Render Network Foundation Monthly Report — April 2026
In April, we recap RenderCon 2026, being featured on the AllInCrypto podcast, Dispersed case studies, and monthly ecosystem metrics.
RenderCon 2026 saw 50 speakers and 23 sessions across two days
2 days. 2 stages. 23 sessions. 50 speakers.
RenderCon 2026 brought together artists, filmmakers, technologists, and builders working at the edge of media, AI, and decentralized compute.
Across two days in Hollywood, the conversation centered on how the future of storytelling is being shaped by content creation tools and trends, emerging AI workflows, and the growing need for scalable GPU infrastructure.
From keynote sessions to artist panels, RenderCon this year highlighted a growing interest in scalable, interactive, and iterative creative loops.
Day one opened with Jules Urbach delivering a keynote packed with observations and examples of real work products delivered through the latest version of OTOY’s Canvas product and forward-looking tech slated to run on Render Network in the near future.
The day continued with perspectives on broader trends and insights from a wide swath of technologists and leaders speaking on the event’s mainstage, including Richard Kerris of NVIDIA, Francesco Siddi of the Blender Foundation, Zheru Liu of Kling AI, and Daniel Berkovitz of LTX Studio. Check out the full program.
The talks showcased the thinking of creators-turned-panelists such as Fede Alvarez, director of Alien: Romulus, Alex Ross, long-time comic book artist for DC and Marvel, and four of the 16 artists who designed the most ambitious and largest-scale Render Network-support project to date, SUBMERGE: Beyond the Render.
Day two focused on more immersive conversations with creatives and builders in addition to both Dispersed and Render Network product updates, workshops, demos, and case studies. From Render Network and Dispersed product updates and demos, to workshops on unique VFX workflows and artists showcasing their latest projects, the audience took note of what their fellow creators had to share.
Key Themes from the Stage
From Rendering to Real-Time Creation. In the Future of Cinema panel, Richard Kerris (NVIDIA) and Fede Álvarez explored how workflows are evolving from waiting on renders to manipulating content in real time. This shift is redefining how stories are built, making narrative the driver, rather than software constraints.
AI as a Creative Loop, Not a Shortcut. Across multiple sessions, speakers emphasized that AI is most powerful when integrated into the creative process, not used as a replacement for it. Real-time video generation, simulation environments, and world-building tools are enabling faster iteration while still relying on human direction and taste.
The Importance of Craft. Despite rapid advances in automation, creators shared their perspective around the symbiotic relationship between tech and artistry. The physical and emotional process of making — whether on set, in 3D, or in immersive environments — remains central to meaningful work. Technology opens doors by facilitating workflows.
The Compute Bottleneck. In his talk on building “holodeck”-like experiences, Emad Mostaque underscored a recurring constraint: compute. As the cost of creating assets approaches zero, access to GPUs becomes the limiting factor.
During the Dispersed case studies session, five builders articulated the individual challenges they were solving for and their unique solution to each problem, powered by the decentralized network of GPUs on Dispersed.
Expanding the Language of Media. From neural rendering to Gaussian splats, world models, and agent-driven workflows, discussions throughout the event pointed to a future where tools become more adaptive.
Catch the 86-second highlights reel:
The RenderCon 2026 Immersive Portrait Gallery
Our team wanted to provide a fun, immersive experience that showcased a lot of the tech that was the topic of conversation throughout the two days. Attendees who chose to participate in the immersive experience had the chance to have their photo taken to be turned into various creative portraits that were displayed on a screen in the room.
Now, we’ve turned those images into a rotating gallery. Check it out.
Check out the panel recordings now available
Sessions are now available to watch on-demand. Full session recordings are releasing throughout the month.
Ecosystem metrics
The Render Network Foundation tracks various metrics on its network. Below is the aggregate view of the month’s activity, previous month’s activity, and month-over-month change for a few key metrics.
Key Render Network metrics
*A note on the foundation node rewards vs. prior month: The rendering node operated by the Render Network Foundation was connected, at the hardware level, for the full month, generating the typical monthly costs. However, the software wasn’t connecting properly and though it was eventually restarted, it did not run as expected for a portion of the month. Hence the node was unable to get assigned rendering tasks, earning fewer rewards than would have been expected.
Node Operator Rewards (in RENDER)
Looking for definitions of each of these terms? Check out our previous monthly reports.
Product updates
How Developers Are Building on Dispersed, From RenderCon 2026
Last month we expanded node recruiting and onboarding to include Canada-based node operators with more regions rolling out in the coming weeks.
GPUs that meet the specifications for the network are encouraged to apply as we anticipate growth in usage. Interested operators can apply here: https://waitlist.renderfoundation.com/
At RenderCon, multiple users showcased what they’re building on Dispersed.
Omniscient Inc: A decentralized AI memory layer to Preserve User Privacy and Sovereignty Across AI Tools
Hannah Barris, CEO of Omniscient Inc. reminded the audience of the challenges with privacy — specifically the lack thereof — with current AI chat products. To address it, she developed Omniscient, a decentralized AI memory layer that transforms stateless AI tools into persistent, personalized systems by aggregating and structuring user-owned data into a continuously evolving context engine.
Built on composable infrastructure (e.g., Manifest Network and Dispersed), it leverages decentralized compute networks to enable portable, containerized workloads across providers, ensuring data sovereignty, privacy, and resilience without vendor lock-in.
