Introduction: What is DePIN?#
DePIN stands for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network, which encourages users to share personal resources through token incentives to build infrastructure networks in areas such as storage space, communication bandwidth, cloud computing, and energy.
In simple terms, DePIN crowdsources infrastructure that was originally provided by centralized companies, distributing it among numerous users worldwide.
According to CoinGecko, the market capitalization of the DePIN sector has reached $5.2 billion, surpassing the $5 billion in the oracle sector, and shows a continuous upward trend. Whether it’s the early emerging projects like Arweave and Filecoin, the recently successful Helium from the last bull market, or the recently spotlighted Render Network, they all belong to this sector.
Some readers may wonder why these projects already existed, and Helium garnered significant attention in the last bull market, yet why has DePIN recently started to attract renewed interest and excitement?
The reasons can be summarized into three main aspects:
- The infrastructure has improved significantly compared to a few years ago, paving the way and empowering the DePIN sector;
- On the other hand, at the end of 2022, Messari first proposed the new concept of DePIN, considering it "one of the most important areas for crypto investment in the next decade," and this new definition and expectation has added a narrative boost to the sector;
- Additionally, people previously placed their hopes for web3's breakout narrative on social and gaming, but with the arrival of the bear market, they began to explore more possibilities in other directions. The DePIN sector, which is closely linked to web2 users, naturally became an important choice for web3 builders.
So is the DePIN sector just old wine in a new bottle, or is it a new opportunity for web3 to break out? This article will deeply analyze DePIN from five perspectives: why DePIN is needed, the token economic model of DePIN, the current industry status, representative projects, advantages analysis, and limitations and challenges.
Why is DePIN Needed?#
So why do we need DePIN? What problems does DePIN solve compared to traditional ICT infrastructure?
Current State of the Traditional ICT Industry#
In the traditional ICT industry, we can mainly categorize infrastructure into the following types: hardware, software, cloud computing and data storage, and communication technology.
Among the top ten companies by market capitalization globally, six belong to the ICT industry (Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, NVIDIA, Meta), occupying a significant market share.
According to Gartner, the global ICT market size reached $4.39 trillion in 2022, with data centers and software showing growth trends in recent years, impacting our lives in various aspects.
Dilemmas of the Traditional ICT Industry#
However, the current ICT industry faces two significant dilemmas:
1) High entry barriers limit full competition, leading to pricing monopolized by giants.
In fields such as data storage and communication services, companies need to invest substantial funds in hardware purchases, land leasing for deployment, and hiring maintenance personnel. These high costs mean that only giant enterprises can participate, with AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud collectively holding nearly 70% market share in cloud computing and data storage. This results in pricing being monopolized by these giants, and the high costs are ultimately passed on to consumers.
For example, the prices of cloud computing and data storage are quite high:
According to Gartner, in 2022, total spending by enterprises and individuals on cloud services reached $490 billion, and it is expected to continue growing in the coming years, surpassing $720 billion by 2024. According to RightScale, 31% of large enterprises spend over $12 million annually on cloud services, while 54% of small and medium-sized enterprises spend over $1.2 million. As enterprises increase their investment in cloud services, 60% of them report that their cloud costs exceed expectations.
The current spending situation in the cloud services sector related to cloud computing and data storage shows that once prices are monopolized by giants, the expenditure pressure on users and enterprises will only increase. Additionally, the capital-intensive nature restricts full competition in the market, which also affects innovation and development in the sector.
2) Low utilization rate of centralized infrastructure resources.
The low utilization rate of centralized infrastructure resources is a significant challenge in today’s business operations. This issue is particularly pronounced in cloud computing environments, where companies often allocate substantial budgets for cloud services.
According to a recent report by Flexera (2022), a concerning trend has emerged: on average, 32% of a company's cloud budget is wasted, meaning that after cloud spending, one-third of resources remain idle, resulting in significant financial losses.
