<div id="readability-page-1"><div><div>My feeling about the DePIN crypto ecosystem over the past few years is that the vast majority of projects describe application scenarios and business models that are pseudo-demands.This is one aspect. On the other hand, what I find very far-fetched is that many so-called DePIN projects initially aimed to utilize idle resources, but as they developed, not only did these idle resources become useless, but the projects also completely turned into a game monopolized by large players. The most typical example of this is Filecoin—from its initial description of allowing even idle small hard drives at home to participate in storage mining, it later became a competition among storage server players. Not only Filecoin, but the vast majority of subsequent DePIN projects are also like this. Once a DePIN project becomes like this, it not only fails to fully utilize idle resources but also consumes even more resources. Why does this happen? I think one important reason is that in many DePIN projects, the idea of ​​connecting idle resources to the DePIN network is often that, in reality, these idle resources are simply unable to complete the tasks assigned to them by the network, or rather, the hardware requirements for actually performing these network tasks are very high. Nodes with such high-threshold hardware are unlikely to connect to these types of DePIN networks in reality (unless specifically for DePIN projects). Therefore, in these DePIN projects, resource nodes with low hardware requirements have almost no chance of receiving network rewards. In this respect, Bitcoin mining differs significantly from these DePIN projects. Bitcoin's computational tasks can be broken down and parallelized, leading to the emergence of mining pool strategies. This strategy allows both high-powered and low-powered devices to connect to mining pools and participate in mining. The only difference is that devices with higher computing power receive more rewards, and those with lower computing power receive less. Therefore, in the Bitcoin network, once certain hardware thresholds are met, nodes with both high and low computing power have a chance to receive rewards. In my view, this is a key difference between the two systems: whether nodes with different resource holdings all have a fair chance to receive network rewards. In the former, nodes with fewer resources have almost no chance; in the latter, nodes with fewer resources still have a chance, just receiving less reward. Recently, a project called DePIN in the AI ​​+ Crypto sector seems to have followed a similar path to Bitcoin, overcoming the predicament faced by previous DePIN projects. This project isdphn.ai . It is currently a decentralized network focused on AI inference, with the aim of incentivizing systems (servers, cloud, ...) running various large models (currently mainly various open-source large models) to join the network for AI inference work. Let's take the system running DeepSeek as an example. These systems all join this network as nodes. They differ in computing power, work efficiency, and the speed at which they produce tokens. But that doesn't matter. After these nodes join the network, when the network receives a request to process an inference task using DeepSeek, it randomly selects one of these nodes to handle the task. After the task is completed, the system runs a verification mechanism to check the result. If everything goes smoothly, the node is rewarded; otherwise, it is penalized. When assigning tasks, the network randomly selects a node. This node may process the task slowly or quickly, but all nodes have an equal chance. However, this approach requires users to have a certain tolerance for performance feedback. Because if the node with low computing power is selected to process the task, the user will receive feedback in a longer time; if the node with high computing power is selected, the user will receive feedback in a shorter time. This project has been online for some time, and its current development momentum seems good. This seems to be validating the feasibility of DePIN in this niche market. However, regarding the project itself, it has several obvious problems: The biggest problem, in my opinion, is that the barrier to entry is not high enough, especially technically. Currently, its prominence is mainly due to the relatively small market and lack of attention. But if this model ignites demand in the inference field in the future, a large number of competitors will inevitably enter the market. Where will its competitive advantage lie then? Furthermore, this system currently primarily relies on large open-source models. It cannot support truly powerful and efficient closed-source models such as Anthropic and OpenAI. Even among the open-source models it currently supports, an increasing number are reducing their open-source scope and extent. If this trend continues, will this model be able to continue operating in the future when the capabilities of open-source models become too weak and closed-source models no longer support them? So what impressed me most about this project wasn't its quality or investment value, but rather that it seemed to prove that DePIN could be viable in certain AI + Crypto sectors.</div></div></div>

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The DePIN crypto ecosystem has faced challenges, with many projects failing to utilize idle resources effectively and becoming monopolized by large players. A new project, dphn.ai, aims to incentivize diverse nodes for AI inference tasks, allowing equal chances for rewards regardless of computing power. However, it faces potential competition and limitations in supporting closed-source models. Its current success may be short-lived if demand increases and competitors enter the market.

- The author argues that many DePIN projects fail to utilize idle resources effectively, often leading to monopolization by larger players, as illustrated by Filecoin's evolution.  
- The comparison with Bitcoin highlights that while Bitcoin allows nodes with varying computing power to participate and earn rewards, many DePIN projects do not provide fair access to all resource holders.  
- A specific project, dphn.ai, shows promise in the AI and crypto space by incentivizing diverse nodes for AI tasks, though it faces challenges such as low technical barriers and reliance on open-source models.

New Observations on DePIN in the AI + Crypto Field