The Development of the DePIN Track and Its Integration with AI

In the past few years, the DePIN sector has received considerable attention, with several well-known projects emerging. With the rapid development of AI technology, market focus has gradually shifted towards the AI field. However, DePIN has not remained stagnant; instead, it is actively seeking integration with AI to gain new development opportunities.

The Essence of DePIN

DePIN stands for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network. It encourages users to share personal resources through a token incentive mechanism to build an infrastructure network covering areas such as storage space, communication bandwidth, cloud computing, and energy. The core of DePIN lies in resource integration, achieving efficient flow of resources through token incentives.

DePIN projects are mainly divided into three categories:

1. Storage Class: Provides cloud storage services
2. Computing Power: Decentralized GPU Rendering Platform
3. Network category: Establishing a global WIFI network through token incentives.

DePIN is similar to Bitcoin, requiring an initial investment to purchase physical equipment, followed by continuous mining. Due to its connection with the real world, DePIN is not a closed system, bringing positive externalities to the entire industry.

Current Status of the DePIN Market

According to data platform statistics, DePIN has nearly 4.56 million devices across approximately 196 countries or regions globally, with a market value of 7.1 billion USD. The devices are mainly concentrated in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia, with a particularly high concentration in Southeast Asia, including countries such as India, Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan.

The Integration of DePIN and AI

With the development of AI technology, DePIN projects are beginning to seek integration with AI. The three key elements of AI projects are computing power, algorithms, and data. Among them, data is the main bottleneck in the current AI sector, especially communication data, which is mostly controlled by traditional communication operators.

Some DePIN projects are leveraging their communication data advantages to provide high-quality usable data for AI projects. These projects offer operator services through Web3 means and, in return, will use the data generated as a data source for AI companies while ensuring privacy protection.

These projects utilize technologies such as Decentralized Identity (DID), Verifiable Credentials (VC), and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK) to protect user privacy. They not only provide basic operator-level data but also build a comprehensive data ecosystem that includes real-time weather monitoring data, globally distributed CDN service data, renewable energy usage data, decentralized authentication records, and innovative payment and lending behavior data.

This diversified data integration capability provides unprecedented data dimensions and depth for the training of AI models. AI+DePIN is constructing decentralized infrastructure for the AI era.

Ways for Users to Participate in DePIN

For ordinary users, the threshold for participating in DePIN projects is relatively low. Some projects adopt a "free + airdrop" strategy to attract users, for example:

1. Provide free traffic: Users can obtain free traffic by completing tasks.
2. Share WIFI to earn points: No need to purchase dedicated hardware, just share your WIFI to earn points and have a chance to participate in future airdrops.

This strategy significantly lowers the threshold for user participation and creates opportunities for ordinary users. However, users still need to exercise caution when participating in these projects and fully understand the project background and risks.