As crypto gambling and Web3 gaming platforms continue to scale, the infrastructure powering them is becoming just as important as the games themselves. A new collaboration between Golem Network and Salad.com is could potentially show how decentralized computing could play a central role in the next phase of Web3-native gaming ecosystems.
Rather than pitching theory, the partnership focuses on live, production-level testing. Salad, a GPU cloud marketplace that aggregates idle computing power from devices around the world, is beginning to mirror parts of its existing workloads onto Golem’s decentralized compute network. It is a unique test of whether permissionless infrastructure can reliably support real-world demand while reducing reliance on centralized cloud providers.
Why Infrastructure Matters for Web3 Gaming and Crypto Casinos
Modern crypto casinos and blockchain games depend heavily on compute-intensive systems. Live dealer streaming, AI-driven game logic, real-time odds engines, and provably fair mechanics all require scalable and cost-efficient backend infrastructure.
Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) like Golem present a compelling alternative. By sourcing compute from a global pool of independent providers and settling transactions in crypto, these networks offer a model that aligns naturally with Web3 principles of transparency, accessibility, and borderless participation.
It further creates a unique opportunity for crypto-based settlement, and decentralized coordination can simplify payments, billing, and rewards. These are all areas that still rely on centralized systems despite their distributed compute layer.
Putting Web3 Compute to the Test
In a recent announcement, Salad confirmed it has begun deploying a range of existing customer workloads onto Golem’s protocol. These include AI inference, 3D rendering, and simulation-heavy tasks, all services already supported within Salad’s platform.
Instead of building new use cases from scratch, the engineering teams are directly mapping current demand onto Golem’s decentralized marketplace. With this, they get to evaluate performance, reliability, and settlement efficiency under real operating conditions, while exploring how crypto-native payments could lower overhead and increase flexibility.
Salad CEO Bob Miles described the initiative as a step toward turning long-held decentralized computing concepts into practical infrastructure. By combining Salad’s global device network with Golem’s permissionless execution layer, the teams are exploring how workloads, revenue flows, and reward systems could operate fully on Web3 rails.
Salad CTO Kyle Dodson also noted that the architectural similarities between the two platforms made the integration a natural fit. This is particularly critical as Salad prepares to introduce crypto payments, a feature frequently requested by users.
The Salad–Golem collaboration is just one of the notable ones across the tech industry, where companies are increasingly blending Web2 user experiences with Web3 infrastructure rather than attempting abrupt transitions. Major cloud providers like Microsoft and Google Cloud are already experimenting with blockchain tooling, validator services, and decentralized data platforms. At the consumer level, ecosystems such as TON demonstrate how Web3 incentives can scale when integrated into familiar environments.
These hybrid models offer a clear path forward, and we cannot wait to see how they take shape in 2026.
