What is Beam?
Learn how Beam coordinates measurable, verifiable, and incentivized data transfer.
Beam is an open coordination layer for bandwidth.
It enables data to move across a distributed network of participants where routing decisions are not fixed or centrally controlled, but dynamically determined based on real-time performance. Instead of relying on predefined infrastructure such as cloud providers or CDNs, Beam coordinates a network of independent operators who contribute bandwidth and compete to deliver data efficiently.
At its core, Beam transforms bandwidth into a measurable, verifiable, and incentivized resource — turning data transfer into a performance-driven market.
Get started
If you want to move data, this is the path. It takes three steps, in this order, and the Developer Quickstart walks through all of them.
| # | Step | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Create an API key at console.b1m.ai | Add credits and issue the key everything else authenticates with. |
| 2 | Install Beam Studio | The self-hosted application where you build data movement as a graph — transfers, transforms, checks, branching, schedules — and watch it run. Most teams operate Beam from here. |
| 3 | Install the Beam CLI | The terminal client for your account, your machines, and Rooms. |
# 2. Beam Studio — a Linux host with systemd, 2 vCPUs, 4 GB of memory and
# 20 GB of free disk; the installer sets up Docker
curl -fsSL https://cdn.b1m.ai/studio/install.sh | sudo sh
# 3. Beam CLI — macOS and Linux
curl -fsSL https://cdn.b1m.ai/cli/install.sh | sh# 3. Beam CLI — Windows
irm https://cdn.b1m.ai/cli/install.ps1 | iexBuilding Beam into an application you already maintain instead? Use the SDK — Python, TypeScript, Go, or Rust — where a transfer takes a few lines. To run a transfer without writing code, use Beam Studio. Both reach the same network and spend the same organization credits, and the HTTP API reads the status of your transfers from any language.
Beam has one public environment: production, at console.b1m.ai.
The rest of this page explains what the network is and why it works that way.
The Problem with Data Movement Today
Data transfer today is not a single system, but a stack of infrastructure layers — cloud networks (AWS, GCP, Azure), CDNs, and the underlying web of transit providers and peering agreements. These systems are powerful but operate as closed environments. Routing decisions are driven by provider policies, BGP, and pre-negotiated relationships — not by real-time application needs or measured end-to-end performance.
What's missing is an open mechanism where paths compete based on latency, throughput, or reliability. Applications cannot express intent, and networks do not dynamically optimize for delivery outcomes.
This limitation is becoming more critical as data movement scales. AI training and distributed workloads are rapidly increasing transfer volumes, and data movement can represent a significant share of total system cost. Cloud providers charge substantial egress fees — typically $0.08–$0.12 per GB — reflecting both infrastructure costs and closed ecosystem incentives.
Structural limitations
| Limitation | Detail |
|---|---|
| Pricing disconnected from performance | Bandwidth is priced per GB regardless of delivery quality. No mechanism adapts pricing or routing to real-time conditions. |
| Routing is not programmable | Applications cannot dynamically select paths, leverage multiple networks in parallel, or adapt in real time. |
| Infrastructure is permissioned | Data delivery is controlled by large providers. Independent operators cannot contribute bandwidth or be rewarded based on performance. |
| Idle capacity cannot participate | Significant unused bandwidth exists across data centers, ISPs, and edge networks, but it cannot be programmatically discovered, allocated, or monetized. |
Beam introduces the missing layer — a coordination system where bandwidth becomes measurable, competitive, and programmable.
How Beam Works
Beam operates as a real-time coordination layer that orchestrates how data moves across a distributed network of participants. Rather than relying on fixed infrastructure or predefined routes, Beam dynamically selects how data is transferred based on performance, availability, and economic incentives.
Core Roles
Beam is composed of five roles that coordinate to move data across a distributed network. Each role is intentionally separated so that coordination, execution, and verification remain independent — creating a system where performance drives outcomes.
Clients
Originators of transfer requests — applications, services, enterprises, or AI agents. Clients express intent (move data from A to B under these conditions) and delegate execution to the network.
BeamCore
The coordination layer. Assigns work, tracks transfers, handles retries, and ensures observable, accountable execution. Does not touch the data itself.
Orchestrators
Operate pools of workers and compete for the network's work. Each orchestrator is answerable for how its whole pool delivers.
Workers
The off-chain execution layer. Move data from source to destination, report completed chunks, and compete to remain in high-performing pools.
Validators
Verify delivery integrity and enforce economic fairness. Confirm that work was real, performance is measurable, and rewards reflect actual contribution.
The Competitive Market
Beam creates a fluid, performance-driven marketplace with aligned incentives at every layer:
Orchestrators compete to build and maintain the most reliable worker pools. Better measured delivery wins more of the network's work and more of its rewards, so an orchestrator has every reason to keep its whole pool fast and dependable.
Workers compete to remain in high-performing pools. They are not locked into a single orchestrator — they move toward orchestrators offering the most reliable work and the best rewards, so fairness is enforced by market dynamics, not policy alone.
Validators bridge off-chain execution with on-chain incentives. They verify delivery and set the on-chain weights that share out rewards, so stronger delivery earns more over time.
What Beam Enables
- High-performance transfer — Data moves in parallel across multiple paths, dynamically optimized for real-time conditions. Particularly valuable for large datasets, AI pipelines, and cross-region systems.
- Resilient delivery — Distributed across multiple workers and orchestrators, with automatic recovery from network issues.
- Programmable routing — Define intent (source, destination, constraints) and the network determines the best execution strategy.
- Cost efficiency through competition — Participants compete to deliver data, aligning cost more closely with actual performance.
Bittensor Subnet 105
Beam operates as subnet 105 on the Bittensor network. Validators reward verified delivery with $TAO emissions. That is what pays orchestrators to keep high-quality workers and to complete real work — the competition you benefit from as a client.
You do not need to interact with Bittensor directly to use Beam as a client. Connectors (S3, R2, Hippius, Box, HTTP) abstract all network details.
Key Concepts
- Transfer — A request to move data from source to destination, split into chunks and distributed across workers.
- Chunk — A byte range of a transfer that one worker moves on its own.
Where To Go Next
This site documents Beam for clients — everything needed to move data over the network.
If you only want to send bytes, go straight to the Developer Quickstart — your account and an API key, then Beam Studio, then the Beam CLI. If you want the whole picture first, read Architecture and then How Transfers Work.
The client source repositories are listed under Source code.
Running an orchestrator, a worker, or a validator is documented separately; ask the Beam team for the participant documentation.