This misallocation of resources can be attributed to various factors. For instance, companies often overestimate their resource needs to ensure continuous service availability. Additionally, according to Anodot, cloud waste is often due to a lack of understanding of cloud costs, leading to confusion in complex cloud pricing and diverse packages.
On one hand, monopolization by giants leads to excessively high prices; on the other hand, a significant portion of companies' cloud spending is wasted, putting enterprises in a dual dilemma of high IT costs and low IT utilization, which is detrimental to the healthy development of the business environment. However, every challenge presents an opportunity, which also provides fertile ground for the development of DePIN.
Faced with the high prices of cloud computing and storage, as well as the cloud waste dilemma, the DePIN sector can effectively address these needs. In terms of pricing, decentralized storage (e.g., Filecoin, Arweave) is several times cheaper than centralized storage; regarding the cloud waste dilemma, some decentralized infrastructures are beginning to adopt tiered pricing to differentiate between different needs. For example, the Render Network in the decentralized computing sector employs a multi-tiered pricing strategy to efficiently match GPU supply and demand. The advantages of decentralized infrastructure in addressing these two dilemmas will be detailed in the project analysis section later.
Token Economic Model of DePIN#
Before understanding the current state of the DePIN sector, let’s first explore the operational logic of the DePIN sector. The core question is: why are users willing to provide their resources to join DePIN projects?
As mentioned in the introduction, the core logic of DePIN is to promote users to provide resources, including GPU computing power, hotspot deployment, storage space, etc., through token incentives, contributing to the entire DePIN network.
In the early stages of DePIN projects, tokens often had no real value, so users' participation in providing resources to the network is somewhat akin to venture capitalists. The supply side selects promising projects from numerous DePIN projects and invests resources to become "risk miners," profiting from the increase in the number of tokens and the appreciation of token prices.
These providers differ from traditional miners in that the resources they provide may involve hardware, bandwidth, computing power, etc., and their income in tokens is often related to network usage, market demand, and other factors. For example, low network usage leads to reduced rewards, or network attacks or instability result in wasted resources. Therefore, risk miners in the DePIN sector need to be willing to bear these potential risks and provide resources for the network, playing a key role in the stability of the network and the development of projects.
This incentive mechanism creates a flywheel effect, forming a positive cycle when development is favorable; conversely, it can easily lead to a withdrawal cycle when development declines.
- Attract supply-side participants through tokens: A good token economics model attracts early participants to engage in network construction and resource provision, rewarding them with tokens.
- Attract builders and network consumer users: As the number of resource providers increases, some developers begin to join the ecosystem to build products. Meanwhile, since DePIN offers lower prices compared to decentralized infrastructure, consumers are also drawn to join.
- Form positive feedback: As the number of consumer users increases, the demand incentives bring more income to supply-side participants, creating positive feedback that attracts more participants from both sides.
Under this cycle, the supply side receives more valuable token rewards, while the demand side enjoys cheaper and more cost-effective services. The token value of the project aligns with the growth of participants from both supply and demand sides, and as token prices rise, it attracts more participants and speculators, forming value capture.
Through the token incentive mechanism, DePIN first attracts suppliers and then draws users to use the services, achieving the project's cold start and core operational mechanism, allowing for further expansion and development.
Current State of the DePIN Industry#
From the earliest established projects, such as the decentralized network Helium (2013), decentralized storage solutions like Storj (2014) and Sia (2015), it is evident that the earliest DePIN projects primarily focused on storage and communication technologies. However, with the continuous development of the internet, IoT, and AI, the demand for infrastructure requirements and innovations has increased significantly. Currently, DePIN projects are mainly concentrated in computing, storage, communication technologies, and data collection and sharing.
From the current top 10 projects by market capitalization in the DePIN sector, most belong to the Storage and Computing fields, with some notable projects in the telecommunications sector, including industry pioneers Helium and later rising stars like Theta, which will be further analyzed in the project analysis section.
