The relationship between DePIN projects and Solana reflects the transformative potential of decentralized infrastructure. This article, based on Rahul Kulkarni’s article “How DePIN projects are leveraging Solana to build the decentralized Physical Network,” explores the connection between DePIN and blockchain.
DePIN, which stands for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network, is a blockchain network that utilizes tokens to incentivize the community (rather than companies) to build physical infrastructure networks such as mobile, electric vehicle charging, and telecommunications.
In the field of large-scale infrastructure, the emergence of DePIN is witnessing a shift away from the traditional top-down approach. Unlike the centralized agency-led model, DePIN advocates for decentralization and the decentralization of decision-making throughout the network to enhance adaptability.
So why emphasize blockchain? Blockchain technology has proven to complement DePIN by ensuring data security through transparency and immutability. Smart contracts enhance efficiency through automated processes. This departure from centralization not only makes networks more inclusive but also prevents vulnerabilities. Embracing DePIN is a significant step towards a future of more flexibility, decentralization, and autonomous coordination in infrastructure design.
However, the drawback of this model lies in its inherent incentive structure, which encourages services primarily for those with the highest financial capacity. As a result, this leads to the concentration of resources and power dynamics, leaving some end-users underserved and at a disadvantage throughout the project.
DePIN projects leverage Solana to build decentralized physical networks, making full use of its scalability and low gas fees. Solana’s architecture features a localized fee market and parallelization, enhancing robustness and scalability, making it an ideal choice for these projects.
DePIN proposes a strategy involving incentivizing others to join, thereby sharing the workload and providing a pathway to achieve scalability. This approach draws inspiration from P2P networks, which are the foundation of many permissionless blockchains, providing a solid framework for effective scalability in projects.
Here, when we juxtapose the basic structures and utilization of Solana, the Helium network, and the Render network, we can observe similarities between them.
Let’s delve into some innovative projects that have chosen Solana as their core infrastructure for scalability.
Teleport is an open-source and decentralized version of Uber. They are building a global network of drivers and passengers through instant incentives to network operators.
They are transforming ride-sharing into a protocol, whereas centralized ride-sharing services typically require market-driven pricing. Instead, they set their own prices and maximize the value they can extract. Redesigning ride-sharing as a decentralized system means more money flows to drivers, passengers pay less for each ride, and more money stays within the local economy.
The key distinction lies in Teleport’s commitment to decentralization and instant incentives to their network operators. Unlike centralized counterparts with autonomous pricing, Teleport supports a peer-to-peer system where market dynamics determine fair pricing. This unique approach ensures more funds flow directly to drivers, passengers benefit from lower costs per ride, and there is significant economic impact at the local level.
Helium is well-known within the Solana ecosystem and is one of the largest DePIN projects on Solana to date.
Helium is an exciting blockchain project that aims to decentralize communication between smart devices. Initially, Helium was an IoT network for communication between smart devices. Coverage is provided by hotspot devices that act as both wireless access points and miners.
The Helium Network has expanded to hundreds of thousands of such hotspot devices, providing extensive coverage in the US, Europe, and most other major metropolitan areas. It is a significant player in the Low Power Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) industry.
The team successfully migrated to Solana in the second quarter of this year. Shortly after, Nova Labs announced the launch of Helium Mobile Unlimited, a $5 per month plan that offers unlimited texting, calling, and data services. It is currently available only in the US. This strategic move aims to leverage Solana’s scalability, low transaction costs, and high performance, including its fast transaction throughput and energy-efficient consensus mechanism. Migrating to Solana provides key advantages for the Helium network: it enables IoT and mobile networks to support larger scale, support more complex coverage proof algorithms, and enhance the network’s flexibility, making it a more robust solution for demand applications.
Render is the first decentralized GPU rendering platform, allowing artists to scale GPU rendering workloads to high-performance GPU nodes worldwide on-demand.
Render Network aims to provide a platform for various computational tasks, from basic rendering to machine learning training to complex calculations, efficiently and effectively in a blockchain-based peer-to-peer network with no errors or delays, while ensuring intellectual property security.
The Render team has deployed a new token called RENDER on Solana, which is available for community participation and provides rewards by offering GPU to users. 1.14 million RNDR tokens have been provided to participants for the migration from ETH to Solana and to pay gas fees.
Jules Urbach, the founder and architect of Render Network, stated that moving Render’s core infrastructure to Solana is a game-changer, unlocking major new features such as instant streaming and dynamic NFTs.
These projects leverage Solana as their core to achieve higher availability, scalability, faster execution speeds, and lower transaction gas fees. Solana has always been the preferred choice for entrepreneurs due to its fast speed and lower fees.
In conclusion, the relationship between DePIN projects and Solana reflects the transformative potential of decentralized infrastructure. By embracing decentralization, Teleport, Helium, and Render Network leverage Solana’s scalability and efficiency to redefine traditional models in ride-sharing, IoT communication, and GPU rendering.
Solana, as a speed catalyst, cost reducer, and network scalability enabler, becomes the entrepreneurs’ preferred choice to navigate the decentralized future. Seamless integration with Solana provides these projects not only the solution to the limitations of centralized systems but also the direction to build more inclusive, flexible, and dynamic decentralized physical networks.