Written by: Zuo Ye
After the mining ban on September 4, 2021, the Chinese basically lost the pricing power over Bitcoin. On September 15, 2022, Ethereum completed the "Merge" process. Except for Bitcoin, the mainstream currencies in the crypto world no longer have a PoW mechanism. The pledge network composed of major overseas exchanges and Lido controls the output of ETH.
Chinese people have been basically excluded from the two largest currencies in the crypto world. Apart from exchanges and going overseas, how Chinese people can survive in the crypto world has become a problem for the entire industry. We clearly have the world's largest and most active terminal market, but now we have to hand it over to others.
In this historical process, Chengdu and Shenzhen are the two nodes that suffered the most, not Wenzhou, Shanghai, or Beijing, because the previous model was that Shenzhen shipped the goods, Chengdu put them on the shelves, and they excavated them together, repeating the cycle.
Now we have to go back to the time before liberation overnight, but there is still a way out.
Now it seems that history may define this way out as DePIN, and the person who can become the representative figure is Wang Yiming, who has been unknown for a long time.
Chengdu’s past, a crypto mecca comparable to Shenzhen
If you have been to Chengdu, the high prices and low incomes here will definitely open your eyes. The crypto industry is one of the few high-income industries in Chengdu, and mining, or more specifically the Bitcoin miners in Base Chengdu, once controlled the vast majority of the world's Bitcoin production.
The abundance of various types of small hydropower and relatively relaxed regulatory policies have created the most glorious generation in the history of Bitcoin.
They lived like this for more than ten years until the building collapsed.
The September 4 ban not only fundamentally changed the balance of power between the East and the West in the crypto world, but also led to the "de-materialization" of the crypto field. PoS Ethereum has become a pure capital game. Looking back, the Ethereum fork has proved to be a farce. PoW has only left Bitcoin and a number of small, insignificant currencies struggling to hold on.
DePIN, or Helium, which insisted on the WIFI route in 2021, was only briefly popular, and then fell continuously, but there are two things that have not received enough attention:
Why has Helium survived until now in 2021?
What does this have to do with Chengdu?
To get back to these two things, we must first introduce Wang Yiming and his totems: JDI Labs, Bobber, Helium, DIMO, etc. To exaggerate a little, Wang Yiming created or participated in the current DePIN ecosystem that you see.
Now we can answer the above two questions:
Helium's biggest mining machine supplier in 2021 is Bobber, and the one who made the decision to fully support Helium is Wang Yiming, a hidden boss who started operating his own Twitter (X platform) six years after entering the circle. Before that, most people were only used to the names of CZ and Justin Sun.
It doesn’t matter what suffix is added to JDI Labs (Global) owned by Wang Yiming. It is also the most active investment and manufacturing company in the DePIN field, responsible for supplying goods from Huaqiangbei to the world.
Shenzhen ships goods, Chengdu mines, no matter what is mined, it is mining, Chengdu miners say so, so Chengdu can be compared with Shenzhen. Wang Yiming completed his real industry show, deeply cultivating DePIN until the building was completed.
DePIN past: Wang Yiming, JDI and Helium
Wang Yiming is too low-key. If it weren’t for the introduction of Twitter celebrity Mark (@shuaibaobaommd), most people might still know nothing about him, but his true identity is the man behind the global DePIN.
Everyone can be famous for fifteen minutes, but Wang Yiming’s popularity has long been overshadowed by Helium. Secondly, JDI has invested in almost all DePIN projects. If you are confused about this, then you should only follow their portfolio. If you are a miner, then Bobber cannot be bypassed.
Let me start with an introduction. Wang Yiming, male, is a Renmin University alumnus of OKX founder Xu Mingxing. He first entered the circle from Du Jun Node Capital and began to come into contact with the DePIN concept around 2012. Helium is his first large-scale project operated globally. In addition, there are hardware such as DIMO, VPP (virtual power plant) and satellites. He is involved in all areas of DePIN. In other words, if Chinese people are far ahead in the field of exchanges, then Wang Yiming is the most typical representative of Chinese in the field of DePIN.
Unfortunately, this article is not a soft article or a scam, but a story about how the elephant in the room hides itself👀.
JDI and Bobber have basically fully planned DePIN's investment direction and hardware targets. To understand the development direction of DePIN, it is most effective to look at the dynamics of these two companies.
In addition, Wang Yiming personally prefers media and exchanges. The business in the crypto world is essentially traffic-first. Only by attracting spectators can wealth opportunities be captured. His preference for exchanges stems from his passion for trading. Wang Yiming also believed in it during the wave of Hong Kong's boom.
At the beginning of this year, when the Hong Kong concept was the hottest, Wang Yiming, who had been behind the scenes for a long time, also announced the importance of Helium and DIMO through the POW’ER conference of Mars Finance. I wonder how many people have captured these two codes.
Life is limited, so you must go all in
Wang Yiming’s style is to go all in, whether it is DePIN or any other direction, the same is true for investment and hardware.
For a long time, DePIN has been regarded as the preserve of American capital and institutions, especially Helium, which will conduct serious scrutiny on mainland nodes. Based on this, Wang Yiming and his institutions are also rapidly globalizing. In March of this year, JDI completed a new round of financing, with support from top investors including Dragonfly and FutureMoney, but this is not the whole story.
After the initial subsidies, Helium Mobile's revenue will inevitably decline rapidly in the later period. In fact, I really hope that Wang Yiming can stay active on Twitter, and we can also see what new things DePIN can come up with.
As the man behind HNT Hardware, winning is my motto.
