No longer just a PPT concept, which DePIN projects have real income?

Author: Paul Veradittakit

Compiled by Luffy, Foresight News

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) is the integration of blockchain and infrastructure networks. Currently, DePIN exists in industries such as energy, telecommunications, storage, artificial intelligence, and data collection.

In the previous encryption cycle, many projects took advantage of the DePIN craze and aimed at directions with huge market opportunities. However, when the core product failed to gain enough attractiveness on both the supply and demand sides, they turned to cryptocurrency token economics.

However, among those surviving projects, many companies have spent time building infrastructure, and they have achieved sustainable profitability by solving existing problems, even without relying on the token economy's flywheel effect. Let's take a look at some of these cases.

Geodnet

The Core Problem Being Solved

Traditional Global Positioning System (GPS) typically lacks the precision required for advanced applications, which demand centimeter-level accuracy rather than meter-level accuracy. The Geodnet network's solution has improved positioning accuracy by 100 times compared to traditional GPS technology.

Target Audience

Geodnet Network serves industries that rely on high-precision geospatial data, including:

• Autonomous vehicles
• Agriculture
• Smart City
• National Defense and Security
• Space Exploration

Profit Model

• Data Authorization: Selling geospatial data to commercial customers.
• Node participation fee: The cost associated with the installation and use of mining machines.
• Partnership: Cooperate with industries such as agriculture and autonomous driving systems to integrate Geodnet network services into existing workflows.

In 2024, the Geodnet network reported a revenue growth of over 500%, reaching 1.7 million dollars.

Token Economics

The Geodnet network uses the native token GEOD to incentivize participants:

• Miners earn tokens based on data contribution and normal network operation time.
• Destruction Mechanism: Destroy tokens during data transactions and introduce deflation mechanism.
• Daily Earnings: The average daily earnings per miner are approximately $4.30, with an estimated payback period of 3-4 months.
• Circulation: The distribution of tokens ensures liquidity while incentivizing early adopters.
• Token uses: used for payment, staking, and governance within the network.

Participation and Contribution Methods

1. Become a miner:

• Purchase mining equipment (costs between 500-700 US dollars).
• Set up and connect the mining machine to the network, uploading 20-40GB of data per month.

2. Use the Internet:

• Subscribe or directly purchase access to real-time kinematic (RTK) correction data.

3. Application development:

• Software development for specific industries based on the Geodnet network.

4. Governance:

• Participate in protocol governance by staking GEOD tokens and voting on proposals.

Helium

Core Problems Solved

Traditional mobile network operators (such as T-Mobile) require huge capital expenditure to build base stations, maintain infrastructure, and expand coverage. Helium solves this problem by creating a decentralized wireless network that utilizes community-owned hotspots to provide affordable, scalable, and flexible network connectivity for mobile and IoT devices.

Target Customers

• Consumers: Paying $20 per month can use the unlimited data provided by the Helium decentralized network.
• Telecom providers: Implement WiFi offloading for major operators to reduce their infrastructure costs.
• IoT Device Manufacturer: Provides connectivity for low-power IoT devices using the LoRaWAN protocol.
• Enterprises and institutions: Help organizations deploy dedicated wireless networks for asset tracking, sensors, and environmental monitoring.

Profit Model

The Helium network generates revenue through two main avenues:

1. Mobile plans directly targeting consumers:

• Provide a $20 unlimited data plan per month, allowing users to simultaneously use the Helium network hotspot and partner networks (such as T-Mobile).

2. Operator WiFi split fee:

• Charging telecommunication providers $0.50 per GB to route data through Helium's decentralized hotspots instead of traditional base stations.

Financial Performance

• Subscribed users: Over 100,000 direct subscribed users and more than 300,000 indirect WiFi offloading users.
• Revenue: Generates seven-figure annual revenue from mobile subscriptions and operator revenue sharing fees.
• Prediction: With the expansion of operator partnerships, it is estimated that the potential annual revenue from WiFi offloading services alone could exceed 50 million dollars.

Token Economics

The HNT token of the Helium network is at the core of its incentive and payment structure:

• Earning Rewards: Hotspot operators earn HNT by providing coverage and transmitting data.
• Purpose: The token is used for network transactions, payment for network services, and governance proposals.
• Destruction Mechanism: When HNT tokens are used to pay for network services, they are destroyed, reducing the supply.

Ways to Participate and Contribute

1. Hot deployment:

• Buy and set up a hotspot compatible with the Helium network to provide network coverage and earn HNT rewards.
• Select from 16 approved hardware types designed for IoT or mobile offloading.

2. Consumer Package:

• Subscribe to the Helium network's $20 monthly mobile plan for affordable mobile data coverage.

3. Operator partnership relationship:

• Telecom providers can integrate with the Helium network to offload data traffic and reduce operational costs.

4. Governance and Staking:

• Staking HNT tokens to participate in network governance, make proposals, and vote on key upgrades.

Akash

Core Issues Resolved

The Akash network aims to solve the high cost, scalability limitations, and centralization issues of traditional cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. It addresses these issues by providing a decentralized cloud computing marketplace that allows users to profit from idle machines while reducing costs.

Target Customer

• AI developers: need high-performance GPUs to train and deploy machine learning models.
• Startups and enterprises: need affordable and scalable cloud computing to support data processing, storage, and AI-driven applications.

Profit Model

The Akash Network generates revenue in the following ways:

• Market Trading Fees: Transaction fees charged for calculating leases and processing payments over the network.
• Computing resource leasing: a share of the revenue generated from leasing GPU and CPU for artificial intelligence training and workloads.
• Developer Tools: Charging developers who use their computing infrastructure for API integrations and SDK licenses.
• Business Partnerships: Collaborate with AI Labs and decentralized platforms to expand computing capabilities.

Financial Performance

• Annual Revenue: Akash Network reported $2.5 million in revenue from compute leasing and fees in 2024.
• Growth rate: Due to the popularization of artificial intelligence, the demand for GPU computing resources has increased by 33 times.
• Network scale: supports more than 400 GPUs.

Token Economics

The Akash network uses the AKT token for payments, governance, and incentives.

1. Purpose:

• Payment: Buyers use AKT tokens to purchase computing resources.
• Staking: Provide collateral tokens to obtain job opportunities and enhance reputation.

2. Incentives:

• The provider earns AKT tokens for providing computing resources.
• Tokens are allocated based on normal operating time, performance, and task completion.

3. Governance:

• Token holders can propose upgrades and vote on protocol changes.

4. Destruction Mechanism:

• Network fees are destroyed, reducing token supply.

Ways to participate and contribute

1. As a provider:

• Set up GPU, CPU, or storage servers on the Akash network.
• List resources, set prices, and start earning AKT tokens.

2. As a consumer:

• Rent computing resources using Akash network's web interface or command line interface (CLI).
• Deploy AI training workloads, web services, and decentralized applications.

3. As a developer:

• Access API and SDK to integrate Akash network services into applications.
• Use GPU clusters for deep learning training or inference tasks.

4. Governance participation:

• Staking AKT tokens to vote on network upgrades and resource pricing policies.

Looking to the future

The above is just a small part of the effective and sustainable income-generating projects. In the coming months, the acceptance of DePIN will undoubtedly increase again, giving birth to more sustainable, scalable, and profitable companies.

The above-mentioned companies are all consumer-facing, but another area that excites me is infrastructure. The fields such as underlying blockchain, oracle services, smart contract services, middleware, token issuance services, etc., where these companies are located, will benefit from the development of the DePIN project. Some examples include Solana, Peaq, Base, Story, Arweave, Opacity Network, and DeForm.