The combination of the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain has always been a hot topic in the technology industry, and IoTeX is a leader in this field. IoTeX has the dual concepts of DePIN and IoT, and is an IoT-oriented next-generation blockchain platform. It has unique advantages in scalability, deep privacy protection, independence, etc., and is committed to providing comprehensive support for IoT applications and building a blockchain ecosystem.
Market space for DePIN
Definition and potential of DePIN
DePIN, or Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, is an important direction for the combination of blockchain applications and the real world. Messari defined this concept in the DePIN research report released in 2022, and believed that DePIN is "one of the most important areas for crypto investment in the next decade."
At present, well-known DePIN projects are mainly concentrated in the fields of storage and communications. However, DePIN also has broad application potential in industries such as energy, computing, IoT, and supply chain. For example, the decentralized energy storage asset network React uses Web3 technology to save energy and improve the efficiency of power grid use; the decentralized GPU platform Render Network can provide rendering functions for large-scale video production, 3D modeling, and movie special effects projects.
Pain points of traditional infrastructure and DePIN's solution
Traditional physical infrastructure construction is capital-intensive, has a long investment cycle, and has low returns. The use of blockchain's token incentive mechanism can unleash the potential of decentralized hardware and effectively solve these pain points. The core of the DePIN model is to use token incentives and flywheel effects to connect decentralized demand and idle physical resources to meet demand at a lower cost and higher efficiency.
According to data from DePINscan, the DePIN public data platform created by IoTeX, there are currently 370,000 devices connected to Web3. Despite the rapid growth, this only accounts for a very small part of the physical world, and the market potential is huge.
IoTeX: Providing a full-stack solution for DePIN applications
Founded and developed by IoTeX
Founded in 2017, IoTeX has been committed to combining physical devices (and their data) with blockchain technology since its inception. IoTeX ensures that people can own and control their devices, data, and the value they generate, allowing builders and users to become owners and beneficiaries of the trillion-dollar IoT economy. Based on its contributions to the Internet of Things, IoTeX was selected as the co-chair of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) Blockchain Group together with Amazon and Huawei.
IoTeX's full-stack DePIN solution
IoTeX has built an EVM-compatible Layer1 blockchain designed for IoT data and DePIN applications. By providing the DePIN middleware W3bstream, IoTeX connects DePIN physical devices and data to Layer1. Any DePIN application can create its own dApp in W3bstream with one click, including hardware components, off-chain logic programs, on-chain logic, and token economy.
IoTeX's full-stack DePIN solution provides a full set of "plug-and-play" products and tools for blockchain-driven IoT applications. Building DePIN applications on the IoTeX platform only requires focusing on business logic. Its full-stack DePIN infrastructure is divided into four layers from top to bottom:
Hardware layer：MachineFi is a hardware portal platform where developers and users can register devices, obtain visual data, and interact with MachineFi dApp.
Middleware：W3bstream is a middleware between smart devices and blockchains, used to connect smart devices to smart contracts and generate proofs for on-chain dApps.
Tool layer：IoTeX provides a series of tools to help applications achieve data interaction and value transfer. For example, ioScan is a blockchain browser for querying blockchain data, and ioTube is a cross-chain bridge for facilitating two-way token exchanges between IoTeX, Ethereum, BNB chain, and other top L1s.
Blockchain：IoTeX Blockchain is an EVM-compatible L1 blockchain designed specifically for IoT data.
IoTeX's development history and application cases
Development history
Since its founding in 2017, IoTeX has made significant progress. In early 2018, IoTeX raised about $30 million from top venture capital institutions and began to build the Layer1 blockchain. That year, the L1 testnet was launched, and tokens were subsequently launched on Binance, Kucoin, and Gate.
In 2019, IoTeX developed a PoS-based EVM public chain and incubated many DeFi and NFT projects, with more than 100 ecological application data.
In 2020, IoTeX developed its first IoT + blockchain vertical experiment: Ucam, which won the CES Award and achieved more than 20,000 sales on Amazon.
In 2021, the second IoT + blockchain vertical experiment: Pebble was launched, and 1,000+ sales were achieved in two weeks. At the same time, through two social experiments, the concept of "MachineFi" was introduced and used as a direction.
In 2022, IoTeX began to work on the W3bStream project and cooperated with the DePIN project to provide infrastructure support for it.
In 2023, IoTeX clearly proposed the strategic development plan of "DePIN First", focusing on improving the imperfect infrastructure in the DePIN ecosystem, and launched the W3bStream project to actively participate in DePIN.
Application Cases
With the rapid development of the Internet of Things, the number of connected devices and the data generated is growing exponentially. However, the Internet of Things industry also faces some challenges: various sensing devices and execution devices often come from different companies, lack of effective coordination, resulting in low equipment utilization; the data streams generated by massive devices and sensors are in a fragmented state, which is difficult to share and the value of data is difficult to activate.
The root cause of these problems is that devices and data in the physical world lack digital system representation and effective circulation mechanism. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a set of IoT economic infrastructure to solve the problems of device fragmentation and data isolation, and realize the digital management and circulation of assets. IoTeX was born to solve these problems.
Conclusion：As a representative project of the dual concepts of DePIN and IoT, IoTeX provides comprehensive support for blockchain-driven IoT applications through its full-stack DePIN solution. With the continuous development of IoT and blockchain technology, IoTeX will play an increasingly important role in the future and promote progress and innovation in the entire industry.