Opinion: DePIN Devours the World – Unleashing Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks

The Tokens. If crafted skillfully, indigenous tokens gain more worth as network usage increases. The surge in value benefits those who joined early, as they are granted tokens for contributing resources, testing the network, or purchasing tokens. While token designs differ, most protocols offer higher token rewards to early participants. Helium, Filecoin, Hivemapper, and Fluence, for instance, reward the contribution of WiFi routers, storage capacity, video data, and compute capacity, respectively. These platforms have attracted global participation and surpassed centralized offerings in their respective fields. Remarkably, all of this growth has been achieved without the need for capital investment in hardware. Helium, in particular, has achieved nearly worldwide Internet of Things coverage without acquiring or renting any infrastructure, as all the necessary hardware is sourced from its community.