Decentralized physical infrastructure networks – DePINs – fundamentally reimagine how we build, manage, and use bricks-and-mortar infrastructure in the digital age. If you’ve been paying attention to the industry forecasts, DePINs are set to reshape multiple sectors, from logistics and spatial computing to telecommunications and energy.
Unlike traditional centralized infrastructure – think utility companies controlling power grids – DePINs leverage blockchain to distribute control, ownership, and operation far and wide, in the process incentivizing users to contribute resources to earn rewards. This shift from top-down systems to community-driven networks is associated with countless benefits, chief among them improved scalability and greater accessibility.
While centralized networks can falter during outages or cyberattacks, and shareholders tend to be prioritized over users, DePINs favor a completely different model. With power decentralized, resources widely distributed, and incentives aligned through tokenization, they effectively represent self-sustaining ecosystems. Keen to provision resources? Plug in and claim your rewards. Want to access resources? Sign up and pay for the privilege. It’s not exactly rocket science – yet for good reason DePINs are being heralded as an infrastructural game-changer.
The Many Benefits of DePINs
Because they tap into a global network of contributors – from individuals to businesses – DePINs are able to scale rapidly without necessitating huge upfront investment. Where traditional infrastructure requires costly builds, like new data centers or cell towers, DePINs crowdsource these expensive resources to expand capacity as needed.
The best example is probably cloud computing, in which AI developers need to develop Machine Learning (ML) models. Amid a severe chip shortage, some DePINs grant AI devs and engineers access to powerful chip hardware, typically by leveraging the idle resources of millions of users. Because this compute power is sourced from such a wide demographic, DePINs are less prone to single-point failures like power outages or hacks – and so continuity is assured even if parts of the system go down.
Greater community participation is another notable perk since everyday users are empowered to contribute assets and earn rewards. In short, DePINs provide a scalable, affordable, and robust alternative to the infrastructure we have long been accustomed to.
Which is why the market projections for DePINs are so ridiculously bullish. Research firm Messari has suggested DePINs could swell to a $3.5 trillion market by 2028, buoyed by the activities of the hundreds of projects currently active – with more launching all the time. From decentralized AI storage networks to sustainable energy networks, DePINs are proliferating at a rapid rate and showing infrastructure incumbents where the hands have come on the clock.
DePINs in Action
A wise man once noted It’s the decentralization, dummy. It’s a credo at the center of DePINs, which solve real-world problems by employing blockchain’s secret sauce. Filecoin, for instance, lets users rent out spare hard drive space globally in return for FIL tokens, creating a distributed alternative to centralized cloud storage. Wireless networks like Helium, meanwhile, deploy community-run Wi-Fi hotspots to provide low-cost, high-coverage internet, particularly in underserved regions.
Another good example is Mawari, the world’s first DePIN for spatial computing and mixed reality (XR). Created to power real-time streaming of immersive content – films, interactive experiences, live Augmented Reality events and performances – the network relies on a global node network to offer several advantages over traditional XR delivery. Where existing approaches render content locally (requiring powerful but costly hardware) or in the cloud (causing latency issues), Mawari splits rendering tasks between local devices and edge computing nodes, assuring ultra-low latency and real-time 3D performance.
With today’s XR market valued at over $135 billion, and expected to exceed $300 billion by 2030, long-standing network constraints must be addressed. Mawari overcomes them, ensuring scalability, cross-device compatibility, and the real-time performance XR needs to thrive. Its partnership with Nankai Electric Railway, with whom it’s now collaborating on an immersive AI-powered ‘Digital Entertainment City’, underscores the potential of DePIN generally and Mawari specifically.
Then there is io.net, a platform busily tackling the GPU crunch by democratizing access to compute capacity with – you guessed it – a global node network. Built for ML and AI use cases, io.net deploys decentralized GPU clusters in its IO Network, a DePIN of geo-distributed GPUs from sources including data centers, crypto miners, and idle computer hardware. With over 325,000 verified GPUs locked into its “Internet of GPUs,” the platform intelligently matches resources based on connectivity, geolocation, and specs, offering a cheap but reliable option for AI devs everywhere.
DePINs’ Potential in 2025 and Beyond
The aforementioned $3.5 trillion projection by 2028 might sound fanciful but isn’t just hype – it reflects the very realistic possibility that DePINs will disrupt not just one but several trillion-dollar industries.
With dozens of projects having already made a major splash, and investors throwing their financial might behind them (over $350 million in VC cash last year alone), decentralized physical infrastructure networks are on a serious upward trajectory, proving their value and staking their claim.
