Next Bull Run’s Hidden Gem: Why Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePin) Could Be the Biggest Crypto Trend of 2024–2025
As we gear up for the next crypto bull run expected around 2024–2025, speculation abounds on which narratives and sectors will capture investor imagination. While many point to crypto gaming as the likely focal point, I foresee an equally revolutionary yet underappreciated movement primed to dominate — decentralized physical infrastructure networks, or DePins.
Just as DeFi exploded in 2020–2021, DePins have similar disruptive potential across industries reliant on physical networks and infrastructure. By incentivizing crowd-sourced infrastructure buildout, DePins can achieve scale and cost efficiency unmatched by centralized legacy providers.
The implications for upending entrenched business models across telecom, geo-mapping, wireless, and computing sectors are profound. Here’s why DePins may shape up to be the most impactful crypto narrative of the next cycle.
The Power of Token Incentives
A key innovation of crypto is using tokenized incentives to coordinate the activity of disparate, untrusted parties toward a shared outcome. Whereas companies traditionally had to invest immense capital themselves to build infrastructure before deriving value, tokens allow that coordination and capital formation to happen organically.
A canonical example is Uber — by incentivizing individuals who already owned cars to provide rides, they could scale a global network extremely quickly without owning any vehicles themselves. The startup costs were vastly lower than buying a cab fleet while the decentralized model enabled explosive growth.
Now imagine this decentralized coordination, but to build out physical infrastructure like wireless networks or server farms. By rewarding crowd-sourced infrastructure with tokens, DePin projects can outcompete lumbering centralized incumbents on cost, flexibility and innovation velocity.
The Web3 Promise Realized
Much of the Web3 narrative revolves around using crypto networks and incentives to rearchitect digital-first services in a user-owned manner. However, many of those efforts remain abstract — DeFi and DAOs are impactful but don’t necessarily improve lives for the average person.
DePins, on the other hand, bridge the digital and physical to impact real-world infrastructure people rely on daily. By optimizing how we coordinate building infrastructure fundamental to the functioning of society, DePins embody the ethos of community aligned action that enchants people about Web3’s promise.
And unlike ephemeral hype cycles like NFTs, improving how we collaborate to deploy and grow infrastructure delivers lasting value. Whether it’s expanding access to wireless internet, enabling hyperlocal geo-mapping, or powering AI compute, DePins’ physical underpinnings grounds them in solving real-world problems.
Top DePin Projects to Watch
Several promising DePin projects with solid technology and adoption traction are worth keeping an eye on as potential breakout stars of 2024–2025.
Helium — Helium reinvented itself from an IoT play to a crowdsourced 5G network. Users can deploy Helium hotspots providing 5G coverage and earn tokens in return. It’s already launched 5G service in several US cities by combining user coverage with partnerships like T-Mobile.
Render — Render Foundation, a non-profit, fuels the Render Network — a decentralized marketplace for GPU-based rendering. It connects artists and developers needing high-powered rendering with node operators offering spare computing power. This peer-to-peer network boasts scale, speed, and affordability, while supporting innovative fields like AI and virtual assets. Render Foundation fosters this community, building the future of rendering, accessible to everyone.
Filecoin — Filecoin lets users supply spare hard drive storage to the network and get paid for providing storage services. It simplifies building reliable decentralized storage.
Livepeer — Livepeer offers a network for transcoding and streaming video cost-effectively using tokenized incentives, bringing decentralization to a core internet function dominated by centralized giants.
WifiMap — WifiMap rewards users for mapping and confirming the location of wifi hotspots globally to build a crowdsourced, decentralized wifi database. The physical verification of infrastructure locations is powerful.
Myriad other DePin projects exist spanning wireless networks, geo-mapping, storage, sensors, and more. As the industry matures, consolidation around winners in each domain seems likely. But the sheer breadth of disruption makes DePins massively appealing for investor interest while offering new digital asset exposure.
And just like the NFT mania, headlines of DePin crypto millionaires from previously inconceivable things like selling bandwidth or disk space may soon abound — turning niche infrastructure on its head.
The Crypto Evolution
The dominant crypto narratives have evolved from privacy and smart contracts in 2017/2018 to DeFi and NFTs in 2020/2021. The next cycle seems poised to bridge the digital and physical with DePins finally unlocking blockchain’s benefits for the average user.
And while most speculate on crypto gaming and entertainment as the next hype cycle, it’s infrastructure that underpins everything else. Just as physical roads and plumbing are fundamental to functioning societies, their digital analogs now stand to be revolutionized by crypto.
By aligning incentives, lowering barriers, and enabling permissionless innovation, DePins can turbocharge how we engineer and operate infrastructure at global scale. And deliver on the ultimate promise of decentralization — making technology work for common people rather than monopolies.
As blockchain technology enters the mainstream, it’s infrastructure that will directly transform people’s lives for the better. Not just making finance or art digital — but upgrading how we build and access the physical world.
So don’t just have your eyes glued to crypto game valuations and NFT artwork — remember that beneath it all, the pipes and scaffolds carrying it all are set for a historic upgrade. One powered by DePins and the communities who build them.
The foundation of the next digital revolution won’t just be code and tokens — but also antennas, hard drives and power cables coordinating in brand new ways. DePins are coming — and bringing the benefits of decentralization to the physical ground beneath our feet.