Representative Projects in the DePIN Industry#
According to the market capitalization ranking of DePIN on Coingecko, this article will focus on analyzing the top five projects: Filecoin, Render, Theta, Helium, and Arweave. First, let’s take a look at the decentralized storage projects Filecoin and Arweave, which are also quite familiar to many.
Filecoin & Arweave—Decentralized Storage Sector#
As mentioned in the dilemmas of the traditional ICT industry, in the traditional data storage field, the high pricing of centralized cloud storage on the supply side and the low resource utilization on the consumer side have created dilemmas for users and enterprises, along with risks such as data breaches. In response to this phenomenon, Filecoin and Arweave provide lower prices through decentralized storage to break the deadlock and offer users different services.
Let’s first look at Filecoin. From the supply side, Filecoin is a decentralized distributed storage network that incentivizes users to provide storage space through token rewards (the more storage space provided, the more block rewards are directly correlated). Within about a month of its testnet launch, its storage space reached 4PB, with miners (storage space providers) from China playing a significant role. Currently, the storage space has reached 24EiB.
Notably, Filecoin is built on the IPFS protocol, which is already a widely recognized distributed file system. Filecoin achieves decentralized and secure data storage by storing users' data on nodes within the network. Additionally, Filecoin leverages the advantages of IPFS, giving it strong technical capabilities in the decentralized storage field, while also supporting smart contracts, allowing developers to build various storage-based applications.
At the consensus mechanism level, Filecoin employs Proof of Storage, including advanced consensus algorithms such as Proof of Replication (PoRep) and Proof of Spacetime (PoSt), to ensure data security and reliability. In simple terms, Proof of Replication ensures that nodes replicate clients' data, while Proof of Spacetime ensures that nodes maintain storage space continuously.
Currently, Filecoin has established partnerships with many well-known blockchain projects and enterprises. For example, NFT.Storage utilizes Filecoin to provide simple decentralized storage solutions for NFT content and metadata, while the Shoah Foundation and the Internet Archive use Filecoin to back up their content. Notably, the world's largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, also uses Filecoin for NFT metadata storage, further promoting the development of its ecosystem.
Next, let’s look at Arweave, which has some similarities with Filecoin in incentivizing the supply side by encouraging users to provide storage space, with the amount of rewards depending on the volume of stored data and the frequency of data access. However, Arweave is a decentralized permanent storage network, meaning that once data is uploaded to the Arweave network, it will be permanently stored on the blockchain.
So how does Arweave incentivize users to provide storage space? Its core mechanism uses a work proof called "Proof of Access," which aims to prove the accessibility of data within the network. In simple terms, it requires miners to provide a randomly selected previously stored data block during the block creation process as "access proof."
Currently, the official offers various solutions, including permanent file storage, creating permanent profiles, and web pages.
(Source: Arweave official Website)
To help everyone quickly understand the differences between Arweave and Filecoin, a table has been created for clarity.
From the above table, it is evident that Filecoin and Arweave have significant differences in storage methods, economic models, and consensus mechanisms, giving them respective advantages in different application scenarios. However, due to lower storage prices, Filecoin currently leads the market significantly.
Overall, with the proliferation of big data and artificial intelligence applications, the volume of data generated is growing exponentially, leading to an increasing demand for data storage. Against the backdrop of high pricing in centralized storage, the demand for decentralized storage has also become more pronounced. The following chart illustrates the significant price difference between decentralized and centralized storage.
Under the same conditions of storing 1TB for one month, the average price of decentralized storage is less than half that of Google Drive and one-tenth that of Amazon S3.
In addition to price advantages, decentralized storage offers higher security, as data is distributed across multiple nodes, reducing the risk of single points of failure, and providing greater resistance to censorship.
