Helium’s past DePIN history, Bitcoin, Arweave and STEPN

Helium represents a dedicated DePIN narrative, But before that happens, there are at least three important contributions that, along with dedicated hardware, will form a major part of the next DePIN narrative.

• The sanctity of physical hardware: Bitcoin and PoW mechanism

• FIL&AR: ordinary hardware + Web3 incentive layer

• STEPN: exit mechanism + "expectation "Discounted cash flow" sales mechanism

Messari posthumous title: Archeology of the origin of the name DePIN

Helium’s re-emergence was not in December, but in July when it was launched on Coinbase. Before that, DePIN received some market attention, but Helium has been accused many times by the drop in currency prices and by miners. Pond’s The feeling is as heavy as ever.

Today, talking about Helium is inseparable from the 5G mobile package, which has successfully attracted users with real needs rather than simply treating it as a financial game. , enough users form a large enough currency holding group to suppress the strife caused by the sell-off. The rumored Martians and Brother Sun were cut off after exchanging coins, which is essentially a variant of sell-off and run.

Analogous to the relationship between StepN and various types of (chemical physical infrastructure), and Helium plays a role as a link between the past and the following. If Helium dies, it will be difficult for DePIN to stand up. However, Helium is more alive and energetic, so latecomers only need to make slight improvements to survive:

1. Micro-innovation: Improved on the basis of the project leader Helium, such as WIFI is to 5G and satellite is to the ground;

2. Change the scene: copy the Helium model, but switch to different fields, such as VPP (virtual power plant) Starpower and green energy Arkreen.

After discovering the name of DePIN, we still need to continue to pursue real projects. The most important thing about DePIN is the hardware, not the area. Blockchain (software), so roughly divided, including hardware and chains:

1. 2007/8/9: Bit Various types of mining machines have taken shape, from personal CPUs to ASICs, etc., which have established their reputation as power consumers~

2. 2014 : The Filecoin model came out and gradually began to attract Huaqiangbei. The price has been rising. It has less and less to do with the data storage originally designed, and more and more to do with mining to earn coins;

3. < p style="text-align: left;">2017: IoTeX was established. Of course, it was not outstanding among the many public chains at that time. It was more of a remnant of the era of chain reform frenzy. Being mentioned now is purely an anomaly;

4. 2021: Helium reaches ATH, a high of $50. Although it is not as good as Ethereum at the same time, it is now comparable to Ethereum. When you come out to compete, you will know how terrible this is;

5. At the end of 2022, Messari began to become a god, and the name DePIN was officially decided.

Messari divides it into four major sectors: server network, wireless network, sensor network, and energy network. Basically, it is off-chain data generation combined with on-chain data confirmation. The two major modules, the core of which are authority confirmation and scale effect, do not have high requirements for anonymity, decentralization and extreme "full chain operation".

Moreover, the categories are too complicated, such as decentralized database (DDB). Although the bottom layer also involves hard disks, the relationship between modern databases and underlying hardware is not clear. The coupling has become very serious, and I am forced to classify it. I seriously suspect that it is trying to make up the word count.

If I were to divide it up, DePIN must meet two requirements. The first is to customize dedicated hardware, such as Helium; the second is a dedicated incentive layer that will Commonly used hardware is converted or added to a Web3 network, such as Render Network, which sells personal idle GPU networks to others.

The sanctity of physical hardware

Although Bitcoin has been accused of power consumption by the outside world for many years, But thinking about it in reverse, this has a benchmark effect of basic pricing. The electricity consumed is a burning civilization. One kilowatt hour of electricity is a beam of light that illuminates the value of Bitcoin.

When Ethereum transforms into PoS, the debate becomes increasingly intense. Environmental protection is not only correct, but also politically correct, but PoW (specifically referring to the workload of physical hardware) has The advantage that PoS cannot produce is a physical connection with the real world and a transferable connection.

Although OFAC may not be able to control the Ethereum network, OFAC must not be able to control the Bitcoin network. This is the gap between the two. I call it the sanctity of physical hardware. Under the dominance of virtualization technology, only Bitcoin can persist.

Arweave&FIL: Long-termism VS short-term speculation

The second is FIL&Arweave The great magic of creating an incentive layer based on existing physical hardware is recognized. Needless to say, the madness of FIL. If you are interested in this, you can find a miner to talk about the tragic history of being repeatedly harvested by FIL with a handful of bitter tears.

The importance of Arweave has not been recognized by the market for a long time. In my opinion, AR represents a classic model that allows less successful projects to survive. Although AR has recently suffered from civil war, It made headlines, but the number of nodes, network scale and storage data are all orders of magnitude different from FIL. However, AR can continue to survive. Essentially, this is because the current Web3 is still an illusion with niche demand + a lot of hot money. The maintenance cost is not high.

As long as the project side is not extravagant and lustful, it is not difficult for most projects, especially public chain-level projects, to survive.

The difficult thing is to get out of the circle. At this point, Helium has successfully "harvested" a wave of old miners. The popular one now is Helium 5G, not the earliest one. Helium WIFI mode, and those that can go out of the circle to Web 2, apart from Bitcoin, I am afraid there is only one STEPN. STEPN is similar to DePIN and Bitcoin mining machines, both are "anticipated cash flow discount + hardware target", the difference is nothing more than The difference between mining machines and shoes.

But there is a universal truth. The DePIN mining machine is priced at US$99, US$999, and US$9,999. It is definitely not because of Huaqiangbei’s high technical content, but because of its high technical content. Miners expect a short return period or a long passive income in the future. This is not similar to STEPN's model, but completely consistent. However, one thing about STEPN is that the dedicated DePIN hardware is different: fitness is not only a demand of the Web3 crowd, it is a big market in the world. , even if there is no income, there will still be fitness needs:

• STEPN: fitness market, providing additional incentives in addition to daily fitness

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• Specialized DePIN: Web3 miner market, mined coins can only be sold, and hardware can only do one thing;

• General hardware + additional incentives: If you can speculate FIL, take your time and call Arweave.

Here is not advocating a certain model, but saying "Before miners participate, you have to figure it out. In addition to speculation and mining, , what are your needs?" If you really have fitness needs, it is not too late to join STEPN. If you spend $999 to buy Web3 WIFI, you are at your own risk, because normal people will not do this.