In February this year, we made an outlook on the DePIN track, focusing on analyzing how to choose good participating targets among the many DePIN projects, among which we highlighted the relatively promising MetaBlox (now renamed Roam, and has been migrated to Solona).

Roam aims to build a decentralized global wireless WiFi roaming network supported by users, allowing users to seamlessly connect to more than 3.5 million OpenRoaming WiFi access points and provide users with enterprise-level WiFi roaming services.

After Roam completed a strategic round of financing of US$5 million at the end of 2023, it welcomed a heavyweight investor "Samsung Next".

Currently, Roam has been invested by many well-known institutions such as Anagram, Volt Capital, Comma3 Ventures, ECMC Group, Awesome People Ventures, Stratified Capital, DePIN Labs, Future 3 Campus, IoTeX, ZC capital, JDI, Synergis and SNZ.

Samsung and Roam are both members of the WBA organization, and both share the same vision of achieving seamless WiFi global roaming. According to Korean media Global Economy, the funds will help Roam accelerate the establishment of a global WiFi roaming node network.

Why is it favored by Samsung Next?

Many people are familiar with Samsung. Samsung Group's businesses include electronics, aviation, chemicals, machinery, shipping, insurance, and medical services. It is the largest conglomerate in South Korea. There is a saying in South Korea: There are three things a Korean cannot avoid in his life: taxes, death, and Samsung.

Not only does Samsung's revenue account for about 20% of South Korea's GDP, but its business influence in the world is also very large. For example, the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and the world's second tallest building, Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, were built by Samsung C&T.

Samsung Electronics is the most well-known company to us. Its Galaxy series of mobile phones and computers can compete with Apple in the world. In order to maintain its leading position in the global market, Samsung has been exploring cutting-edge technologies.

In addition to setting up the Samsung Innovation Lab within the group to encourage incubation of innovation, it has also established a number of investment funds to participate in potential companies and projects in some important fields. For example, Samsung Next, which invested in Roam this time, is a fund focused on the research and development and innovation of early emerging technologies.

Samsung Next was formerly known as Samsung Global Innovation Center. Samsung Next mainly invests in start-up companies, considering future strategic development as a prerequisite, ignoring short-term interests and focusing on long-term value. From the information on Samsung Next's homepage, we can see that its main investment tracks focus on artificial intelligence, blockchain, financial technology, health technology, infrastructure, and media technology.

Samsung Next official website information

In the crypto field alone, Samsung Next has invested in about thirty projects. Its investment portfolio covers the metaverse, NFT, public chain, GameFi, and infrastructure, among which some phenomenal products have emerged.

For example, Axie Infinity, a blockchain-based game, uses NFT to represent the ownership of the virtual pet Axie. This game exploded in the last bull market, setting off a GameFi craze and promoting the application of NFT and blockchain in the gaming field.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), an NFT project based on Ethereum, was once the undisputed NFT leader for its unique artistic design and strong community drive. Many celebrities are proud to hold BAYC.

In addition, there are well-known projects such as Layer zero, Sandbox, SAGA, SUI, Aleo, and Messari.

ChainBroker data as of March 2024

Compared with crypto investment institutions such as a16z and Coinbase, Samsung Next has made relatively fewer investments, which means it is more cautious when investing in projects. There are no so-called "copycat" projects, and most of them are leaders in popular tracks.

In the DePIN track, Samsung Next only invested in and cooperated with IoTeX and Helium, which participated in the early stage. Roam is the only investment made by Samsung Next after DePIN became a phenomenal track last year.

Thanks to the innovative model of Web3, Roam has deployed more than 160,000 WiFi network nodes in 140 countries around the world in just two years, covering more than 72,000 users. Users can also share and use more than 3.5 million OpenRoaming nodes deployed on land, ships, and aircraft by companies such as Boingo, Cisco, and Global Reach in the OpenRoaming program.

According to data from DePINscan’s official website, Roam ranks third in the world in the DePIN track in terms of the number of nodes.

Roam is also the only Web3 ID provider for the OpenRoaming™ protocol in the WBA organization, and the only project that uses decentralized solutions to help promote the implementation of the global WiFi OpenRoaming™ program.

