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The past few years have been a virtual currency rollercoaster, and no matter how much you believe in the Web3 dream, it’s hard not to grin when a new buzzword pops up. So when Messari unveiled a new name for what has been around his Web3 for some time, DePIN, the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure his network, commentators criticized it with considerable opinion. accepted. memes and snarks. After all, that’s the way. Bulls and bears are gone, but memes are forever.
But as much as I love memes, the reality is that DePIN is arguably Web3’s best bet for actual real-world adoption, not just a bull market. And while its iconic children’s story, full of accidents and misfortunes, should be a lesson for the industry, it’s not the closing bell.
In essence, DePIN uses blockchain and tokens to encourage crowdsourcing of infrastructure intended to deliver real-world services and value. For example: Imagine starting a new Internet Service Provider (ISP) business. Providing access to end users requires investing billions of dollars in purchasing and deploying hardware and hiring countless staff to maintain the grid.
If we chose the DePIN method instead, we would be offering both individuals and businesses a token-based incentive to deploy their own infrastructure and link it to our network. It also grants a marketplace for offering services and implements a mechanism for rooting token value. real world value These businesses generate Retaining the ISP example, we introduce a mechanism that allows end users to convert their tokens into tokens of stable value in order to pay for their connection. This mechanism protects end-users from market volatility and ensures that services are not unreasonably expensive.
The net result of this scenario is a community-driven infrastructure grid with decentralized ownership and self-reinforcing incentive loops. It can scale at lightning pace, promote personal ownership and entitlement, and reach markets below the cost-to-revenue ratios favored by traditional names. Various projects are currently moving in this direction, and investors are watching and looking for ideas that can disrupt an industry starved of true innovation. But despite such possibilities, DePIN’s narrative has not been without downfall so far.
A bear market is coming
When discussing all things DePIN, it’s hard to avoid all the elephants in the room. Especially because it makes everyone’s voices squeaky funny. Yes, it’s Helium, People’s Network.
Helium is a DePIN focused on providing Internet of Things connectivity. This allows users to set up access points with purchased hardware and earn revenue from their usage. Once hailed as the hero of real-world blockchain adoption, it has received some criticism following some very big issues. regarding the allegations This was revealed in a Forbes magazine survey. On top of that, Helium’s supply-side hardware has scaled rapidly to just under 1 million hotspots, according to the company’s website, but the demand for LoRaWAN connectivity is growing rapidly with such a large infrastructure. is not yet sufficient to guarantee
Another famous example is Filecoin, a decentralized data storage platform that serves as a Web3 rendition for services such as Dropbox. Despite some tough startthe project launched its mainnet at the end of 2020 and recently posted some beautiful things three-dimensional figure It suggests growth and adoption.
Skeptics may point to the fact that the tokens in each of these projects have not been immune to the bear market, but in an effort like this, tokens do not tell the whole story. Now even those who don’t usually read financial news know that the macro economy isn’t in the best shape. The past year has been pretty bad for the economy as a whole, and understandably investors will pull out of riskier assets. No matter how great your ideas are, there are limits to protecting you from wars, supply chain woes, post-pandemic inflation, and whatever black swans may befall us in 2023. I have.
The real metric here is scaling. Helium’s case may be more shady than his Filecoin case, but both prove the underlying model’s ability to encourage rapid growth and deployment in markets previously dominated by centralized organizations. . They have enabled communities to own the infrastructure they serve without having to hire large staff to rapidly deploy and maintain zero to thousands of devices on their respective networks.
Projects that introduce this model into markets with established demand will have an uphill battle to compete against entrenched legacy brands, but the inherent competitive advantage of the model is to gain a solid foothold. may be useful for With some business wisdom and perseverance, this inclusive and egalitarian model could help the old corporate entity while keeping the service financially viable for both the end-users and the infrastructure-his suppliers. may benefit the It’s a difficult balance to strike, but some things aren’t.
Will this be enough for the ultimate bull run to buy everyone a Lambo straight to the moon? Only time will tell. What is certain, however, is that this model is Web3’s greatest chance of actually being adopted in the real world, and the real-world value it offers is more sound for sustainable growth than wild speculation. It is the foundation.
