Author: Santy, Vernacular Blockchain

When AI penetrates all aspects of our lives at an unprecedented speed, the demand for computing power is like an insatiable black hole. Centralized computing power giants are working at full capacity, but a more disruptive force is quietly emerging in the Web3 field - DePIN. It not only tries to use Token to inspire to reshape traditional storage and networks, but also sets its attention to the hot field of AI computing power. Imagine that global idle GPU and CPU resources are efficiently connected, providing a continuous stream of power for the training and inference of AI models.

According to the "DePIN Report" released by Messari at the end of 2024, the DePIN market has maintained a year-on-year growth of more than 120% in the past year, and continues to lead the storage and wireless communications fields. With the emergence of projects such as Render Network and Grass, we have reason to believe that DePIN is opening a new door to AI computing power sharing.

So, in this new AI competition driven by "shared computing power", who will be the first to seize the opportunity and become the real leader? In 2025, how will DePIN break through the existing pattern and play a key role in the AI ​​wave?

DePIN, the full name is the decentralized physical infrastructure network. You can think of it as a new model, which transfers the power to manage various physical resources around us - such as the storage space of computer hard drives, wireless networks at home, or providing computing power, from large companies like Amazon and Verizon to ordinary users around the world. DePIN allows everyone to contribute their idle resources and then get a token in return.

Imagine a point-to-point system without intermediaries: the unused hard disk space in your computer can be used to help build a global storage network; your Wi-Fi router at home can become part of the decentralized Internet. Blockchain technology is like an open and transparent ledger that records everyone's contributions and automatically and safely gives rewards to everyone with smart contracts to ensure fairness. DePIN can be said to be a very important part of the Web3 transformation.

It is worth mentioning that DePIN is not an imaginary concept, it has begun to become a reality. According to data platforms such as DePIN Scan, hundreds of DePIN projects have become active now, covering many fields such as energy, transportation, computing, and communication, and practical applications are accelerating.

DePIN combines blockchain technology with various resources in our real world. It works roughly like this:

Blockchain is the foundation: it is like a public ledger that records everyone's contributions, and a smart contract is like an automatic protocol, safelyHandle everyone's rewards. Public chains like Ethereum and Solana provide underlying technical support for many DePIN projects.

Everyone contributes resources together: Users can contribute their idle physical assets, such as excess bandwidth, storage space, computer graphics cards (GPUs, which are crucial in AI computing), charging piles for electric vehicles, and even solar power panels at home.

There are rewards for contributions: As long as you contribute resources, you can get the tokens issued by this network as a reward (such as Filecoin's FIL and Helium's HNT). This reward mechanism is very important, and it can effectively mobilize all idle resources around the world.

For example, with Filecoin, you can rent out your unused hard drive space to others. The blockchain will use some encryption technology to confirm that you do provide storage services, and then you can receive FIL as a reward without any intermediaries. This not only reduces costs, but also builds a network that is not easy to be censored and very reliable. According to official data from Filecoin, by the end of 2024, their network storage capacity has exceeded 20 EiB, providing reliable decentralized storage services to users around the world.

DePIN has a wide range of applications and covers many industries:

Decentralized storage: Just like a distributed "cloud disk", it can replace traditional centralized cloud services. In addition to Filecoin, Arweave has also attracted many users by allowing permanent storage with one-time payment.

Wireless Network: Build Internet of Things and network connections in remote areas through the power of the community. Helium Network not only does a good job in the field of LoRaWAN (a low-power wide area network technology), but is also working to turn to 5G networks, hoping to build a more comprehensive decentralized wireless communication infrastructure.

Energy Sharing: Establish a point-to-point renewable energy trading market. Projects like Powerledger are trying to use blockchain technology to track and trade renewable energy to improve energy utilization efficiency.