As model capabilities converge, Omniscient positions context ownership as the key competitive advantage. The goal is to allow users to retain control of their data while powering more accurate, context-aware AI experiences across any model or platform.
Interested in testing it out*? Omniscient has opened their waitlist: https://omniscient.site
*Not an endorsement from the Render Network Foundation.
OrbitRisk: Predictive Satellite Risk Intelligence
Avia Kraft, CEO of Corpus Park, walked the audience through OrbitRisk, a real-time analytics platform that transforms complex orbital, environmental, and cybersecurity data into actionable risk intelligence for satellite operators and insurers.
OrbitalRisk combines live inputs like collision probability, space weather, and encryption vulnerabilities with orbital mechanics modeling. The output is dynamic risk profiles and forward-looking projections that surface hidden patterns, clusters, and emerging threats.
The platform is designed for interactive visualizations and customizable risk parameters that allow users to assess exposures across fleets, simulate future scenarios, and make informed operational and insurance decisions. The platform’s ability to ingest user-provided data and uncover novel, non-obvious risks makes it a powerful tool for proactively managing assets in an increasingly congested and volatile space environment.
Sarson Funds and Manifest Network: On-Demand GPU Infrastructure for AI Agents
Jon Gutwillig represented Manifest Network, in partnership with Sarson Funds, demonstrating a decentralized infrastructure model where AI applications dynamically access distributed GPU resources to power real-time, multi-model workflows.
Applications like Agent1 (an encrypted, multi-model AI assistant) and Suma (a crypto portfolio analysis tool) orchestrate multiple GPU jobs per query, ranging from embeddings to inference. The goal is to select the most cost-efficient hardware for each task across networks. This architecture enables scalable, on-demand compute without idle overhead, allowing AI agents to “hire” GPUs programmatically as needed. The result is a flexible, privacy-preserving, and economically efficient system that turns AI from a static service into an active consumer of decentralized compute infrastructure.
Render Network Updates: Adding Google Drive Cloud Storage and Insydium Fused Now in Beta
Cloud Storage to Expand to Google Drive Soon
Cloud storage upload, already available for Dropbox will be available for Google Drive in May! This feature allows Render Network users to set up a watch folder to automatically upload scenes to the network. Try it out.
Cinema 4D Fused Packages in Beta on Render Network
Cinema 4D users might be interested in the following product news coming out of RenderCon 2026: Render Network is adding support for the Insydium Fused package for Cinema 4D, including X-Particles and other Fused packages. This feature is currently available for beta testing. Interested in trying it out? Reach out to us across our socials including Discord, X, or within the Webapp chat support feature.
Governance Updates
RNP-023 Passes the Final Vote, Bringing Salad Network into the Render Network Ecosystem for Node Rewards and Payments
RNP-023 was proposed in March and passed the final voting round in April, enabling Salad Technologies to use RENDER as its exclusive payments infrastructure for node operators.
The existing network has 60,000 active GPUs, serving real-world compute use cases since 2018. The team at Salad sought to integrate an existing onchain payments layer that made sense for their operations, ultimately choosing Render Network to fill this need. This proposal is estimated to contribute $2.3M towards burns, and $2.1M towards RENDER-based node operator rewards in its first year after full integration.
In the News
Render Network on AllInCrypto: Scaling Compute for the Next Era of AI and Media
This month, Trevor Harris-Jones, Board Member of the Render Network Foundation, joined the All In Crypto podcast to discuss the origins of the network, its evolution, and the growing role of decentralized GPU infrastructure.
The conversation begins with the early challenge that led to Render Network’s creation: a large-scale content production project that would have taken months — even while utilizing major centralized cloud resources. That bottleneck ultimately sparked the idea of distributing rendering workloads across a global network of GPUs.
Key themes from the discussion to listen for:
- Why centralized compute doesn’t always scale for creative demand
- The rise of decentralized GPU networks
- Expanding beyond rendering into general compute
- Why demand for compute will continue to grow
The full episode explores how Render Network fits into a rapidly evolving landscape where compute is becoming one of the most critical resources in both AI and digital content creation.
Artist Spotlight: SUBMERGE — Beyond the Render
This month’s spotlight highlights the artists behind SUBMERGE: Beyond the Render, the immersive exhibition at ARTECHOUSE NYC, several of whom joined us on stage at RenderCon 2026.
Featuring Blake Kathryn, David Ariew, Woo-Sung Kang, and Joshua Pierce, the panel offered a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to create art for an 18K, 270-degree environment.
A few standout insights:
Scaling creative ambition
David Ariew shared that one piece — originally created at 7K — was adapted to 18K for SUBMERGE. Rendering on a personal setup would have taken an estimated two years, underscoring the role of distributed GPU rendering in making these works feasible.
Designing across formats
Woo-Sung Kang described how his project evolved across multiple formats. He talked about going from a traditional stage setup to a fully immersive installation, and later into a VR experience. Each iteration required new technical and creative considerations along the way.
Building beyond what’s visible
Blake Kathryn approached her piece as a full 360-degree world, even though only 270 degrees are displayed in the physical space — prioritizing artistic intent over technical constraints.
Pushing technical limits
Joshua Pierce worked with complex volumetric data (VDBs) at 18K resolution, facing render times of several minutes per frame. With Render Network, the project was completed ahead of schedule without compromising quality.
More broadly, the panel reinforced the idea that, as digital and physical experiences continue to converge, immersive art will play an increasingly important role. Scalable compute infrastructure will be essential to bringing those experiences to life.
Thanks for reading, see you next month!
