Opinion: DePINs Shifting Power Dynamics in the Privacy Revolution

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Let it be known that privacy is not only for criminals and should not be dismissed as such. Throughout history, we have made efforts to protect our privacy, from using whispers, curtains, and closed doors to implementing cryptography. The Cypherpunk Manifesto, written in the early 1990s, rightly stated that privacy is essential for an open society in the digital age. However, despite the existence of projects like Tor and Bitcoin, we have yet to solve the global privacy problem once and for all. Why? Because digital privacy requires a social agreement—no one can have it unless everyone does.

Complex and advanced anonymity systems are not the immediate solution. They are too cumbersome and impractical for everyday use. The average user does not necessarily seek or require secrecy. Instead, they prefer seamless solutions that make privacy a seamless part of their lives, without drawing attention to it.

To achieve this balance, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) are crucial. We are finally constructing the core infrastructure necessary to support a variety of consumer-focused, privacy-oriented tools. By promoting adoption in this manner, we can establish a social contract for privacy on a large scale.

Recent data breaches serve as a reminder of the importance of privacy. Between November 2023 and February 2024, a third-party ransomware attack exposed the personal information of over 57,000 Bank of America customers. In January 2024, Anthropic users experienced a breach when a company contractor mistakenly emailed their information to a third party. The Clop ransomware group infiltrated Fortra’s GoAnywhere file-transfer system in 2023, stealing medical data from over one million patients across the US. Additionally, the UK’s Royal Mail suffered a privacy breach that lasted for several months, exposing a range of sensitive data, including technical information and an employee’s COVID-19 vaccination records. In 2023, MOVEit Transfer experienced the most significant data breach, resulting in the loss of personal data from over 84 million individuals and organizations, including Oregon’s Transport Department and Colorado’s Health Care Policy and Financial Department.

These breaches highlight the clear connection between centralized points of failure and major privacy compromises. Specifically, four out of five breaches involve communication systems and methods. While most data is exposed during transit, the rest is lost due to centralized servers and databases. The privacy problem is, at its core, an infrastructure problem.

The simple answer to the question of who should care about privacy is everyone. Without privacy, we would not have locks on our doors or passwords for our mobile devices. We would have no qualms about allowing others to read our conversations with our spouses.

The narrative against privacy benefits certain groups. Criminals trade data on the dark web, using it for various scams. Finance writer Charlotte Cowles’ story is a prime example of how personal information can be used against individuals, resulting in financial loss. However, hackers themselves do not promote anti-privacy narratives or vilify those who seek privacy. They invest in stealth systems, acquire powerful hardware, and use sophisticated software. It is corporations and their influential allies who criminalize privacy and manipulate users into surrendering control over their data. Their argument is that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.

Data has become the new oil. Advertisers spend billions to obtain data that allows them to manipulate consumer behavior. AI companies rely on private and public data to train large language models. We are witnessing the widespread use of insidious social engineering techniques. To fully understand the potential consequences, we need only look back at the Snowden Revelations, which are still relevant a decade later. Authorities claim to protect national security and consumer interests, but they actually seek to exercise greater control over individuals.

If we are honest with ourselves, we can see glimpses of a looming dystopia in our digital world every day. This is why decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) are crucial for a privacy-first future. Privacy is a fundamental human right that must be actively fought for, as there are those who profit immensely from exploiting or criminalizing it.

Consumer demand for privacy has increased significantly over the past decade. More than 50% of respondents in a BCG survey expressed discomfort with sharing their data for personalized ads. OpenAI has faced multiple class-action lawsuits, and millions of people watched the documentary “The Social Dilemma.”

However, the supply side has yet to catch up. Meaningful privacy often requires the use of complex technologies such as a common line interface (CLI). DePINs solve this issue by making privacy accessible to everyone. The centralization of hardware is the reason corporations can infringe upon individuals’ privacy rights. We have been forced to use centralized servers, like those of Zoom, for video calls. Mainstream users have not had the means or incentives to contribute their excess hardware resources or to utilize distributed, peer-to-peer systems for daily activities such as online meetings.

DePINs enable self-sustaining, reward-based frameworks for managing decentralized and open physical hardware. With DePINs, we can securely call our friends and colleagues or send files without relying on centralized intermediaries and data predators.

According to Messari, DePINs involve both physical resource networks (PRNs) and digital resource networks (DRNs). This means that decentralizing the entire physical and digital infrastructure is possible in the near future, if not immediately. When combined with other technological advancements such as multi-party computation (MPC), zero-knowledge proofs (zKP), Libp2p, and more, DePINs make privacy reliable and seamless.

More people are willing and able to use products, services, and applications that run on DePINs because of their user-friendly nature and rich user experience. By making privacy accessible to everyone, DePINs lay the foundation for a privacy-first future, which has been a goal since the 1990s, if not longer.