DePIN is the abbreviation of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure, which refers to projects that require hardware devices to deploy their decentralized networks. Simply put, DePIN uses the blockchain token incentive mechanism to allow users with hardware devices to establish large-scale collaborative relationships with physical devices and build a service-capable infrastructure network, so that small and medium-sized enterprises do not need to access and use network resources in an affordable way.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly an important part of the current globalization trend. If AI has a best partner, it should be Depin, because Depin will attract a lot of computing power. If Depin can mobilize supply chain cloud services such as GPUs or use hardware devices across the entire network to form an infrastructure network, then large-scale model training, distributed machine learning, data storage verification mining, distributed reasoning and other directions will generate huge demand. GPU is the core of AI. With the continuous advancement of AI innovation, GPU will become one of the most valuable assets in the world.
Therefore, AI+Depin is expected to take over the role of the previous round of DeFi craze and become the main rising wave of value narrative in this round of bull market.
Depin Track Secondary List
Next, let’s take a look at the current secondary list of the Depin track.
Leading projects (top 100 with high market value): $fil, $rndr, $hnt, $theta (I would choose rndr)
Mid-cap projects: $AKT, $iotx, $lpt, $pokt, $shdw (I would choose iotx)
Low market capitalization projects: $honey, $dimo, $nodl, $mobile
This is just a simple division. Everyone can research the projects they like on their own. We do not provide investment advice here.
Next, let’s take a look at the popular AI+Depin projects in the current primary market.
1. Io.net
io.net is a new decentralized computing network that launched a public test network in November 2023. Despite its short history, io.net has accumulated a large number of GPUs by integrating resources from Render, Filecoin, and its own network.
io.net is building the world's largest AI computing cloud to bring AI to the world. The current GPU assets on the network exceed $3.4 billion. This puts ionet above Arbitrum in the TVL ranking.
io.net plans to launch its token on April 28, which is the right time to coincide with the release of Nvidia’s financial report.
2. Grass
Grass is a very exciting project that is expected to launch its mainnet in the first or second quarter. Grass already has over 500,000 users. Once the Grass network is live, it will become one of the largest crypto protocols on the market based on the number of users alone, and it is creating a new source of income for everyone with an internet connection.
Grass combines multiple bullish narratives: Depin+AI+Solana.
3. Goes
Aethir Cloud is a decentralized platform that connects computing processing service providers and consumers, aiming to become a mass-market GPU aggregator. Aethir has successfully raised $9 million in funding from a wide range of investors, including venture capitalists and family offices such as Animoca, Maelstorm Fund, IVC, Framework, Sanctor Capital, and Merit Circle.
More than 65,000 nodes have been sold, and all nodes will receive NFT Checker Node licenses in the first batch. The first batch of NFT Checker Node licenses will be issued on April 12, 2024.
4. Meson Network
Meson is a new force of Depin, aiming to build a decentralized bandwidth network. It has 350,000 nodes in 150 countries and regions, achieving a bandwidth capacity of more than 20 Tb/s. Users include well-known projects such as Filecoin, Arweave, Arbitrum, Greenfield, OKX chain, and BNB chain.
Meson nodes are very user-friendly and accept various existing hardware such as personal computers, servers, IoT devices, etc. The key point is that it does not need to purchase mining machines first like other Depin projects, which greatly reduces the user's investment cost. This allows Meson to grow rapidly and gather long-tail bandwidth resources to help AI, big data, Depin and other fields.
5. Private
Privasea, the creator of DEPIN+AI technology, has successfully secured $5 million in funding to advance its integration of fully homomorphic encrypted machine learning (FHEML) with distributed computing networks.
The financing attracted participation from some of the most forward-thinking investors in the technology and blockchain space, including Binance Labs, Gate Labs, MH Ventures, K300, QB Ventures, Crypto Times, and Zakaria (zak) Awes and Luke Shen (from Chainlink).
6. Peak
Depin Layer1 protocol Peaq has completed a $15 million financing round, led by Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital, with participation from Spartan Group, HV Capital, CMCC Global, Animoca Brands
、Moonrock Capital、Fundamental Labs、TRGC、DWF Labs、Crit Ventures、Cogitent Ventures、NGC Ventures、Agnostic Fund、Altana Wealth 等参投。
The funds will be used to expand Peaq’s ecosystem, which consists of more than 20 Depins in areas such as multi-chain machine ID, AI agents, and data verification. The protocol expects to conduct a public offering and token listing in the coming weeks, with its mainnet launch scheduled for May.
7. Ritual
Ritual brings together a distributed network of nodes with access to computation and model creators, and enables all creators to host their models on these nodes. Users can then access any model on this network (whether it is an LLM or a classic ML model) using a common API, and the network has additional cryptographic infrastructure to guarantee computational integrity and privacy.
Previously, the decentralized AI computing platform Ritual announced the completion of a $25 million financing round, led by Archetype, with participation from Accomplice and Robot Ventures. It is reported that Ritual aims to create an incentive network to power distributed computing devices to support various applications of artificial intelligence. The funds will be used to build network infrastructure, expand the team, and develop the Ritual ecosystem.
8. GM Network
The first modular L2 GM Chain dedicated to Depin+AI in the Ethereum ecosystem. GM Chain is supported by AltLayer and built on Eigenlayer and OPStack. GM Network will also gradually launch more components (GM ID, GM OS, GM Launchpad, etc.) to accelerate the entry of Depin and AI projects into the Ethereum ecosystem.
GoPlus, the leading Web3 user security network, announced a strategic partnership with GM Network, the first gas-free modular Layer2 of DePin+AI. The two parties will strengthen technology and resource sharing, jointly address Web3 user security challenges, and enhance the security of its ecological users, and will fully cover the Depin and AI tracks with an open, permissionless, user-driven Web3 security network.
Among the above projects, ionet and Grass are worth looking forward to. These two projects have the opportunity to enter the BN mainnet. The AI+Depin narrative will be in a long-term bullish trend, and ionet, as the new leader, will be launched this month. Let us look forward to the arrival of the huge wave.
We are currently in the bull market upswing, and last year’s predictions in the crypto space emphasized that ETFs would pass smoothly, officially ushering in a bull market.
In a bull market, many users may feel lost. Unlike the bear market, the high-frequency fluctuations in the bull market can easily expose crypto users to risks, and frequent operations and position changes may cause people to leave empty-handed.