DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) has once again become the focus of the cryptocurrency market, with Helium’s ecosystem tokens MOBILE, IOT, and HNT all experiencing gains of over 100%. Streamer Network’s DATA token also skyrocketed by 86.75% in the past 24 hours.
Currently, the cryptocurrency market seems to have shifted its attention to the DePIN racecourse. DePIN utilizes blockchain technology to allow participants to deploy hardware devices in the real world without permission or trust, thus providing real-world services or digital resources. To encourage user participation, project teams usually issue tokens as rewards.
According to a report by Messari in July, the areas covered by DePIN include server networks, wireless networks, sensor networks, and energy networks. The report also indicates that DePIN’s potential market value is currently around $2.2 trillion, with an estimated increase to $3.5 trillion by 2028.
Helium Mobile is a prominent example in the DePIN racecourse. It is a decentralized 5G telecommunications service launched by the decentralized wireless network protocol Helium this year. The native token of Helium Mobile, MOBILE, is used to reward users for sharing location information and assisting in determining the best deployment locations for new hotspots, thereby improving and expanding the coverage of the Helium wireless network.
In addition, Helium’s native token, HNT, is the only token used for network data transmission payments. This year, Helium also launched another new token called IOT, which rewards the operation of network nodes.
In the past 7 days, according to CoinGecko’s DePIN racecourse, MOBILE, IOT, and HNT ranked 1st, 6th, and 7th respectively in terms of gains, performing remarkably well.
However, the risks associated with these emerging projects should not be ignored. The founder of dForce, Yang Mindao, stated on X yesterday that the risks faced by Mobile include regulation (most countries have the highest level of regulation for telecommunications) and the possibility of not being able to sustain collaboration with Tmobile.
Streamer Network’s DATA token has shown impressive performance recently, surging to over $0.095 at one point, with a staggering 86.75% increase in the past 24 hours and over 215% increase in the past 7 days. As of the deadline, there has been a slight decline, and the current price is temporarily reported as $0.089.
Streamer Network is a decentralized real-time data infrastructure aimed at replacing traditional centralized messaging applications such as Apache Kafka and RabbitMQ. It has established a global peer-to-peer network.
This network operates based on a topic-based publish (providing) and subscribe (receiving) system, where the topic refers to specific content or categories of data streams, such as data from IoT devices, machines, or smart devices. Each data stream or topic has its own peer coverage network, established and maintained by trackers similar to BitTorrent.
Streamr Network addresses the decentralized needs of data provision and reception, providing end-to-end encryption to protect private data and supporting user identity verification using Ethereum addresses and private keys.
Furthermore, it supports data monetization, allowing users to profit from buying and selling data, and earn DATA tokens by running Streamr nodes, thereby contributing to network protection and expansion.
Wise Advice, an internet user, pointed out that the recent price surge of DATA tokens is related to Streamr’s announcement of Streamr 1.0 version, which will focus on achieving complete decentralization and creating a data brokerage market, expected to enhance the utility of DATA tokens.
Overall, the DePIN racecourse is expected to address important issues regarding the decentralized nature of blockchain. Although blockchain is characterized by globally distributed node operations and decentralized mechanisms, in reality, the hardware and software infrastructure on which these node operations depend are often controlled by a few service providers, creating a contradiction to the principles of decentralization.
The significance of the DePIN racecourse lies precisely in this, as it provides a truly decentralized solution through the construction of a decentralized physical infrastructure, thereby strengthening the decentralization and independence of the entire blockchain ecosystem.
However, DePIN is a narrative with a long history, and it remains to be seen whether it will continue to flourish and achieve Messari’s predicted market scale of approximately $3.5 trillion by 2028.