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 aggregates participants' funds, rents 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 (May 2026):

Ancapex: entry from $1, daily payouts, 20% of rewards — the lowest entry threshold on the market. Ideal for testing the mechanics with a minimal amount.
Gonka.Top: entry from $100. The pool is collected in 2 weeks, after which mining begins. Payouts monthly for 180 days. Guarantee against skipped epochs — if the operator skips an epoch, losses are compensated. Referral program: 25% of the attracted participant's investment (L1) + 5% (L2). Also offers not only pools but also dedicated servers with maintenance.
GonkaPool.ai: entry from $500. Classic scheme "10% entry fee + 10% of mining income", 180-day vesting.
CloudMine (Mingles): contracts by "weight" 50–10000, USDC on Base payment. Platform 8% + 10% insurance fund. Suitable for those who want fiat settlements instead of waiting for GNK vesting.

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

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

Risks: pool income is paid in GNK (except for CloudMine, where settlements are in USDC). 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 conditions or cease operations. Choose pools with a transparent history and guarantees. Nothing on this website is financial advice — invest only discretionary funds.

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

Referral programs: Gonka.Top offers a two-tier referral program — 25% of the attracted participant's investment (L1) + 5% from participants attracted by your referral (L2). GonkaPool.ai and Ancapex also have their referral programs. If you plan to attract friends and acquaintances — this is 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 maintenance starting from $12,000/month. This includes: 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 (users from the Russian Federation may experience difficulties with Spheron payment via payment processor). This option is cheaper but requires independent setup of inferenced CLI, Docker, and on-chain registration.

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

Comparison with a pool: In a pool, you share income with other participants and pay a commission to the operator. On a dedicated server, all income (minus rental) 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 budget and willingness to take risks. A detailed comparison is in the article “How much can you earn”.

What maintenance includes: 24/7 uptime monitoring (missing epochs = loss of income), automatic software updates when new inferenced versions are released, configuration backup, technical support. You receive a dashboard with reports on your server's operation: number of processed requests, 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 rewards for that period. For a dedicated server, uptime is the operator's responsibility. Gonka.Top guarantees no missed epochs — 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 $1 (Ancapex) or $100 (Gonka.Top), no technical knowledge required, the operator does everything. The most profitable is your own host with a 40GB+ VRAM GPU. 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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