In terms of data privacy, users retain absolute ownership and control over their data in decentralized storage. Users can access, modify, or delete their data stored on the network at any time; whereas in centralized storage, users entrust their data to service providers, who may have some control over the data, requiring users to comply with the service provider's terms of use and privacy policies.
On the downside, decentralized storage faces many technical challenges, including issues related to data storage and retrieval efficiency, as well as node reliability. Compared to the high availability and performance guarantees of centralized storage, the availability and performance of decentralized storage may be affected by the participants in the network, leading to some fluctuations that can impact user experience.
Helium—Decentralized Wireless Network#
Having understood the decentralized storage sector, let’s now look at the highly regarded decentralized wireless network project, Helium. Founded in 2013, it is also a pioneer in the DePIN sector.
Why is a decentralized wireless network so important? In the traditional IoT industry, due to the difficulty of covering infrastructure costs with revenue, there has yet to be a giant network supplier for IoT devices, and no integrated market exists. The demand-supply imbalance has provided fertile ground for Helium's development in IoT.
Since the most challenging bottleneck lies in infrastructure costs, the natural advantage of DePIN in this field is to "crowdfund" user participation on the supply side to share costs. By incentivizing tokens, Helium attracts users worldwide to purchase Helium network devices to form a network, thereby achieving network supply. Its technical strength gives it a significant advantage in the IoT field, with the number of hotspots exceeding 900,000 last August, and the monthly active hotspot count reaching 600,000, which is 20 times that of traditional IoT network leader The Things Network, which has 30,000 hotspots. (Even though the current active hotspot count has dropped to 370,000, it still holds a noticeable advantage.)
After making progress in the IoT field, Helium hopes to further expand its network business to enter the 5G and Wi-Fi markets. However, as shown in the following data, Helium currently performs well in the IoT sector but is underwhelming in the 5G sector.
(Source: Helium official Website)
Why does Helium excel in the IoT field but struggle in the 5G sector? Let’s analyze this from market and regulatory perspectives.
In the IoT field, Helium employs LoRaWAN technology, a low-power wide-area network technology characterized by low power consumption, long transmission distances, and excellent indoor penetration. This network typically does not require specific authorization, making it an economical choice for large-scale IoT deployments.
For example, in agricultural scenarios, farmers only need to monitor soil moisture and temperature to implement smart irrigation and crop management. Similarly, in smart city scenarios such as smart lamp posts, trash bins, and parking sensors, there are many promising developments.
Moreover, the IoT network market is difficult to cover with revenue due to its wide coverage but low data transmission volume, and no industry giants have emerged. Helium seized this opportunity to combine web3 technology with IoT networks, cleverly addressing the high capital barrier issue through DePIN. By allowing everyone to participate, the heavy initial costs of IoT construction can be shared among users, enabling lightweight launches. Currently, some indoor and outdoor positioning devices and smart farms like Abeeway and Agulus have begun to adopt Helium, with hotspot numbers exceeding 900,000 as of last August.
On the other hand, Helium has been involved in the 5G market for a year, but its performance has been unsatisfactory. The root causes can be summarized as a dual dilemma of compliance and market ceiling.
In terms of compliance, frequency allocation and licensing in the U.S. are strictly regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Low-frequency bands like 600MHz and 700MHz, mid-frequency bands like 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz, and high-frequency bands like 28GHz and 39GHz require rigorous reviews for authorization. For instance, authorized T-Mobile uses the 600MHz band for 5G deployment, while Verizon uses the 700MHz band. As a latecomer, Helium chose the unlicensed CBRS GAA band to reduce deployment costs and address compliance challenges. However, compared to mid-frequency bands, its coverage is slightly smaller, and it does not show a significant advantage over U.S. operators.
Regarding market ceilings, it is worth noting that 5G is a field strictly regulated by national policies, with most network operators globally being state-owned enterprises, and only a few private enterprises maintain close ties with the government. Therefore, from a broader market perspective, Helium finds it challenging to replicate its 5G market experience in the U.S. overseas.
