How to start earning GNK: a step-by-step guide

In Gonka, there's no single 'right' path—everyone chooses based on their budget, skills, and free time. The project's philosophy: 5 paths to GNK, from $0 (free AI chat) to tens of thousands of dollars (your own server cluster). Your choice depends on three factors: budget (how much you're willing to invest), skills (how technical you are), and control (do you want to manage the infrastructure yourself).

Below are four main options, from the simplest to the most advanced. Each of them works and generates GNK—the difference is in the level of involvement and potential income. If you're unsure, start with the free AI chat (Path 4), confirm that the network actually works, and then choose a path based on your situation.

Why start now: Gonka is in an early stage—before listing on major exchanges. Historically, early participants in networks (ETH, SOL, RNDR) gained the most benefit as the network grew. Of course, past performance does not guarantee future results—but Gonka's fundamental indicators ($80M in investments, ~4,648 GPUs, CertiK audit, public team) are stronger than most projects at this stage.

Path 1: Pool — the easiest

A pool combines participants' funds, leases GPUs, and mines GNK collectively. You don't need equipment or technical knowledge—the pool operator handles everything. This is the most popular path for beginners.

Available pools (March 2026):

Gonka.Top: entry from $100. The pool is assembled in 2 weeks, after which mining begins. Payments are monthly for 180 days. Guaranteed without epoch skips—if the operator skips an epoch, losses are compensated. Referral program: 25% of the investment of a referred participant (L1) + 5% (L2). Also offers not only pools but also dedicated servers with maintenance.
GonkaPool.ai: similar operating scheme. Own referral program.
Hashiro: hashiro.tech/pools—a proven pool with an operating history.
Mingles CloudMine: entry from $30—the lowest threshold among all pools. Suitable for those who want to try it with minimal investment.

How to choose a pool: compare operator fees, payment frequency and history, guarantee size, and availability of a referral program. A detailed comparison of all providers is on the comparison page. General principle: the longer a pool has been operating and the more transparent its reporting, the more reliable it is.

Important to understand: pool income depends on the price of GNK, network load, and operator efficiency. This is an investment, not a deposit—returns are not guaranteed.

Risks: pool income is paid in GNK. If the token price falls, your dollar income will decrease, even if the amount of GNK remains the same. The pool operator can also change terms or cease operations. Choose pools with a transparent history and guarantees. Nothing on this website is financial advice—invest only disposable funds.

How the pool works technically: the operator collects funds from participants, leases servers with GPUs (usually H100 or H200), configures inferenced CLI, connects nodes to the Gonka network, and begins processing AI requests. GNK earned by the nodes are distributed among participants proportionally to their investment. The entire process for the participant: registration → payment → waiting → monthly GNK payments. No technical actions are required from you.

Referral programs: Gonka.Top offers a two-tier referral program—25% of the investment of a referred participant (L1) + 5% from participants referred by your referral (L2). GonkaPool.ai and Hashiro also have their own referral programs. If you plan to attract friends and acquaintances, this is a significant additional income.

Before registering in a pool, we recommend reading the GNK Economics section—understanding tokenomics will help you choose the optimal strategy from day one.

Path 2: Dedicated Server

For those who want more control and potentially higher income than in a pool. A dedicated server is a GPU machine that mines GNK directly to your wallet, without sharing with other pool participants.

Gonka.Top offers dedicated servers with full service from $12,000/month. What's included: GPU rental (H100/H200), node setup, connection to the Gonka network, 24/7 monitoring, maintenance, and software updates. You receive a wallet address to which GNK is directly credited for processed AI requests. The operator handles all technical issues.

Spheron and other providers offer bare-metal H100/H200 servers for self-connection to Gonka. This option is cheaper but requires independent setup of the inferenced CLI, Docker, and on-chain registration.

Who it's suitable for: medium and large budgets ($12,000+/month), the desire to receive all income without pool fees, but without the need to self-administer servers. The main advantage over a pool: 100% of income goes to you (minus rental costs), no dependence on pool operator decisions regarding distribution.

Comparison with a pool: in a pool, you share income with other participants and pay a fee to the operator. On a dedicated server, all income (minus rent) is yours. Potential profitability is higher, but the entry threshold is also significantly higher: $12,000/month vs $100 in a pool. The choice depends on the budget and willingness to take risks. A detailed comparison is in the article “How much can you earn”.

What the service includes: round-the-clock uptime monitoring (skipping epochs = loss of income), automatic software updates when new versions of inferenced are released, configuration backup, technical support. You get a dashboard with reports on your server's operation: number of requests processed, GNK earned, uptime.