Strong background and impressive data may be the reason why Samsung Next favors Roam. As Roam's practicality continues to improve in the future, it may help Samsung's global connectivity services for electronic devices.

$ROAM (launched in Q2) & Economic Model

When talking about any DePIN project, the token economy is unavoidable, and the same is true for Roam.

Native DePIN projects usually do not have sufficient funds in the early stage, and need to use token incentive strategies to attract users to contribute resources (such as GPU computing power, storage space, etc.) and provide network support. Although the value of tokens is uncertain in the early stage, users "bet" on projects that may appreciate in the future, similar to venture capital behavior, and become "risk miners" in the hope of getting returns in the future.

The resources they provide include hardware, bandwidth, computing power, etc. The amount of tokens they harvest is closely related to factors such as network usage and market demand. The network usage and stability also affect the efficiency of resource use, so this type of "risk miners" must be willing to take risks and provide resources for the stability and development of the network.

A good token incentive mechanism will lead to a positive cycle, and vice versa, it will trigger a withdrawal cycle. Increased demand will drive supply income to increase, forming a positive feedback and attracting more participants. Rising token prices will attract more speculators and participants, forming value capture. In this way, the DePIN project will first attract resource suppliers through token incentives, and then guide users to use it, realize the cold start of the project and the core operating mechanism, and then achieve early expansion and development.

Roam incentivizes public and private shared WiFi through mining, including cafes, shopping malls, public transportation stations, commercial buildings, etc. The system uses a proof-of-service mining algorithm to verify the long-term commitment of honest miners to serve the network, and rewards successful "miners" with tokens so that their contributions maintain the integrity and decentralization of the blockchain.

Routers become blockchain nodes, and the global network jointly verifies special credentials called decentralized identifiers (DIDs). Routers in various places complete the DID+VC verification and data chain process when users connect to WiFi:

Roam uses DID+VC to ensure that users' privacy information is fully respected and protected.

DID (decentralized identification) users can decide what identity to use.

VC (Verifiable Credentials) users can decide for themselves what information can be disclosed to the public.

DID+VC can ensure that users themselves decide which identity and which information can be put on the chain.

On-chain WiFi login authentication enables these routers to generate mPoints (Roam's points token) when providing WiFi services, giving rise to "roaming miners". The more WiFi node connections they provide, the more mPoints they earn. This type of mining model enables the decentralized deployment of WiFi networks, incentivizing individuals to provide public WiFi to receive rewards. Mining hosts can still track their rewards through the Roam app.

Roam's economic model consists of the following three elements:

mPoints: mPoints plays a core role in Roam's token system. Users can continue to earn mPoints (temporary points) by using Roam for WiFi mining, and can also earn points by checking in and earning points. After TGE, points will be used to pledge and redeem ROAM tokens.

$ROAM: Users can obtain governance tokens through various channels, such as staking mPoints, participating in activities, or receiving airdrops. These tokens are mainly used for exchange transactions, verifying network services, participating in community governance, and obtaining operating permissions (officially announced to be launched in Q2).

Roam NFT: Purchasing a Roam NFT is equivalent to deploying a Roam router, which supports access to the global WiFi OpenRoaming network. In return for their support, NFT provides users with continuous rewards through three Web3 practical scenarios: cloud mining, NFT staking, and OG community membership passes.

The advantage of this economic model is that there is a complex exchange mechanism between them. mPoints can be exchanged for ROAM through staking/destruction after going online, which can avoid releasing too many tokens during the blind mining phase and causing the economic model to get out of control. This design constitutes a token ecosystem that is both complex and closely connected, and strives to achieve a balance between effective incentives and stability.

$ROAM will give users a clear answer as soon as it goes online. If the token performs well, it will attract more users to participate in sharing the WiFi network and improve network coverage. If the token performs poorly, it is likely to cause some users to leave, which will also be affected by the overall market environment in Q2. We will analyze it in detail at that time.

*This article is only a display of high-quality projects and does not constitute investment advice

#depin