DePIN networks can disrupt Big Tech and free the internet
DePIN networks can eat infrastructure the way software consumed most commerce. Akash, Helium and Filecoin are at the forefront of that movement.
Today, control of the internet is heavily concentrated in the hands of a few companies that enjoy massive scale advantages and regulatory protection. These companies operate the internet’s most critical infrastructure, from providing services like telecommunications to offering digital commodities like compute power. Their dominance has lowered competition in their respective industries, which has inevitably led to rising prices and fewer choices — ultimately hurting end users.
A new set of platforms, termed decentralized physical infrastructure Networks (DePIN), return control of the internet’s infrastructure to the people it’s supposed to most benefit: users. Built on public blockchains, these networks have the ability to take the disruptive innovation of some companies — such as Airbnb — a step further by empowering citizens to own, monetize, and improve the infrastructure around them.
More simply: DePIN allows individuals to provide their own labor or resources — for example, their electricity and internet connection — in return for micropayments. This allows protocols to create massive infrastructure footprints without having to front the bill.
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Author: Mahesh Ramakrishnan & Jorge Tamayo
