Now the new leader of DePIN is Roam. Most importantly, Roam is the only DePIN project that has not yet issued a coin. Regular users can still participate now, and may be rewarded with airdrops.
In the past two years, DePIN has been at its peak, and many stellar projects have emerged.
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, market attention has shifted to the path of artificial intelligence. So what is the current status of the DePIN track?
In fact, DePIN’s path is not fixed and also seeks new narrative support. The latest trend is to combine it with artificial intelligence, and a representative project is Roam.
We can use the Roam project to see specifically what changes are occurring in the DePIN pathway.
1. What exactly is DePIN?
DePIN stands for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks.
Simply put, it is a decentralized hardware network that encourages users to share personal resources through token incentives to build infrastructure networks, including storage space, communications traffic, cloud computing, energy and other fields.
The essence of DePIN is resource integration: using tokens to encourage users to share resources, so that resources can flow efficiently along with the demand side.
DePIN projects are mainly divided into three categories:
(1) Storage (e.g. Filecoin): Provides cloud storage services similar to Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services;
(2) Computing power (e.g. display network): decentralized GPU display platform;
(3) Network (such as Helium): Using token incentives to attract global users to purchase WIFI devices to form a network;
DePin is actually very similar to Bitcoin. You first need to invest in purchasing physical equipment and then continue mining. This is different from pure on-chain projects. Since it is connected to the physical world, it is not a closed system, which brings positive externalities to the entire industry.
DePIN benefits from a paradigm shift in the current blockchain ecosystem, with Solana becoming the platform of choice due to blockchain and its high-speed features. The synergistic power created by combining the Solana blockchain and the DePIN protocol.
This is also why the DePIN craze appeared before.
2. What is the current situation of the DePIN market?
According to DepinScan data, DePIN has approximately 4.56 million devices in approximately 196 countries or regions, with a market value of US$7.1 billion. Among them, Roam has the largest number of DePIN devices, with 1.18 million.
Judging from the number of DePIN devices, we can see that there are already many giants in the DePIN track, including Helium, IoTeX, etc., but the new leader now is Roam. Most importantly, Roam is the only DePIN project that has not yet issued a coin. Regular users can still participate now, and may be rewarded with airdrops.
The geographical distribution of DePIN devices is also interesting. DePIN devices are mainly concentrated in three regions: the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
The concentration in Southeast Asia is very high, including India, Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, and others.
Among these countries, South Korea has the highest rate, and it can be seen that the atmosphere of the cryptocurrency industry in South Korea is very strong.
Overall, DePIN has brought a new round of wealth creation effect. Southeast Asia is investing heavily in this area by leveraging its manufacturing and human resources advantages.
3. What is ROM’s new flagship project?
Roam belongs to the DePIN network segment. In one sentence, Roam is a combination of Web3+WIFI, a decentralized wireless network, and a decentralized telecom operator.
Roam ranks first in Depinscan node data and is already the leader in the DePIN path. @weRoamxyz @weRoamCN
Roam offers a variety of products, ranging from WIFI devices, where users can purchase special hardware for mining; It later expanded to include eSIM cards, where users can apply for eSIM cards and get free traffic by completing various tasks.
With the Roam app, you can connect to nearby WiFi networks for free, and you can also earn roaming points or eSIM rewards by adding WiFi or checking in to WiFi (you can choose one of these), which are the same two as the roaming points generated by your roaming router.
In Roam’s technical architecture, the Roam Telecom data layer is a key concept. It is the data and service layer in the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) created by Roam.
This data layer implements its functions through four main environmental modules:
(1) Roaming Network – Focuses on building the physical and digital network infrastructure, ensuring coverage and quality of service for the global Wi-Fi network.
(2) Roaming growth – encouraging users to participate in building the network through incentive mechanisms (such as eSIM provision and data rewards) to generate sustainable income for network participants.
(3) Roam Discovery – aims to support and incubate new projects or applications that can work in the Roam ecosystem and foster technological and service innovation more broadly.
(4) Roam Community – Focuses on community building and management, providing a platform for user participation, feedback and joint management, and enhancing community activity and independence.
The Roam Telecom data layer provides a new model for the DePIN path.
There are two major directions in its future planning: one is to accelerate the implementation of Roam Telecom’s data layer, and the other is the deep integration between Roam and AI.
4. How does Roam specifically integrate with AI?
If Roam just stays on the DePIN path, it won’t have any different advantages over other projects.
Roam integrates with AI, leveraging its contact data features to provide high-quality, accessible data for AI projects.
There are three basic elements in AI projects: computing power, algorithms, and data.
Data currently represents the main bottleneck in the AI race, especially telecom data, which currently lies in the hands of traditional telecom operators and will not be open.
This means that in the era of artificial intelligence, the monopoly of data by traditional giants hinders comprehensive model training and global data integration.
Roam’s innovation solves one of the most pressing data challenges in AI: the unavailability of data at the carrier level.
Users who participate in creating OpenRoaming will receive free eSIM traffic rewards. When users go to any country, the eSIM top-up product can automatically convert the traffic to local traffic.
Roam has opened a channel to provide operator services through WEB3. In turn, the data generated in this process can become a data source for all AI companies subject to privacy protections.
Roam provides data, which does not mean that user privacy will be exposed, because it adopts Decentralized Identity (DID) and Verifiable Credentials (VC) technology, and integrates ZK (Zero Knowledge Proof)
Roam Discovery is actively expanding the service boundaries and ecosystem scale by strategically integrating and connecting multiple DePIN ecosystem partners to build a rich and diverse AI training dataset ecosystem. This multilateral collaboration model not only expands the scope of data sources, but also improves the depth of data quality.
Roam’s data service goes beyond simply providing basic operator-level data for AI use; It is building a comprehensive data ecosystem.
Through in-depth cooperation with environmental partners in various fields, Roam can integrate and provide multi-dimensional data resources, including but not limited to real-time weather observation data, globally distributed CDN service data, renewable energy usage data, and decentralized identity. Authentication records, innovative payment and lending behavior data, etc.
More importantly, Roam can also collect and process behavioral data generated by AI agents during social interactions and payment transactions, as well as operating status information of various intelligent systems, providing comprehensive data support for training and improving AI models.
This diverse data integration capability provides unprecedented data dimensions and depth for training AI models.
AI+DePIN is building decentralized infrastructure for the AI era.
5. How can regular users participate in DePIN?
After talking about so many projects, how can ordinary users participate?
Before you find out how to get involved, let’s take a look at how Roam has grown so quickly.
Roam has two basic strategies: Free + Airdrop.
Traditional telecom operators charge for data traffic, while decentralized telecom operator Roam provides users with data traffic for free. Users can get traffic by completing tasks, which is very attractive.
On the other hand, purchasing dedicated hardware can speed up the mining process, but you can also participate in this project without purchasing hardware. As long as you share your WIFI, you can also earn points, so you can participate in future airdrops, greatly lowering the limit.
Free + airdrop is the deadly weapon of the Web3 project, which attracts users with direct interest incentives and increases the support war in the Web2 industry.
Of course, this is also an opportunity for us ordinary users.
Author: Yu Xiaoyu
This article reflects the opinions of the PANews columnist and does not represent the position of PANews. PANews does not assume legal responsibility. The article and opinions do not constitute investment advice.
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