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DePIN is an emerging vertical in the cryptocurrency industry and one of the most important narratives in this bull market. DePIN usually incentivizes participants by issuing and distributing tokens. Users can obtain token rewards and generate direct economic benefits by providing resources, maintaining the network, participating in governance, etc., thereby reshuffling the way wealth is distributed and bringing wealth effects to more ordinary people. It is expected that the DePIN market size will reach 3 trillion US dollars in the next five years.

For the crypto market, DePIN is a new concept that only appeared in 2023. But in fact, the original intention of IoTeX when it was established in 2017 was to connect the Internet of Things with the blockchain to help users own and control their smart devices and the data and value generated by the devices. This is actually the current DePIN, but the concept of DePIN did not appear at that time.

IoTeX can be said to be the founder of DePIN and an indispensable public chain in the field of DePIN. On July 18, the IoTeX 2.0 white paper was officially released, and the slogan "DePIN For Everyone" was proposed, which is the vision of IoTeX.

The goal of IoTeX 2.0 is to adopt a new modular platform design and update the energy structure to meet the rapidly growing needs of DePIN projects and users. At the same time, it demonstrates to the entire industry the results of its years of hard work in the DePIN field, and determines the future vision of continuing to improve the DePIN infrastructure, develop the DePIN ecosystem, and help billions of users around the world gain wealth through DePIN.

In April 2024, IoTeX completed a $50 million financing led by SNZ Capital, Foresight Ventures, FutureMoney, etc. This $50 million financing includes investment in long-term staked $IOTX (DePIN token, governance and empowering the DePIN ecosystem on the IoTeX chain), as well as cooperation with the IoTeX Foundation and DePINsurf accelerator, and support for DePIN projects built on the IoTeX chain.

Infrastructure upgrade - 6 years of hard work to create a modular public chain most suitable for DePIN

No ecosystem or field can operate independently. It requires more infrastructure and applications to support each other and ensure that each module has corresponding application support. This is especially true for DePIN, which has higher requirements for infrastructure and public products.

IoTeX 2.0 is upgraded from a Layer 1 public chain to a modular DePIN open platform. It is the only ecosystem that supports the openness, modularity, and large-scale adoption of DePIN.

Infrastructure modules DIM are the core of the technical architecture in the IoTeX 2.0 upgrade. These modules cover the entire DePIN technology stack, including identity recognition, off-chain computing, L2 SDK, and public products. Together, they constitute the indispensable basic products for building DePIN projects. DePIN projects can choose the technology stack that best suits their needs from a range of products according to their needs.

With the infrastructure module, any team with good enough ideas and creativity can easily build DePIN projects through IoTeX 2.0 and turn ideals into reality. Compared with the previous process, this process is faster, simpler, and lower cost.

Lowering the barrier to construction will help turn more ideas into reality, forming an interdependent and composable ecosystem, while attracting more users to enter Web3 and benefit from Web3.

Of course, public resources are also indispensable in this process. IoTeX 2.0 has also made some achievements in public facilities:

W3bstream

W3bstream is the world's first zero-knowledge chain decentralized off-chain computing infrastructure designed for smart devices and real-world data. It solves the verification problem of DEPIN projects and devices (proposed by a16z) by utilizing optimized zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) developed in-house. In essence, it is to trigger smart contracts by leveraging crowdsourced data from DEPIN devices to generate "real-world activity proofs". Currently, w3bstream's development network has been deployed to IoTeX L1, Solana, ETH, and Arbitrum.

DePINscan

DePINscan is a comprehensive DePIN data dashboard that helps DEPIN users, miners, and investors discover early projects, monitor their growth, and act as a real-time price, volume, and market value monitor for DEPIN assets. As a visual data panel, DePINscan has integrated more than 200 projects with a total market value of more than 26 billion US dollars and connected more than 1.2 million Web3 devices.

Multi-chain AA wallet IoPay

IoPay is a multi-chain AA wallet for managing IoTeX accounts. The low threshold and ease of use of the AA wallet provide a window for more Web2 users to seamlessly enter Web3.

Cross-chain bridge IoTube

IoTube is a cross-chain bridge for transferring tokens between IoTeX and major L1/L2, providing an important channel for convenient flow of funds in and out of IoTeX.

In addition, DeviceConnect is about to be launched, which is an SDK that abstracts the complexity for various hardware that want to connect to W3bstream and various L1/L2; IoID, an on-chain and off-chain self-sovereign digital identity, helps people and machines establish rich digital relationships, thereby no longer relying on centralized identity providers.

Economic system upgrade — comprehensive architecture of the economic flywheel

In IoTeX 2.0, the new economic system expands the utility of IOXT, balancing inflationary staking rewards and burning gas fees (similar to Ethereum’s EIP-1559) as well as deflationary mechanisms such as creating device identities (ioIDs) and obtaining verifiable credentials.

The foundation of modularity is a unified, trusted layer, for which loTeX 2.0 builds a modular security pool MSP. It enables loTeX L1 to lease its proof-of-stake security to DIM for security and trust. loTeX L1 and MSP jointly serve as the trust anchor and unchangeable ledger for all activities within the DIM layer, dApp, and L2 layer.

Validators can earn incentives and provide security for projects by re-staking their Proof of Stake (PoS) security to DIMs and DePIN projects. In addition, DIMs that obtain security and trust from MSPs will regularly anchor their states to IoTeX L1 to support dApp builders in developing innovative and trusted developments.

