Caching cheaters on OpenRouter: rogue inference providers gaming the marketplace
soumitrashukla9 · x · 2026-08-18
Tarun Chitra published "Caching Cheaters on OpenRouter," analyzing how some rogue inference providers game caching mechanics to extract value in the model aggregation marketplace — every successful market has winners and losers, but some participants make it more of a dark forest than a chessboard.
The essay presents direct evidence of the cheating, plus simple math to make such marketplaces more robust against rogue inference providers. The full version includes a more philosophical market-structure framing, the economics of open source, and complete appendices. The sharer calls it an incredibly thoughtful must-read.
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