in August 2027, after which unclaimed balances go to the Foundation. Founded by **Daniel Keller** (CEO, 25+ years IT experience), **Tadeas Kmenta** (Chief Innovation Officer, core developer), and **Parker Honeyman** (COO, resigned February 2025, no public explanation). The UK operating entity, **InFlux Technologies Limited** (Companies House #12144906), [entered administration on 4 September 2026](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12144906/insolvency), with FRP Advisory appointed. Headcount is not something we can state: the FY2025 statutory accounts, filed 15 February 2026 for the year ended 31 August 2025, record the average number of employees including directors as nil, so the UK entity carries no payroll. Control also moved offshore in the window since our last check. Keller, Kmenta, Anderson and Silva all ceased to be persons with significant control on 31 January 2026, and the sole active PSC is now Influx Technologies USA LLC of Dover, Delaware, holding 75% or more of shares. Critically, Flux had **no ICO, no pre-mine, and no pre-sale.** It was fair-launched via mining. Team allocation is 0.7% of supply. This is one of the fairest token distributions in all of crypto. ## Value proposition Six years of operational infrastructure across 66+ countries by Flux's count, launched without a cent of pre-mine or ICO. Two pillars hold this up: verifiable infrastructure and demonstrably fair distribution. ### Infrastructure and PoUW v2 The infrastructure is concrete. Flux's own node list counts 7,024 nodes (3,472 Cumulus, 1,684 Nimbus and 1,868 Stratus). Flux says more than 560 independent providers run them, which the data allows: the nodes pay out to 850 distinct addresses, an upper bound on independent operators. The Flux dashboard also reports 58,300 CPU cores, 192 TB RAM and 3.2 PB SSD storage, and nodes are hardware-benchmarked with a 97% uptime requirement. (figures as of 2026-10-19) The October 2025 soft fork to **Proof of Useful Work v2 (PoUW v2)** was significant. It replaced traditional GPU mining with useful compute work, reducing block time from 2 minutes to 30 seconds while making the mining process productive rather than purely hash-oriented. **Progressive Node Rewards** are Flux's plan to pay node operators from usage. Flux's [20 September 2026 post](https://runonflux.com/pnr-when-usage-pays-the-machines/) says that from 1 July 2027, at block 3,787,502, consensus will take 20% of each application payment into an operator pool, with the other 80% going to the Foundation address. Until then, operator income is block rewards alone. ### The counter-narrative: demand, declining nodes, governance gaps The demand side is harder to read than this review used to say. Flux's global app registry holds 2,173 unexpired deployment specifications from 1,627 owners. That is a different and much larger measure than the roughly 100 live apps we once quoted. Those are entries on Flux's own API, so they show who has registered deployments, not how many serve real traffic, and the largest single owner holds 193 of them. Node revenue still comes mainly from block rewards rather than paid compute. (figures as of 2026-10-19) Node count tells the story. From a peak of 14,000+ nodes, the network is down to 7,024 on Flux's node list. Operators are leaving, likely because the economics don't work when revenue depends primarily on inflationary block rewards rather than actual compute demand. (figures as of 2026-10-19) The co-founder departure adds uncertainty. Parker Honeyman resigned as director on 20 February 2025 with no public explanation. When a co-founder quietly exits a six-year project, that warrants attention. The company behind the brand is in administration. The [administrators' proposals](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12144906/filing-history), filed on 21 September 2026, record a pre-pack sale on 4 September of the business and certain assets, including Zelcore, to Influx Technologies USA LLC. The buyer is a connected party: it shares directors with the company and is its sole shareholder. HMRC presented a winding-up petition on 6 March 2026 over unpaid corporation tax, and the administrators name it the only established creditor. The nodes are independently run, so the network sits