MSP is actually similar to Eigenlayer’s Restaking mechanism. IoTeX has node staking and the upcoming MarshalIDAO staking, and MSP is actually one of them. It allows IOXT to obtain more income through staking and restaking, and introduces market-oriented mechanisms such as LSD on this architecture, so that the practicality and income attributes of IOXT can be superimposed to obtain a positive flywheel.

At the same time, in terms of ecological incentives, IoTeX 2.0 has also launched a number of measures:

DePIN Surf Accelerator Program

DePIN Surf Accelerator was launched at ETHDenver 2024 in collaboration between FutureMoney, Foresight X and IoTeX Foundation. As long as you have a good idea, even new entrepreneurs in the crypto market can get financial support, guidance from a professional team, communication and other resources at IoTeX.

The $5 million Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) accelerator program focuses on DePIN and AI startups with real-world applications. Program participants will receive mentorship, networking opportunities, and resources, and each selected project will receive an initial investment of $50,000.

DePIN Liquidity Center Program

Insufficient liquidity is one of the biggest challenges facing new projects. IoTeX launched the DePIN Liquidity Center to inject vitality into young DePIN projects. This program includes six founding members, WiFi Map, GEODNET, DIMO, Drop Wireless, XNET, and WiCrypt, to bring projects into an ecosystem with more than 300,000 community members, and provide up to $10,000 in liquidity pool matching on the DePIN-focused decentralized exchange mimo, as well as many other products.

Integrate new projects’ tokens onto IoTeX through ioPay, ioTube, and mimo to facilitate seamless transactions and broader ecosystem compatibility. After integration, the next step is to create a secure 3/4 multi-signature wallet hosted by Safe. New projects only need to contribute $10,000 of native tokens to the liquidity pool, which will then be matched by IoTeX with $10,000 worth of IOTX tokens. This matching mechanism greatly enhances the liquidity pool and provides a stable foundation for market growth.

After the liquidity pool is established, the native token/IOTX trading pair will be listed on mimo DEX, which not only facilitates user trading, but also immediately supports IoTeX's cross-chain ioPay wallet. IoPay increases the accessibility of tokens to a wide user base and increases awareness and token adoption. To further incentivize trading, a liquidity mining program will also be launched, providing participants with rewards such as native tokens and physical hardware giveaways.

The Liquidity Center Program will ensure continued user growth and expansion of project influence through ongoing marketing activities and collaboration between all listed DePIN projects. These initiatives are designed to continuously increase exposure and engagement, and fully leverage the collective power of the ecosystem to create an ecological closed loop.

Marshall DAO

Marshall DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) with an on-chain voting escrow governance model that aims to allow IoTeX project stakeholders to propose how to allocate IOTX to promote the growth of the IoTeX ecosystem, such as enhancing liquidity, supporting early and growing DePIN projects, public goods grants, and donations to the ecosystem. Explore how to introduce well-known DePIN projects and how to fund innovative projects across the entire network.

It will create a transparent optimization system to propose and implement the most beneficial plans for the development of IoTeX through the collective wisdom of the community. This is not just about allocating funds, but about building a new DePIN ecosystem led by IOTX holders to jointly push the IoTeX network to unprecedented new heights.

Ecosystem upgrade — the ecological landscape is emerging and an explosion is imminent

IoTeX 2.0's open modular technology and mature infrastructure, coupled with a multi-initiative ecological support plan and economic flywheel effect, enable any DePIN project to be easily built and operated on IoTeX. Currently, more than 200 projects have been connected to its ecosystem.

As the launch of IoTeX 2.0 accelerates deployment and development, with the help of these infrastructures and incentive programs, more native innovative projects will be deployed on IoTeX, and IoTeX will become the biggest gold mine in the DePIN era.

The IoTeX ecosystem has already taken shape, and many high-quality projects are ready to explode. You can focus on:

AI Layer2 project Network3 helps global AI developers to conduct large-scale model training or verification quickly, conveniently and efficiently, with the number of global nodes exceeding 200,000.

Wayru, a shared WIFI infrastructure developed in collaboration with the United Nations, has seen over 100,000 mobile downloads, 10,066,027 active WiFi networks, 79,880 active users, and 707,729 total connections, gaining widespread use.

Inferix, a decentralized GPU network for visual computing and AI reasoning, has just concluded its alliance activities. You can continue to pay attention to subsequent activities and wait for opportunities to participate.

The shared charging pile energy network PowerPod builds a decentralized energy Internet, connecting electric vehicles, charging stations, solar panels and energy storage systems around the world into a unified network.

Smart wearable WatchX, an AI wearable device ecosystem equipped with multi-chain dApps, covers millions of users. According to official news, pre-sale will be carried out in Q3.

DeFi is an indispensable liquidity infrastructure for any ecosystem. A comprehensive DeFi ecosystem has been established on IoTeX, ready for the upcoming outbreak.

• DEX：PinSwap、Loxodrome

• Derivatives trading platform: Quenta

• Decentralized Stablecoin: Magma

• Restaking：Bedrock

Comprehensive Upgrade — The Launch of IoTeX 2.0 is a Milestone in DePIN’s Development

Through modular infrastructure DIMs, matching modular security pools (MSPs), and innovative economic flywheel mechanisms, IoTeX 2.0 has built a solid DePIN infrastructure, laying the foundation for the trillion-dollar DePIN track. These technological innovations not only improve the security and flexibility of the system, but also greatly reduce the complexity of development and deployment. It is expected that 100 million devices will be connected in the next 3-5 years, and trillions of dollars of real-world value will be released on the blockchain. This is a very large and vast space waiting to be explored.