The Rise of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks: A Case Study of Three Major Projects

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) represent an innovative integration of blockchain technology and traditional infrastructure. In various fields such as energy, telecommunications, storage, artificial intelligence, and data collection, DePIN is playing an increasingly important role.

Despite the fact that many projects overly relied on token economics while neglecting the value of core products during the last cryptocurrency boom, there are still some persistent companies that have achieved sustainable development by solving real-world problems. This article will focus on three typical cases and explore how they have succeeded in different fields.

Geodnet: Reshaping the Global Positioning System

Core Value Proposition

The Geodnet network is committed to providing more precise positioning services than traditional GPS, improving accuracy to the centimeter level, which is crucial for many emerging applications.

Target Market

Geodnet's high-precision geospatial data services are primarily aimed at the following industries:

• Autonomous vehicles
• Precision Agriculture
• Smart City Construction
• Defense and Security System
• Space Exploration Project

business model

Geodnet achieves profitability through diversified revenue sources:

1. Authorize commercial customers to sell high-precision geospatial data
2. Collect node participation fees
3. Establish strategic partnerships with relevant industries

It is worth noting that Geodnet achieved a year-on-year revenue growth of over 500% in 2024, reaching 1.7 million dollars.

Network Participation Mechanism

1. Miner Participation:

   • Purchase and set up mining equipment (cost approximately 500-700 USD)
   • Upload 20-40GB of data to the network every month

2. Data Usage:

   • Users can obtain real-time dynamic correction data through subscription or direct purchase.

3. Application Development:

   • Developers can create industry-specific applications based on Geodnet's data.

4. Network Governance:

   • Token holders can participate in proposal voting through staking, influencing the direction of network development.

Helium: Revolutionizing Wireless Network Connectivity

Solution

Helium has created a decentralized wireless network that provides affordable and scalable network connectivity for mobile and IoT devices through community-owned hotspots, effectively reducing the infrastructure costs of traditional telecom operators.

Customer Base

• Individual Consumers: Offer an unlimited data plan for $20 per month
• Telecom operators: Implement WiFi traffic diversion to reduce operating costs
• IoT device manufacturers: providing LoRaWAN connectivity for low-power devices
• Enterprises and institutions: Deploy dedicated wireless networks for asset tracking and environmental monitoring

Profit Model

1. Consumer-facing mobile plan revenue
2. Charge telecom operators for WiFi diversion fees (0.50 USD per GB)

Financial Performance

• User scale: Over 100,000 direct subscription users and more than 300,000 indirect WiFi diversion users.
• Annual income: has reached seven figures
• Growth potential: It is expected that the WiFi diversion business alone may exceed $50 million annually.

Participation Method

1. Deploy hotspot devices: Purchase and set up compatible hotspots to provide network coverage.
2. Subscribe to mobile plans: Use Helium's affordable unlimited data service.
3. Carrier Collaboration: Telecom companies can integrate with Helium to achieve traffic diversion.
4. Network Governance: Staked tokens participate in decision-making and voting

Akash: Decentralization Cloud Computing Market

Core Advantages

The Akash network aims to address the high costs, scalability limitations, and centralization issues of traditional cloud computing services by reducing costs and improving resource utilization efficiency through a decentralized marketplace model.

target users

• AI Developer: Requires high-performance GPU resources
• Startups and large companies: seeking affordable and scalable cloud computing solutions

Source of Income

• Market trading fees
• Calculation resource rental sharing
• Developer tools and API usage fees
• Business Partnership

Business Growth

• Annual revenue in 2024 reached 2.5 million USD
• GPU computing resource demand increased by 33 times
• The network scale supports more than 400 GPUs

participation method

1. Resource providers: Deploy GPU, CPU, or storage servers to earn profits.
2. Resource users: Renting computing resources to deploy AI workloads or web services
3. Developers: Integrate Akash network API to develop applications based on Decentralization computing.
4. Network Governance: Staking tokens participate in voting decisions.

Future Outlook

With the continuous development of the DePIN field, we can foresee the emergence of more sustainable and profitable projects. In addition to consumer-facing applications, underlying infrastructure services such as blockchain platforms, oracle services, and smart contract services will also benefit from the prosperity of DePIN. In the future, DePIN is expected to drive technological innovation and business model transformation in a wider range of fields.