Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks
= previously called: " EdgeFi, Proof of Physical Work (PoPw), or Token Incentivized Physical Networks (TIPIN)."
Description
Peaq:
1.
"DePIN is the name for decentralized applications that use tokens to incentivise communities to build physical infrastructure networks (think mobility, electric vehicle charging, telecoms etc.) from the ground up. The sector has been around for years, but the consensus around a name has ignited a unified understanding."
2.
"DePIN is a business model that flips the traditional model on its head by allowing organizations to bootstrap their way to scale instead of needing to rely on huge amounts of upfront capital. Bottom-up. Grassroots.
DePIN is an industry focused on providing real-world services to people via real-world vehicles, robots, and devices, via the open, community-governed #Web3.
DePIN is a global infrastructure revolution, governed by the many, not the few, enabling a new era of economic participation in the tangible world we all share.
DePIN is a movement in which every person can contribute to the community they're part of and earn for the services they provide -- it is a physical embodiment of the paradigm shift from corporate-controlled Web2 to community-owned Web3."
(https://www.peaq.network/blog/what-are-decentralized-physical-infrastructure-networks-depin)
How DePIN works
Peaq:
"The blockchain works as the ledger for the network, recording the transactions and other value exchanges between network members, such as purchasing broadband access from someone renting out their router. The network rewards its participants with tokens for specific useful activities, such as selling energy via their solar panels or, well, renting out their routers.
DePIN tokens work as an incentive mechanism meant to encourage the supply side — solar panel owners, connectivity providers, sensor array owners et al — to build up the network’s capabilities to the point where it can compete with the legacy names dominating the given market.
The increasing demand, for its part, incentivizes more players to join on the supply side, creating a self-reinforcing long-term growth loop. To protect the end users from market fluctuations, DePINs usually also feature a fiat-pegged utility token that can be acquired through burning their publicly-traded token."
Typology
Peaq:
"Physical Resource Networks (PRNs) incentivize people to direct or deploy location-dependent hardware to offer real-world, non-fungible goods and services. Think mobility, energy or connectivity. When ordering a taxi, you want to get from point A to point B; when buying power, you care about its availability in the target area; when buying local weather data, you want it, well, to be local. Location matters.
Digital Resource Networks (DRNs) incentivize people to direct or deploy hardware to offer fungible, digital resources. Think storage, bandwidth or compute networks. You don't really care where the data center is as long as it holds your vacation pics, and the location of the computer running your machine learning model isn't of that much importance either; you just care about the service they provide. That makes the PRN/DRN distinction."
(https://www.peaq.network/blog/what-are-decentralized-physical-infrastructure-networks-depin)
Example
"NATIX Network is building a DePIN of smartphones working as AI-powered cameras collecting valuable mobility data, such as the amount of traffic and road conditions in specific areas. It built a dashcam app that people can download for free and keep active when driving. This app processes the feed from the phone’s camera and turns it into anonymized insights, rewarding the user with tokens for sharing these insights. The phones are the physical infrastructure network, and the mechanism powering this network and issuing the rewards runs on-chain."
(https://www.peaq.network/blog/what-are-decentralized-physical-infrastructure-networks-depin)
Discussion
Why DePIN is the future
Peaq:
"For entrepreneurs and founders, this business model effectively opens a new pathway into a market that would have otherwise been almost impossible to penetrate. Let’s say Alice and Bob want to launch a new telecom service. If they were to go the traditional way, they’d have to first raise hundreds of millions to cover the infrastructure purchase and deployment, helpfully conducted by one of the household centralized companies dominating the market (don’t we all love those!).
They’d also have to invest in the physical space for hosting this infrastructure, renting out or purchasing costly real estate. Finally, they’d have to retain a small army of employees to maintain the network, building a rigid and centralized corporate structure catering to an existing market.
Now, if our good friends choose the DePIN way, they wouldn’t have to worry about most of the above. They can effectively bootstrap their network simply by allowing everyone to participate and building the digital infrastructure enabling them to do so.
The providers, both businesses and individuals, would set up their own hardware and take care of its deployment and maintenance themselves. The end result here is not a corporate structure, but a community running its own services with ownership and sovereignty and treading easily wherever demand appears.
What else could Alice and Bob put on DePIN rails, while they’re at it? In its recent report on the matter, Messari counted four distinct sub-sectors within the space: server (decentralized data storage, computation, VPNs, and more), wireless (community-powered network access), sensors (weather and other data), and energy (distributed power grids). This in itself is indicative of at least four massive markets ripe for disruption, and the momentum doesn’t have to stop there.
Various teams are already building DePINs that push the concept further, into areas such as mobility and digital twins. Through the competitive edge that comes with all of the above and their community spirit, they will make massive dents across industries, pushing out the legacy names. So if you’re wondering, yes, it’s time to get excited, and yes, you are early to the party (if you’re reading this some time close to February 2023)."
(https://www.peaq.network/blog/what-are-decentralized-physical-infrastructure-networks-depin)