AI and computing: Release idle computing power and drive the intelligent future. Use everyone's idle computer processing capabilities (especially GPU) to accelerate AI model training or 3D image rendering. Render Network and Akash Network bring together idle graphics cards and CPU computing power around the world to provide cheaper and more efficient solutions for computing-intensive tasks such as AI model training and 3D rendering. With the unprecedented development of artificial intelligence and the demand for computing power is growing exponentially. DePIN has shown great potential in providing distributed and affordable AI computing power, and is expected to break the monopoly of centralized computing power giants and accelerate the popularization of AI technology.

Transportation: DIMO Network encourages car ownersShare your own vehicle data and build a decentralized automotive data platform that can be used in many applications such as intelligent transportation and insurance.

Geospatial Data: Hivemapper encourages everyone to use dash recorders to collect high-definition map data, with the goal of establishing a more real-time and accurate decentralized map service, challenging traditional service providers like Google Maps.

Environmental Monitoring: PlanetWatch uses a globally distributed sensor network to monitor air quality and provides more refined and transparent environmental information. Users can receive rewards by deploying and maintaining these sensor nodes.

Content Distribution Network (CDN): Theta Network uses everyone's idle bandwidth and computing resources to accelerate video playback and content distribution, with the goal of reducing the cost of CDN and making everyone watch videos smoother.

In general, DePIN reduces costs, protects privacy, and allows more people to participate in the construction and use of infrastructure - this is the key reason why DePIN can develop in 2025.

According to Depinscan data, the total market value of the DePIN track has exceeded US$15 billion, and there are more than 300 Depin projects, many of which have really begun to be applied:

Filecoin: Filecoin, the leader in the field of decentralized storage, is like a decentralized Amazon S3, focusing on providing secure and private storage services.

By the end of 2024, the storage capacity of the Filecoin network has exceeded 20 EiB. Filecoin has maintained a leading position in the field of decentralized storage, and storage usage is also steadily increasing. They also launched Filecoin virtual machines to make this ecosystem more dynamic and able to do more.

Helium: Innovators in the wireless network field In the Helium network, users can deploy a device called "hotspots" to help build a decentralized wireless network and receive HNT tokens as rewards (HNT has now been divided into two tokens: IOT and MOBILE).

At present, the Helium network has deployed more than 1 million hot spots, covering many parts of the world. Messari's report pointed out that Helium has formed a great network effect in the LoRaWAN field and is also actively developing 5G networks. They also work with telecom operators like Nova Labs (formerly Helium) to promote decentralized 5G networks in the United States with Dish Wireless.

Helium provides internet access to IoT devices and remote areas and is becoming a useful addition to traditional telecommunications infrastructure.

Grass network: Share bandwidth, empowering AI data collection and model trainingBased on the Solana blockchain, Grass allows users to share their unused bandwidth. More importantly, it is also actively exploring the use of user equipment's computing power (including GPU) to participate in data collection and distributed training of AI models. Users can obtain Grass Points (which can be exchanged for GRASS tokens in the future).

Messari's report specifically mentions Grass' unique resource sharing model and its potential in supporting AI development. They are also working with some AI companies to use everyone's idle bandwidth and computing resources to contribute to the advancement of AI.

Render Network: The decentralized GPU computing power engine Render Network is the main platform connecting everyone’s idle graphics cards (GPUs). It is used for AI models training and inference, as well as computing-intensive tasks such as 3D rendering. Users can receive RNDR token rewards (now migrated to the Solana blockchain). The Render Network's ecosystem has been expanding, attracting more and more AI researchers, artists and designers to use their services.

Messari's report points out that Render Network is leading in both decentralized GPU rendering and AI computing, with significant growth in revenue and active users. Their RNDR tokens also increased significantly in 2024, indicating that the market demands for this decentralized GPU computing power. For example, in the fields of AI model training, movie special effects rendering, Render Network has helped complete many important projects.

Hivemapper: Use the power of the community to draw maps. Hivemapper encourages users to collect map data through dashcams installed on cars and jointly build a decentralized map.

Hivemapper's network coverage is getting wider and people around the world are contributing data. The real-time and accuracy of their map data are also increasing, and they are beginning to attract the attention of some corporate users. Hivemapper challenges traditional centralized map service providers to provide more timely and detailed geospatial data.