Additionally, the lack of transparency regarding cooperative devices is also an experiential issue on the supply side. Since Helium's devices are open-source, the performance, pricing, and installation processes of different cooperative manufacturers vary, leading to significant confusion for suppliers participating in Helium, and there are instances of merchants passing off second-hand devices as new. Optimizing the supply-side experience and balancing the transparency and user-friendliness of open-source devices is a challenge that the Helium project needs to address.
Notably, on March 27 of this year, Helium began migrating from its Layer 1 blockchain to Solana. The reasons for the migration can be summarized as follows:
- The core Helium team wants to focus on the network, and after assessing the importance of maintaining Layer 1, they decided to hand over the maintenance of the underlying blockchain to those who are skilled in it, allowing the team to focus on building the Helium network;
- The choice of Solana is primarily based on ecological considerations. Solana has many high-quality ecological projects and developers, and Helium's token HNT is natively compatible with other innovative projects in the Solana ecosystem, providing more use cases for token holders;
- Additionally, Solana's latest state compression feature allows for the minting of a large number of NFTs at a very low cost, making the minting cost for nearly 1 million NFTs during Helium's migration to Solana only $113, saving significant expenses. These NFTs can serve as network credentials for Helium and verify hotspots, while also integrating functions for the entire ecosystem, including token gating and access permissions for hotspot owners, making it highly efficient and convenient.
- In terms of future planning, there are many collaborative opportunities with projects like Solana Mobile Stack and the Saga phone that Solana intends to launch, which is a win-win for both Solana, which wants to develop a phone, and Helium, which aims to become a 5G service provider.
In the long run, Helium's exploration in the IoT field is an innovative endeavor from 0 to 1, holding immense value for addressing IoT demands. Although it will face numerous challenges along the way, as IoT devices become more widespread and application scenarios continue to expand, Helium's decentralized network solution may see broader applications. It is believed that in the future, in fields such as smart agriculture and smart cities, it will unleash tremendous potential.
Render Network—Decentralized Computing#
Render Network is a decentralized GPU rendering platform, where rendering refers to the process of transforming 2D or 3D computer models into realistic images and scenes. Render Network has garnered attention during the Apple Vision Pro launch and the AR/VR boom.
Some readers may wonder why personal computers are insufficient for video editing and animation production, necessitating the use of Render Network. The reason is that for small projects like short videos or micro-films, the computing power requirements are relatively low. However, for many large projects, the computational resources required for rendering are immense, typically relying on centralized cloud service providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, whose prices are often steep.
For clients, the most concerning aspect is pricing. Render Network employs a multi-tiered pricing strategy to match GPU supply and demand most efficiently.
Rendering services are quantified in OctaneBench units and time, adjusted and standardized to 1 Euro based on OctaneBench4. This pricing model is based on the current costs of GPU cloud rendering services on centralized platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS). Specifically, 1 Euro worth of RNDR is equivalent to 100 OctaneBench4 per hour.
Tier 2 offers a total workload of OctaneBench that is 2 to 4 times that of Tier 1 RNDR tokens, with computing power 200-400% greater than Tier 1. Tier 2 rendering jobs have higher priority in the rendering queue than Tier 3, allowing for accelerated parallel rendering services. Tier 3 provides 8 to 16 times the OctaneBench workload. However, Tier 3 services have the lowest priority in the rendering queue and are not recommended for time-sensitive rendering tasks.
(Source: Render Network Knowledge Base)
In simple terms, the pricing formula for each tier is fixed, but the pricing unit OctaneBench fluctuates based on market performance. The cost and effectiveness of Tier 1 are comparable to centralized cloud rendering services like AWS, while Tiers 2 and 3 achieve lower prices by having lower speed requirements. Price-sensitive users can choose Tier 3, while those seeking high efficiency may prefer Tier 1, with Tier 2 serving as a middle option. Additionally, Render Network emphasizes the full utilization of idle GPU resources. Since most GPUs remain idle locally, their resources are not fully utilized. Meanwhile, artists and developers are striving to scale cloud rendering and computing work. The decentralized rendering network provides an efficient two-way market for global GPU computing supply and demand, representing a highly efficient resource matching method.
