New Trends in the DePIN Field: AI Integration and Data Empowerment

DePIN( decentralized physical infrastructure networks) were once in the spotlight and gave rise to many star projects. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, the market's focus has shifted to the AI track. So, what is the current state of development in the DePIN field?

In fact, the DePIN field is not static but is seeking new development directions. The latest trend is the integration with AI technology, with Roam being a representative project. By analyzing the Roam project, we can understand the changes occurring in the DePIN field.

The Essence of DePIN

DePIN is an abbreviation for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network. In short, it is a decentralized hardware network that encourages users to share personal resources through a token incentive mechanism, to build an infrastructure network covering multiple fields such as storage space, communication traffic, cloud computing, and energy.

The core of DePIN is resource integration: by incentivizing users with tokens to share resources, resources can efficiently flow to the demand side. DePIN projects are mainly divided into three categories: storage, computing power, and networking.

DePIN has similarities with Bitcoin, as both require an initial investment to purchase physical equipment, followed by continuous mining. Due to its connection with the physical world, DePIN is not a closed system and brings positive externalities to the entire industry.

Current Status of the DePIN Market

According to the data, DePIN has nearly 4.56 million devices in about 196 countries or regions worldwide, with a market value of 7.1 billion dollars. Among them, a certain project occupies the largest share of DePIN devices, with 1.18 million devices.

From the perspective of the number of devices, multiple giants have already emerged in the DePIN field, including some well-known projects. The new leaders are projects that have not yet issued tokens, and ordinary users still have the opportunity to participate.

In terms of geographical distribution, DePIN hardware devices are mainly concentrated in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Among them, Southeast Asia has a very high concentration, including countries such as India, Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan. South Korea has the highest density, indicating a strong cryptocurrency industry atmosphere in the country.

Overall, DePIN has brought about a new round of wealth effects, and the Southeast Asian region is fully investing in this field by leveraging its manufacturing and human resource advantages.

Innovation of Emerging DePIN Projects

A certain emerging project belongs to the network sub-segment within DePIN and can be identified as a combination of Web3 and WIFI, that is, a decentralized wireless network or decentralized telecom operator. This project ranks first in node data and has become a leader in the DePIN field.

The project offers various types of products, initially WIFI hardware, which users can purchase to mine. It later expanded to eSIM cards, where users can apply for eSIM cards and obtain free data by completing various tasks.

In its technical architecture, the telecom data layer is a key concept, serving as the data and service layer in the decentralized physical infrastructure network built by the project. This data layer achieves its functions through four main ecological modules, including network construction, user growth, project incubation, and community governance.

The Integration of DePIN and AI

The project is deeply integrating with AI technology, leveraging its communication data advantages to provide high-quality usable data for AI projects. In the field of AI, data is currently the key bottleneck, especially communication data, which is mainly controlled by traditional communication operators and is not open to the public.

The innovation of this project lies in addressing one of the most pressing data challenges in AI: the difficulty of acquiring carrier-grade data. By providing carrier services through Web3 means, the data generated can become a data source for all AI companies, while ensuring privacy protection.

The project uses decentralized identity ( DID ) and verifiable credential ( VC ) technologies, and integrates zero-knowledge proof ( ZK ) technology to ensure that user privacy is not compromised.

In addition, the project is actively expanding its service boundaries and ecosystem scope by strategically integrating and connecting multiple DePIN ecological partners to jointly build a rich and diverse AI training dataset ecosystem. This multi-party cooperation model not only broadens the sources of data but also enhances the depth of data quality.

User Participation Opportunities

For ordinary users, the opportunities to participate in DePIN projects mainly come from two aspects: free services and potential token airdrops.

Some projects have adopted innovative strategies, providing free traffic services. Users can obtain free traffic by completing tasks. At the same time, by sharing their WIFI, users can earn points, giving them the opportunity to participate in potential future token airdrops. This low-threshold participation method significantly reduces the entry barriers for users.

This model that combines free services with potential airdrops is an effective means for Web3 projects to attract users, taking the subsidy strategies of the Web2 industry to the extreme. For regular users, it also provides an opportunity to participate in the emerging technology ecosystem.