Uptime and epochs: in Gonka, rewards are accrued for epochs — fixed time intervals. If your node is offline during an epoch, you do not receive a reward for that period. For a dedicated server, uptime is the operator's responsibility. Gonka.Top guarantees no epoch skipping — this is a key advantage over self-setup.

Path 3: Your own host — for technical users

If you have a powerful GPU (NVIDIA, 40GB+ VRAM)—you can connect it directly to the Gonka network. This is the most profitable path: all rewards for processed AI requests go to you without pool fees and without renting.

Hardware requirements:

GPU: NVIDIA with CUDA support, a minimum of 40GB VRAM per ML-node. Recommended cards: H100 (80GB), H200 (141GB), A100 (40/80GB).
Total VRAM: 640GB for a full Qwen3-235B cluster (e.g., 8x H100 80GB).
CPU: must support AVX instructions (inferenced will not launch without AVX).
RAM and disk: sufficient for model weights (~640GB for Qwen3-235B).
Internet: stable, for receiving tasks from Transfer Agents and sending results.
Uptime: 24/7. Skipping epochs reduces rewards.

Connection process: inferenced CLI installation → Docker configuration → downloading model weights → on-chain registration → receiving tasks from Transfer Agents → processing AI requests → receiving GNK. Detailed step-by-step instructions are in our mining guide.

Who it's suitable for: technical users with experience in Linux, Docker, and GPUs. Those who already have suitable equipment (ROI is maximized when there are no rental costs) or who are willing to invest in buying servers (~$35K+ for H100).

Typical setup problems: inferenced requires AVX instructions on the CPU—without them, the software will not launch (SIGILL error). Model weights are ~640GB—fast internet is needed for downloading. Docker must have access to the GPU via NVIDIA Container Toolkit. If you are unsure of your technical skills—consider a dedicated server (Path 2), where the operator handles all technical issues.

How rewards work: each processed AI request earns GNK. 80% of the payment for the request goes to the host (you), 20% goes to the community pool. The more powerful your GPU and the higher your uptime, the more requests your node processes, the more GNK you receive. Rewards are credited on-chain and are visible in your wallet in real-time.

Community help: if you get stuck at any stage of setup—Gonka has an active community on Discord where experienced hosts help beginners. The open-source code on GitHub allows you to see how inferenced works internally. Official documentation for quick start for hosts is also available.

Path 4: Try AI for Free

Not sure? Just try it. On our website, there is a built-in AI chat that works through the real Gonka network. It's free and requires no registration. You ask a question — and a real Qwen3-235B neural network (MoE architecture, 22 billion active parameters) answers through the decentralized network. This is not a demo version or an imitation — your request is processed by real GPUs in the Gonka network.

Why is this necessary: to make sure Gonka really works before investing money. To see the speed and quality of the answers. To understand that decentralized AI is not an abstract concept, but a working product.

Next steps after AI chat:

Install a wallet to store GNK: GG Wallet (Chrome extension, open source) or Gonka.Wallet (Telegram Mini App — convenient if you are on Telegram).
Read the article “Where GNK value comes from” — understand the token's economics.
Choose your path: pool (from $100), server (from $12,000/month) or your own host (requires GPU 40GB+).
Go to the provider comparison page and get started.

From the first acquaintance to the first GNK — from 10 minutes (pool) to several hours (own host).

About wallets: GG Wallet is an open-source Chrome extension developed by the Gonka team. It allows you to store GNK, sign transactions, and interact with the network. Gonka.Wallet is a Telegram Mini App, a convenient mobile option for those already on Telegram. Both wallets are free. A detailed overview of all storage options is in the article “Wallets for GNK”.

About security: when using AI chat, your data is not stored on our servers. The request is encrypted, transmitted to the Gonka network, processed on one of ~582 MLNodes, and returned. No information is transmitted to third parties. This is an advantage of a decentralized architecture: unlike OpenAI, where all requests pass through the servers of one company, Gonka has no single repository of user data.

For serious miners, monitoring is critically important: track GPU temperature (not exceeding 85°C under prolonged load), electricity consumption, and the ratio of GNK earned to expenses. Many pools provide built-in dashboards, but it is also worth setting up Telegram notifications if a node goes down — every hour of downtime means lost tokens.

The easiest way is a pool: from $100 (Gonka.Top) or from $30 (Mingles CloudMine), no technical knowledge, the operator does everything himself. The most profitable is your own host with GPU 40GB+ VRAM. The most controlled is a dedicated server from $12,000/month. And to start, you can just try the free AI chat and see that Gonka works.

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