outside the administration, but the legal exposure follows the business. Iagon Ltd is suing both the UK company and the Delaware parent for patent infringement at the Unified Patent Court's Munich local division ([UPC_CFI_2280/2025](https://www.unifiedpatentcourt.org/sites/default/files/files/api_order/78f1d3b3-0dd0-4f62-a626-747ce75cee44.pdf)), and the administrators say they won't spend creditors' money defending it. FluxEdge (the AI/GPU compute play) only recently graduated from alpha. In a market where Akash, Render, and io.net have years of head start on GPU compute, Flux is late. Notably, Flux and Akash co-authored compute infrastructure research in 2025, a sign of mutual respect, but also an acknowledgment that neither has solved the demand problem alone. The max supply was increased from 440 million to 560 million via the PoUW v2 fork, a 27% dilution. How this change was governed and voted on isn't well-documented, which is concerning for a project that prides itself on community ownership. ## Tokenomics FLUX has a maximum supply of 560 million tokens, increased from 440M via the October 2025 PoUW v2 fork, and the large majority of it is now circulating (current figure in the fact strip above). Note that CoinGecko still lists the pre-fork 440M max for FLUX; the 560M figure is the correct post-fork cap. Distribution: 94.7% user-owned (mining distribution), 2.9% Flux Foundation, 1.7% exchange liquidity, 0.7% team. This is among the fairest allocations in crypto, comparable to Bitcoin's mining-only distribution. Block rewards are 14 FLUX per block with 30-second block time (~40,320 FLUX daily). Distribution: Stratus nodes 64.3%, Nimbus 25%, Cumulus 7.1%, Foundation 3.6%. A 10% annual emission reduction targets 1% long-term inflation by 2036. Node collateral requirements create significant lock-up: Cumulus (1,000 FLUX), Nimbus (12,500), Stratus (40,000). Multiplying those tiers by the 24 September 2026 node list gives about 89 million FLUX locked in node collateral, roughly 21% of the 430 million mined (circulating supply) on the Flux explorer. Titan fractional staking allows participation from just 50 FLUX with 3, 6, or 12-month lock-ups. No burn mechanism has been documented despite references to "burning, locking, and staking" in project materials. Value accrual is primarily through collateral lock-up and the future revenue-sharing via Progressive Node Rewards. FLUX is down more than 95% from its ATH of $3.33 in January 2022. Listed on Binance, Kraken, KuCoin, Gate.io, and Crypto.com. Available on ten chains via parallel assets, which Flux plans to cut to two by August 2027. Market cap is modest relative to the infrastructure deployed. ## How to participate **Run a FluxNode.** Choose a tier: Cumulus (1,000 FLUX, 2 cores, 8GB RAM), Nimbus (12,500 FLUX, 4 cores, 32GB), or Stratus (40,000 FLUX, 8 cores, 64GB). Earn block rewards. 97% uptime required. Upgrade to ArcaneOS for Progressive Node Rewards eligibility. Technical skill: advanced. **Titan Staking.** Minimum 50 FLUX. Lock for 3, 6, or 12 months. Managed by InFlux Technologies. Rewards distributed twice weekly. Technical skill: basic. **Deploy Applications.** Use FluxCloud to deploy containerised dApps or FluxEdge for GPU compute. Pay in FLUX. Technical skill: intermediate. **Governance.** Participate in XDAO voting. Currently weighted towards node operators. XDAO 2.0 planned to extend to all FLUX holders. Technical skill: basic. ## Flux GPU mining: how it works and what you can earn Flux is one of the few remaining fair-launched, mineable crypto projects with credible compute infrastructure behind it. If you are looking at GPU mining in the DeAI space, Flux is worth understanding because the model is fundamentally different from proof-of-work mining on Bitcoin or Ethereum. ### How Flux mining works Since the October 2025 PoUW v2 (Proof of Useful Work) soft fork, Flux replaced traditional GPU hash mining with useful compute work. Block time dropped from 2 minutes to 30 seconds, and the mining process now contributes productive computation rather than burning electricity on meaningless hashes. Flux miners are doing productive work now, not just solving arbitrary puzzles. That's a significant evolution. Block rewards are 14 FLUX per block (one block every 30 