Theta Network—Decentralized Video Network#
Theta Network's co-founder Steve Chen was a co-founder of YouTube, giving it a strong industry background. The project's core function is to utilize a blockchain-based optimized content delivery network, significantly reducing the cost of video content transmission and enhancing content distribution efficiency.
To better understand, let’s compare it with traditional content delivery networks (CDNs):
In traditional delivery networks, all video viewers connect directly to POP servers (network nodes distributed globally) to watch videos. Most platforms, such as Netflix and Facebook, obtain services through centralized CDNs. However, for those located far from POP servers, video streams are often affected. Theta Network's model allows users to contribute their bandwidth and computing power to become caching nodes, distributing videos closer to viewers.
This provides viewers with a better experience while rewarding users who provide bandwidth and computing power with tokens, thereby lowering costs for video platforms. As video content consumption continues to rise, along with the emergence of online streaming and gaming live broadcasts, Theta Network is expected to find applications in more scenarios. Currently, in the decentralized video streaming field, Theta Network will also face competition from projects like Livepeer and VideoCoin.
Of course, besides the top five projects analyzed above, there are many other noteworthy projects, such as IoTex, which provides underlying infrastructure for IoT projects, and the recent Beta version of the data platform DePINscan, which helps analyze data in the DePIN sector.
Additionally, this year's Wanxiang Blockchain Week Hackathon champion project, Ketchup Republic, aims to create a web3-based review platform, directly transferring the traffic fees paid by merchants to users, providing better traffic and experiences for both merchants and consumers...
These emerging projects in the DePIN sector are sprouting up like bamboo shoots after rain, and the long-awaited breakout may give rise to a new summer in the DePIN sector. However, constrained by the cost requirements of combining software and hardware, this summer may come slowly. But it is believed that a delayed spring is still spring.
Advantages of DePIN#
Looking at the mechanisms of various DePIN projects, the essence is resource integration: by incentivizing users to share resources, resources can flow efficiently to those in need. Compared to traditional centralized infrastructure, DePIN is akin to DeFi in relation to CeFi, somewhat diminishing the role of intermediaries, allowing resources to flow more freely between supply and demand sides.
Transition from Capital-Intensive Industries to P2P/P2B Models#
The mechanisms presented by DePIN projects represent a revolutionary market transformation. Its decentralized nature means that the barriers to entry for enterprises will be significantly lowered, no longer constrained by the monopolies of a few centralized giants. This groundbreaking change will empower small and medium-sized enterprises and startups with greater participation rights and provide opportunities to compete on equal footing with industry leaders.
In the field of infrastructure construction, the oligopolistic problem of centralized markets has been significantly present. Particularly in traditional storage and computing fields, this is a capital-intensive industry where giants like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud dominate pricing, often leaving users with little bargaining power, forcing them to accept high prices and even lacking real choices.
However, the emergence of DePIN brings new vitality to this situation. Whether it’s Filecoin, Arweave, or Render Network, by incentivizing users with tokens to provide resources and form networks, they achieve a transition from capital-intensive industries to P2P or P2B models. This greatly lowers the barriers for enterprises to participate, breaking price monopolies and providing users with more economical choices. DePIN creates a more open, transparent, and competitive market by incentivizing users to share resources and establishing a free competitive ecosystem.
Reutilization of Idle Resources, Promoting Better Social Development#
In traditional economic models, many resources remain idle, failing to realize their potential value. This resource waste not only negatively impacts the economy but also exerts considerable pressure on the environment and society, including idle computing power, storage, and energy. For example, according to Flexera's report, in 2022, the effective utilization rate of cloud purchases by enterprises was only 68%, meaning that 32% of cloud resources were wasted. Considering that Gartner estimates cloud spending will reach nearly $500 billion in 2022, this roughly translates to $160 billion in wasted cloud spending.
