As the bull run finally starts to kick off, the industry starts to ponder what the next trend in Web3 is going to be. Are dog coins going to dominate once more? Or are more sophisticated technologies going to rise to the top?
Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (also known as DePINs) are one of the most interesting uses of Web3 technology and are becoming increasingly popular. Many believe that DePINs are going to be the topic on everyone's minds in 2024.
Put simply, a DePIN is the Web3 way of creating and maintaining a network of physical hardware—for example, a network of hard drives or GPUs. The network consists of multiple individuals and small businesses supplying hardware in exchange for cryptocurrency rewards.
This structure allows for networks to be built by the little guy, rather than relying on huge corporations with lots of cash to splash. The network could comprise a collection of surplus hard drives individuals own, this joining of forces culminates in storage capacity rivaling that of expansive corporate entities. Equally, some will use specialized hardware specifically designed for DePIN purposes.
One of the most well-known and easy-to-understand examples is Filecoin. The project stores multiple copies of each file on multiple hard drives across the network, so it is always accessible. For every time that a hard drive is used, the owner is rewarded with a small amount of the Filecoin token (FIL). Now, FIL is the 26th largest cryptocurrency, according to CoinGecko.
Clearly, DePINs have been popular for some time now, with Filecoin launching in 2014. But coming in 2024, there is one project that is applying DePIN technology to resolve one of the most pressing issues in the world of tech.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used more and more but the only people in control of these systems are huge centralized companies—for example, Microsoft owns OpenAI. This centralization concern also comes with additional environmental worries with some companies using the same amount of electricity as a small country.
In an attempt to resolve these worries, NeurochainAI has introduced a decentralized network to power AI. One of the primary concerns when implementing such a system is scaling. Fortunately, NeurochainAI's DePIN technology fixes this issue.
NeurochainAI is the first-of-its-kind decentralized GPU network, combining to create the largest AI decentralized app store in the world. In doing this, they've technically created an "infinitely scalable" network, as new people can join the network at any time.