PlanetWatch: Monitoring Global Air Quality PlanetWatch uses user-deployed sensors to monitor air quality and provides decentralized environmental data. PlanetWatch's sensor network continues to expand, collecting a large amount of air quality data. These data are valuable for environmental research, smart city construction, etc.

Theta Network: Make video playback smoother. Theta Network uses users' idle bandwidth and computing resources to accelerate video streaming and content distribution. Theta Network has been working with a variety of video platforms and content providers to expand their networkCoverage and content distribution capabilities. Their technology can effectively reduce the cost of CDN and improve the user's viewing experience. It can be said that Theta Network has subverted the traditional content distribution model and provided users with a smoother and cheaper video viewing experience.

According to a related report by Messari, the total market value of the DePIN field has increased by more than 120% in the past year, attracting many institutional investors and developers. Many venture capital institutions and analysts are optimistic about the future of DePIN, believing that it will become the next important growth point in the Web3 field.

The advantages of DePIN are:

More economical: There is no need for large-scale centralized investment, and it attracts global users to contribute resources through token rewards, reducing the cost of building and operating infrastructure.

More reliable: Decentralized networks are more resistant to single point of failure and censorship than traditional centralized systems, improving the stability and reliability of the network.

More inclusive: As long as you have equipment and networks that meet the requirements, anyone can participate, lowering the threshold and allowing more idle resources to be utilized.

The demand is huge: In the fields of telecommunications, energy, AI, the Internet of Things, etc., there is an increasing demand for more efficient, safer and more economical decentralized solutions, which provides a broad market for DePIN. Especially in the field of AI, the demand for computing power is almost unlimited, and the distributed and low-cost computing power solutions provided by DePIN are expected to become the key to solving this bottleneck. For example, with the popularity of AI applications such as large language models, the demand for edge computing and distributed AI computing power will be more urgent, and DePIN can just meet these needs.

Behind this craze is the growing demand for decentralized solutions in industries such as telecommunications, energy and AI, which are facing change.

Of course, DePIN also faces some challenges:

Regulation: The regulation of cryptocurrencies and decentralized networks in various countries is not clear, which may bring some uncertainty to the development of DePIN.

User Habits: It takes time and education to move users from familiar centralized systems to new DePIN networks, and it is very important to improve the user experience.

Security issues: The security of smart contracts is crucial, and once a vulnerability occurs, it may lead to loss of users' assets. In addition, the physical infrastructure itself may also face security risks.

Interconnection between different projects: There is currently a lack of unified standards between different DePIN projects, which may limit the development of the entire ecosystem.

Projects like Grass solve privacy problems by using technologies such as zero-knowledge proof, and Helium’s partnership with traditional telecom operators also suggests that DePIN is being accepted by a wider industry—all signs that DePIN is working hardStrive to overcome these challenges. At the same time, the industry is actively exploring the standards and protocols of DePIN to promote interoperability between different projects.

In general, the reason why DePIN is expected to occupy an important position in 2025 is precisely because it cleverly combines the decentralization, transparency and incentive mechanisms of blockchain with the urgent real world demand for physical infrastructure. Especially in terms of AI computing power sharing, pioneers such as Render Network and Grass are exploring new possibilities that are expected to break the monopoly of traditional centralized computing power giants.

This is not only a technological innovation, but also a profound change in the traditional resource allocation method. Forerunners like Filecoin, Helium, Grass, Render, etc. are drawing a more open, efficient and inclusive decentralized future for us through practical applications and continuous innovation. In this future, everyone has the opportunity to become a contributor and beneficiary of infrastructure, and the idle resources in our daily lives will also unleash huge value.

This Web3 transformation driven by DePIN has just begun. With the continuous maturity of technology and the improvement of the ecosystem, we have reason to believe that DePIN will play an increasingly important role in the digital economy in the future, especially in the field of AI computing power. So, who will eventually lead this new competition in AI computing power sharing? Let's wait and see.