seconds), producing approximately 40,320 FLUX per day. These rewards are distributed across the node tiers: - **Stratus nodes**: 64.3% of block rewards - **Nimbus nodes**: 25% of block rewards - **Cumulus nodes**: 7.1% of block rewards - **Flux Foundation**: 3.6% A 10% annual emission reduction targets a long-term inflation rate of approximately 1% by 2036. ### FluxNode tiers and requirements Running a FluxNode requires both hardware and FLUX collateral locked on-chain: | Tier | Collateral | CPU | RAM | Storage | Bandwidth | | - | - | - | - | - | - | | **Cumulus** | 1,000 FLUX | 2 cores | 8 GB | 220 GB SSD | 25 Mbps | | **Nimbus** | 12,500 FLUX | 4 cores | 32 GB | 440 GB SSD | 50 Mbps | | **Stratus** | 40,000 FLUX | 8 cores | 64 GB | 880 GB SSD | 100 Mbps | Nodes must maintain 97% uptime. If your node goes offline, you stop earning. ArcaneOS (Flux's secure Docker container OS, released 2025) is required for Progressive Node Rewards eligibility, which Flux plans to fund from 20% of application payments from July 2027. **Titan fractional staking** lets you participate from just 50 FLUX without running hardware. Lock periods of 3, 6, or 12 months. Managed by InFlux Technologies. Note this is a centralised custodial option. ### The economics: be honest with yourself Before buying hardware for a Flux node, work the numbers backwards from current FLUX price and your electricity costs. The daily block reward pool is split across 7,024 nodes. A single Cumulus node earns its proportional share of the 7.1% Cumulus allocation, which at current FLUX prices is slim. A Stratus node gets more, but you have a large FLUX collateral requirement locked plus server hardware and hosting costs. (figures as of 2026-10-19) The honest picture: node economics currently depend heavily on FLUX price appreciation. At current prices, most operators are earning below the cost of running the hardware. This is why node count has declined from 14,000+ to 7,024. Operators who needed immediate returns have left. (figures as of 2026-10-19) Flux mining makes sense if you have a multi-year time horizon and believe in the infrastructure thesis, or if you have existing hardware with spare capacity. It doesn't make sense as a short-term income play at current token prices. The parallel mining advantage remains: FLUX can be mined alongside other PoW chains simultaneously, making the marginal cost of adding FLUX mining to an existing operation lower than starting from scratch. ## Honest assessment ## Freedom Score: 74/100 Flux scores strongly on freedom, driven by its fair-launch origins, extensive node infrastructure, and open source commitment. **Infrastructure Decentralisation: 15/20.** 7,024 nodes on Flux's node list, run by 560+ independent providers by Flux's count. Hardware-benchmarked, permissionless node operation. PoUW v2 distributes block production to node operators. No single data centre, though commercial hosts such as Hetzner carry a large share of nodes. Node count declining from 14,000+ peak raises questions. Titan nodes managed by InFlux Technologies are a centralisation vector. (figures as of 2026-10-19) **Governance Decentralisation: 12/20.** XDAO governance since 2021 with community proposals and 30% quorum requirement. XDAO 2.0 announced to extend voting to all FLUX holders (1:1 governance tokens). Implementation status unclear; the XDAO page returns 404. Core team retains significant influence. Weighted voting favours Stratus operators. **Token Distribution Fairness: 13/15.** Fair launch mining (January 2018). No ICO, no pre-mine, no pre-sale. 94.7% user-owned. Team allocation only 0.7%. Foundation 2.9%. One of the fairest distributions in crypto. Max supply increased from 440M to 560M via fork without documented token holder vote, a concern. **Censorship Resistance: 12/15.** Permissionless node operation across 66+ countries by Flux's count. Containerised application deployment. No single entity can shut down the network. ArcaneOS provides encrypted disk space. InFlux manages Titan nodes centrally. The UK operating company entered administration in September 2026 and its business was sold the same day to its Delaware parent. How many registered apps serve real traffic is not visible, so battle-testing is hard to judge. **Data Sovereignty: 10/15.