However, the emergence of DePIN provides new solutions to this dilemma. Many users hold numerous idle resources, whether storage, computing power, or data; the key lies in how to mobilize these resources. Through incentive mechanisms, DePIN encourages users to share and utilize their resources, maximizing resource utilization. This includes not only data storage and computing power but also environmentally related resources. For instance, React Protocol connects batteries to the electricity market to form a community network, helping stabilize the grid by connecting batteries and sharing excess power from users, contributing to clean energy supply while providing users with limited resources a way to monetize their excess energy, which is undoubtedly a win-win situation. This initiative not only reduces resource waste but also promotes more sustainable development for society.
Eliminating Intermediaries, Facilitating More Efficient Flow of Money#
In addition to the transformation of models reflected in decentralized storage, computing, and networks, some emerging DePIN projects have revealed their vision and characteristics of becoming web3 versions of O2O projects like Meituan, Dianping, and Didi.
For example, Ketchup Republic aims to leverage the location relationship between consumers and merchants (using Bluetooth) to help merchants attract offline traffic. Merchants can configure their token incentive methods for users, allowing for marketing settings based on location, frequency, distance, etc. Compared to the incentive model of merchants-platform-users in web2's Meituan and Dianping, in Ketchup Republic, the marketing fees of merchants go directly into users' pockets, thereby reducing the erosion of marketing costs.
These emerging DePIN projects aim to replace web2 infrastructure projects, allowing users who provide data to receive direct payments from merchants, thus eliminating intermediaries.
This means that DePIN establishes a decentralized ecosystem that directly connects supply and demand, achieving direct value transfer, allowing funds and resources to flow more rapidly, thereby improving transaction efficiency and transparency. This mechanism not only reduces transaction costs but also brings more opportunities and flexibility to market participants.
Limitations and Challenges of DePIN#
The DePIN sector encompasses a wide range of categories, including storage, computing, data collection and sharing, and communication technologies, all of which exhibit varying degrees of competitive landscapes. The development of DePIN also faces many limitations and challenges:
Experience Level: Lack of Standards in the Early Industry, Poor Developer and User Experience#
Currently, the DePIN industry is still in its early stages, lacking complete infrastructure, and each project needs to develop independently. Additionally, the understanding and usage thresholds for user participation are relatively high, requiring users to learn and hold tokens and to purchase and configure some hardware. These factors lead to a generally poor user experience in the current DePIN projects on the market. Companies need to aggregate and simplify the barriers to user participation and usage to improve network usability, thus increasing the potential for breakthroughs.
It is worth noting that some companies are beginning to build the infrastructure for the DePIN sector. For example, Filecoin has announced the launch of Filecoin Data Tools (a set of computing and storage technologies based on its network) to enhance developer experience and provide comprehensive solutions for data service needs. In terms of infrastructure, IoTex is also working on move-to-earn SDKs and other toolkits, hoping to achieve some standards and consensus at the DePIN level to promote the healthy development of the industry.
Competitive Level: Lack of Competitive Moats#
The lack of competitive moats poses challenges to the long-term stable development of networks. As resource providers, users may easily switch to other networks once more choices emerge in the market. For example, in the 5G sector, Pollen has entered the market, and some miners from the Helium community have begun deploying Pollen mining machines. As another decentralized mobile network provider, enhancing its irreplaceability and competitive barriers is a long-term exploration process.
Moreover, preventing cheating is also crucial for sustainable development. For instance, how to avoid cheating behaviors such as cluster mining fraud in the Helium project or GPS location modification fraud in geography-related projects is also a very important aspect. For example, Helium has seen its monthly active hotspots drop from a peak of 600,000 to the current 370,000. Addressing how to reverse this decline and provide better services is an urgent issue that needs to be resolved.
