Startup Turns Phones into a Decentralized Compute Network | Alessandro De Carli: Acurast (#52)

What If Your Old Phone Could Power the Next AI Model?

In this episode of the DePINed podcast, host Tom Trowbridge speaks with Alessandro De Carli, co-founder of Acurast — a decentralized confidential compute network built entirely on mobile devices. Alessandro shares his journey from mobile security at Credit Suisse to launching Acurast, and explains why smartphones are underutilized powerhouses perfect for distributed computation. They dive into topics like trusted execution environments (TEEs), real-world DePIN use cases, token economics and why mobile-first infrastructure could rival hyperscalers like AWS.

In this episode, we cover:

- Why mobile phones are the future of decentralized compute

- How Acurast transforms smartphones into secure compute nodes

- Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) explained

- The role of token economics in scaling decentralized infrastructure

- Why hyperscalers like AWS should pay attention to mobile-first networks

Whether you’re into Web3, edge computing or the future of AI infrastructure — this episode is not to be missed 🚀

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