** ArcaneOS provides containerised, encrypted application deployment. Users control data within dApps. No centralised data harvesting. FluxAI emphasises privacy. Data sovereignty claims are architecture-level with limited practical documentation. FluxEdge compute may route data through third-party nodes without strong guarantees. **Open Source Transparency: 12/15.** 110 non-fork public GitHub repos (189 counting forks), 79 of them with no licence file, in an 18 September 2026 read. Core node software under AGPL-3.0, with some repos MIT. The main repo has 249 stars. The UK operating company has been in administration since September 2026. Halborn audits publicly available. Active development through September 2026. No full-scope FluxOS/FluxCloud protocol audit found. ## Returns Score: 57/100 **Token Utility: 15/20.** FLUX is used for node collateral (1,000-40,000 FLUX locked per tier), FluxCloud deployment payments, FluxEdge compute purchases, Titan staking (50-10,000 FLUX), governance voting, and cross-chain Fusion swaps. Multiple legitimate use cases creating demand. However, FluxCloud publishes no revenue figure, so how much of its registry turns into paid compute demand is unmeasured. Most current utility is collateral lock-up rather than consumption. **Value Accrual: 10/20.** Flux plans Progressive Node Rewards from 1 July 2027, routing 20% of each application payment to an ArcaneOS operator pool. Node collateral locks significant supply (about 89M FLUX, roughly a fifth of mined supply, on the September 2026 node list). 10% annual emission reduction. No documented token burn mechanism despite claims. FluxCloud publishes no revenue figure, so its contribution is unmeasured. Value accrual is largely theoretical at current usage levels. **Supply Dynamics: 14/20.** 560M max supply, the large majority of it circulating. About 89M locked in node collateral on the September 2026 node list. Titan lock-ups further reduce liquid supply. 10% annual emission reduction targeting 1% inflation by 2036. However, max supply was increased 27% (440M to 560M) via fork, which was dilutive. ~40,320 FLUX daily emissions still entering circulation without sufficient demand to absorb them. **Revenue Sustainability: 8/25.** FluxCloud has over a thousand unexpired deployment specs in its registry but publishes no revenue figure, so what it earns is unmeasured. FluxEdge just graduated from alpha. No public revenue figures. Node economics primarily sustained by block rewards (token inflation), not external revenue. Declining node count (14,000+ to 7,024) suggests operators are leaving due to poor economics. The fundamental thesis (that decentralised compute can compete with AWS on cost and reliability) remains unproven after six years. (figures as of 2026-10-19) **Liquidity & Access: 10/15.** Listed on Binance, Kraken, KuCoin, Gate.io, Crypto.com. Volume is modest, and a September 2026 CoinGecko read put more than half of it on one venue, GroveX, so turnover says little about depth. Available on ten chains via parallel assets, which Flux plans to cut to two by August 2027. Titan staking accessible from 50 FLUX. More than 95% below ATH and price near historical lows. ### Quadrant: B (High Freedom, Low Returns) Flux sits firmly in Quadrant B: one of the strongest sovereignty plays in decentralised compute, with an unproven commercial model. ### Key risks - **Paid demand unmeasured after 6 years.** The app registry holds over a thousand deployment specs, but Flux publishes no revenue figure and node income is mostly block rewards. - **Declining node count.** From 14,000+ peak to 7,024. Operators are leaving, likely due to poor economics. (figures as of 2026-10-19) - **Co-founder departure.** Parker Honeyman resigned February 2025 with no public explanation. - **Operating company in administration.** InFlux Technologies Limited entered administration on 4 September 2026 after an HMRC winding-up petition, and its business was sold the same day to its Delaware parent. - **Patent litigation.** Iagon Ltd's infringement action at the Unified Patent Court names both the UK company and the Delaware parent. - **More than 95% below ATH.** Severe and sustained decline since the January 2022 peak. - **Max supply dilution.