Golem Network Token (Golem) (GLM) is the native token of Golem Network, a decentralized Ethereum-based marketplace for renting CPU and GPU computing power.
The idea was first presented publicly at DevCon 0 in 2014, and the network launched its token as GNT in 2016. GNT migrated 1:1 to the current GLM contract in November 2020. Golem has since been expanding into AI-compute infrastructure and decentralized data storage.
Golem differentiates itself by combining a peer-to-peer CPU/GPU compute marketplace with an expanding suite of AI-compute and decentralized data-infrastructure products, rather than operating a single-purpose DeFi protocol.
GLM captures this value as the sole payment unit between requestors and providers on the network. A pilot partnership with GPU-cloud provider Salad.com testing enterprise AI inference and 3D-rendering workloads reportedly generated around $57,000 in weekly network fees, an early usage signal for the compute marketplace.
GLM is a utility token used to pay for computing services on Golem Network: requestors pay GLM to providers who supply CPU and GPU capacity for their computing tasks.
GLM also functions as a governance token through Octant, the Golem Foundation's public-goods funding platform, where locked GLM confers voting rights over funding allocation.
GLM has a fixed total and circulating supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens, unchanged since the November 2020 migration from GNT.
With supply fixed and no new issuance, GLM's net emission is flat rather than inflationary or deflationary.
Golem's GNT token sale ran October 13-November 13, 2016, reaching its hard cap in about 20 minutes on November 11 and raising roughly 820,000 ETH (about $8.6 million).
GNT migrated 1:1 to the current GLM contract, deployed on-chain on 2020-11-18, four years after the 2016 token sale.
Golem Network Token (Golem) (GLM) is deployed on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token, secured by Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
Golem does not operate its own base-layer blockchain or validator set for the GLM token itself.
Golem was founded in 2016 by four co-founders: Julian Zawistowski, Andrzej Regulski, Piotr Janiuk, and Aleksandra Skrzypczak, with the underlying idea first presented publicly at DevCon 0 in 2014.
Julian Zawistowski, an economist by background and co-founder of the Institute for Structural Research, served as founder and CEO of Golem Factory until stepping down from the CEO role in June 2019; he is now a Director at the Golem Foundation.
Golem Network is maintained today by the Golem Foundation, a Swiss-based non-profit that succeeded the original for-profit Golem Factory, which ran the 2016 token sale.
The Foundation's main current initiative is Octant, a participatory public-goods funding platform. It also runs a Golem Ecosystem Fund that supports third-party projects building on Golem Network and Golem Base.
GLM governance operates primarily through Octant, a Golem Foundation-run participatory funding platform, rather than a classic on-chain DAO for protocol parameters.
Holders who lock at least 100 GLM into an Octant contract for a 90-day epoch gain voting rights over how Octant's accumulated public-goods funding pool is distributed. Octant's funding pool is supported in part by staking rewards the Foundation donates from ETH it holds.
Golem released the Golem-JS 2.0 SDK in 2025, adding an InvoiceProcessor API and requiring Yagna v0.13.2 or later.
The November 2020 GNT-to-GLM migration was independently audited by Trail of Bits and CertiK, with no serious security issues found affecting migrating or post-migration GLM users.
Trail of Bits audited the GLM token and migration proxy contracts; CertiK audited the same contracts and penetration-tested the migration web app. The GLM contract is verified and not flagged as spam. Structurally, the top 10 holders control 58% of total GLM supply, and on-chain DEX liquidity is thin relative to market capitalization.