Current projects often attract users through token incentive mechanisms, such as adjusting incentive amounts based on coverage, availability, and other dimensions. However, no sustained and effective solutions have emerged yet. How to continuously attract user participation and form a positive flywheel effect remains a path of exploration.
Expansion Level: Regulatory Compliance Restrictions#
Since the DePIN sector involves infrastructure, it will also impact users in the web2 world, making regulatory compliance an unavoidable issue. For example, in the communications field, 5G technology is subject to strict regulatory requirements. Many countries' network operators are state-owned enterprises, and private enterprises maintain close ties with the government, making obtaining authorization potentially challenging. Even if some countries have opened certain frequency bands, such as the CBRS GAA band in the U.S., due to frequency limitations, there is no significant advantage compared to other operators.
Conversely, in the IoT field, there are no mature giant solutions, leaving space for Helium to thrive. Currently, DePIN is still in its early stages. On one hand, in areas where web2 has not yet provided solutions, such as IoT networks, new innovations can be attempted; on the other hand, in sectors where web2 has relatively mature solutions, such as 5G and data security, it will need to grow alongside regulatory developments. The speed of this growth is uncertain and full of fluctuations.
Construction Level: Talent Barriers#
In discussions with some DePIN project teams, a common pain point and challenge identified is the scarcity of talent.
The DePIN field requires talent with comprehensive skills, who understand both IoT and the workings of the web3 market. However, such talent is relatively scarce in the current industry.
To some extent, the robust development temperament of IoT and the aggressive innovation style of web3 represent somewhat contradictory qualities that are difficult to achieve in a single individual. Most talent with IoT experience may prefer to develop in traditional industries, while those who understand both IoT and the web3 market and operations are even rarer. The disparity between these two makes team recruitment and collaboration a challenge.
Overall, the DePIN sector faces numerous challenges in the short term, including product experience, moat establishment, regulatory compliance, and talent shortages. However, in the long term, whether from the perspective of lowering barriers, innovation, or utilizing idle resources and facilitating money flow, the emergence of DePIN will have a profound impact on the market. The market transformation it brings will influence the supply chain, industrial structure, and the evolution of the entire economic ecosystem. As DePIN continues to develop and mature, we have reason to believe it will become a key force capable of bringing real change to society, enterprises, and individuals.
Author: Fred
References
https://tadviser.com/index.php/Article:ICT_%28Global_Market%29
https://www.consultancy.uk/news/1079/strategy-top-50-best-performing-global-ict-companies
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ict-market-2023-size-share-trends-growth-forecast/
https://www.cloudzero.com/blog/cloud-computing-statistics
https://www.peaq.network/blog/what-are-decentralized-physical-infrastructure-networks-depin
https://iotex.io/blog/what-are-decentralized-physical-infrastructure-networks-depin/
https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/a-deep-dive-into-depin-decentralized-physical-infrastructure
https://messari.io/report/navigating-the-depin-domain
https://www.coingecko.com/research/publications/centralized-decentralized-storage-cost
https://www.techflowpost.com/article/detail_14063.html
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0VjsMFwFgVhPifDzMYdDGv?si=e19e74774d634693
https://decrypt.co/137257/helium-completes-solana-migration-minting-nearly-1m-nfts-in-the-process
https://aws.amazon.com/nimble-studio/pricing/
https://filecoin.io/
https://www.arweave.org/
https://thetatoken.org/
https://www.helium.com/
https://rendernetwork.com/
https://www.theblockbeats.info/news/37098
https://www.odaily.news/post/5188821
https://www.odaily.news/post/5187843
https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articledetails/e2agtcx3.html
https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articledetails/jbjh40057cho.html
https://foresightnews.pro/article/detail/40042
https://www.btcc.com/zh-TW/academy/crypto-basics/theta-network-coin