** Increased 27% from 440M to 560M via fork. Governance of this change unclear. - **Revenue depends on inflation.** Node rewards come from block emissions, not compute revenue. When emissions reduce, what sustains operator economics? - **FluxEdge late to market.** GPU compute just graduated from alpha. Akash, Render, io.net have years of head start. - **No protocol-level audit.** Halborn audited wallets, but no full-scope FluxOS/FluxCloud security audit found. - **Competition.** Akash, Render, io.net, and centralised cloud providers. None have solved the demand problem, and Flux is no exception. ## Score change log | Date | Score | Change | Reason | | - | - | - | - | | 2026-10-04 | Freedom | Governance 13 → 12 (Freedom 75 → 74, B held) | The UK company that set the roadmap entered administration on 4 Sep 2026 and its business was sold the same day to a connected Delaware LLC that publishes no accounts. | | 2026-10-04 | Data | N/A | Companies House: InFlux Technologies Limited entered administration on 4 Sep 2026 and its business was pre-pack sold to its Delaware parent; Iagon's UPC patent suit added. "Companies House filings current" and the Cheltenham framing withdrawn. Scores unchanged. | | 2026-10-04 | Data | N/A | Progressive Node Rewards reworded as Flux's plan from 1 Jul 2027 taking 20% of app payments, not a live 80% FluxCloud share. Parallel assets reworded to Flux's plan to cut ten chains to two by Aug 2027. Scores unchanged. | | 2026-09-29 | Data | N/A | Registry and hosting findings re-read: 1,823 unexpired app specs from 1,283 owners; 38 payout addresses run half the nodes and GHOSTnet is now the largest IP block. Scores unchanged. | | 2026-09-24 | Score | Freedom 76 to 75 | Infrastructure 16 to 15: "no centralised data centres" withdrawn; the ten largest IP blocks host about a third of nodes and the ten largest payout addresses run about 28%. | | 2026-09-24 | Data | N/A | Phase 5 sweep: collateral lock rederived from the live tier counts (~89M FLUX, ~21%, not 114.9M), stale ~8,000 node figures bound, repo counts refreshed from GitHub, GroveX volume concentration noted, 67-country figure attributed to Flux, CoinGecko 440M basis labelled. Scores unchanged. | | 2026-09-24 | Data | N/A | Node count (6,522) and the app registry (1,754 unexpired specs, 1,239 owners) now bound to Flux's own APIs, refreshed weekly. The "~100 live apps" framing and "no centralised data centres" are withdrawn. Scores unchanged; demand narrative flagged for the monthly. | | 2026-09-23 | Data | N/A | Integrity records re-cut: 2 claims now quote Flux's own pages verbatim and 6 are our own measurements. Scores unchanged. | | 2026-09-05 | Data | N/A | Fossilising-claim audit. "Approximately 72 employees" is contradicted by InFlux Technologies Limited's own FY2025 accounts, which record average employees as nil, so the figure is dropped rather than restated. Companies House also shows the four individual PSCs ceased on 31 Jan 2026 and control passed to a Delaware LLC, which the UK-exposure framing did not disclose. | | 2026-08-15 | Data | N/A | Circulating supply de-hardcoded into the live `` component and a bound fact strip. The stated 73.3% was 21.4pp stale against CoinGecko's 94.73% of max supply. Prose and Supply Dynamics evidence moved to structural language. | | 2026-08-12 | Data | N/A | WS3 open-source verdict added (1->2). RunOnFlux/flux is AGPL-3.0, 249 stars, active across a 180-repo org (match); complements the existing circulating-supply reconciliation from the Flux chain explorer. Scores unchanged. | | 2026-06-26 | Data | N/A | DefiLlama LlamaAI harvest cross-check, verified independently (CoinGecko via coingeckoId zelcash + api.llama.fi). The snapshot cited ownyourmind.ai for both the ATH-decline line and the FluxCloud "negligible revenue" review, so confirming our figures is the priority. Made the echoed ATH figure precise: ~99% below the $3.33 January-2022 high (verified -98.7%), from the rounded "98%". The FluxCloud ~100-apps / negligible-revenue claim stands (DefiLlama tracks no Flux fees; emissions ~14 FLUX/block at 30s blocks confirmed). Circulating ~73.7% of the 560M post-fork cap (within rounding of the cited 73.3%; CoinGecko still shows the pre-fork 440M cap). No score change. | | 2026-03-06 | Both | N/A | Initial publish. Freedom 76/100, Returns 57/100. |