Imagine peaq as a fundamental operating system for a new kind of economy. The central idea is that in the future, machines, vehicles, and devices will participate independently in economic life. To understand peaq, we need to look at the problems it solves and the future it aims to create for our connected world.

Today, billions of devices are connected to the internet—from smart light bulbs to cars. However, these devices mostly operate within the closed systems of large corporations.1 This leads to several disadvantages: Although we buy the devices, we don't truly own them. The data they collect is used by companies to make money, without us being involved.1 We and our devices are essentially the product.

Furthermore, devices from different brands often cannot communicate with each other. An Apple device doesn't just talk to a Google device. This severely limits the possibilities. It's almost impossible for new companies to enter this market. For example, anyone wanting to start a new ride-sharing service would first have to invest huge sums in their own fleet of vehicles before the first customer can take a ride.3 Only large corporations can afford this, which further solidifies their dominance.

peaq aims to change this by creating the "Economy of Things" (EoT).4 You can think of it as a decentralized economic network owned by the people and machines that use it.1 It's the next logical step after the Internet of Things. While the IoT only makes devices connected and capable of sharing information, the EoT gives them the ability to earn money independently.1

The formula for this is simple: IoT + Artificial Intelligence (AI) + Web3 = EoT.1

• IoT is the foundation: the connected devices.

• AI gives them the "brain" to make independent decisions.6

• Web3 (the next generation of the internet with blockchain) provides the decentralized and secure foundation for machines to exchange value and prove ownership without a central authority.1

In this world, an electric car could independently find a charging station, pay for the charging process, and get energy. Delivery drones could organize their own orders and distribute the profits directly to their owners.2 The vision behind this is that the profits generated by automation are distributed fairly to everyone, not just a few corporations.1

This grand vision is realized through two concrete concepts: Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) and Machine Real-World Assets (RWAs).6 peaq is the perfect platform for both.

DePIN works like this: Instead of one company building an entire network (e.g., Wi-Fi hotspots), many individuals can provide their own hardware and are rewarded with digital coins (tokens).10 This solves the problem of expensive startups, as the network grows with the community.3 Thus, the infrastructure no longer belongs to a corporation, but to the community.11

Machine RWAs means that a real, value-generating machine (like a car) is converted into a digital token on the blockchain.6 You can think of it as a digital share of the machine.5 Several people can buy shares of this token and, in return, receive a portion of the income the car generates, for example, through car-sharing. This turns expensive machines into a liquid investment for everyone.12

peaq is not a short-term project. It was founded back in 2017 by Till Wendler, Leonard Dorlöchter, and Max Thake to connect blockchain and the Internet of Things.6 The founders had already gained industry experience with their company EoT Labs and knew the limitations of the old systems.6

The long development time shows how serious the team is. They tested various technologies and ultimately chose the current, stable architecture instead of relying on experimental approaches.14 The official launch of the network in November 2024 was the culmination of these years of work.6

The technical architecture of peaq is precisely tailored to its mission. Every detail was developed to meet the special requirements of DePINs and the machine economy. This is what makes peaq different from other, more general blockchains.

peaq was created with a flexible toolkit called Substrate and operates as a so-called parachain within the larger Polkadot network.5 This is a smart decision that brings several advantages.

As part of Polkadot, peaq doesn't have to build its own security but borrows it from the large and very secure Polkadot network. It can also automatically communicate and exchange value with all other projects in the Polkadot universe.11 The technical basis is therefore very solid and future-proof.22

The system is secured by a process called Nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS).24 Simply put, there are two important groups:

• Collators: These are the "bookkeepers" of peaq. They collect transactions and create the blocks.6

• Delegators: These are owners of the $PEAQ token who use their tokens to support the collators they trust. They essentially vote for the most trustworthy bookkeepers.6

This architecture is a deliberate evolution from earlier ideas and shows that peaq is committed to a proven, secure, and connected future—exactly what DePINs need.14

DePINs can involve millions of devices making countless small payments. This requires a fast and inexpensive network. peaq is optimized for exactly that.

The network already handles up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) and is planned to expand to over 100,000 TPS soon.6 A single transaction costs only a fraction of a cent (about $0.00025).11 This is crucial for the many small payments between machines to be worthwhile.

This speed is made possible by clever technologies from the Polkadot system, which allow the network to process tasks in parallel and adjust its performance as needed.5

To attract as many developers as possible, peaq supports two of the most important programming environments. You can think of it as a computer that can run both Windows and Mac programs without any problems.

• EVM Compatibility: Developers familiar with Ethereum can use their existing programs and tools on peaq with almost no changes.10

• Wasm Support: For developers who want even more performance and security, peaq offers the modern Wasm technology, which is based on the Rust programming language.11

What makes peaq special is its set of modular DePIN functions. This is like a toolbox with pre-made building blocks that developers can simply integrate into their projects.10 Instead of having to reinvent everything from scratch, they can use ready-made solutions for the most common problems. This saves an enormous amount of time and money.10

This toolbox is the core of peaq's strategy. The most important tools are:

• peaq ID: A digital ID for every machine.29 This allows every device to identify itself securely and uniquely, without the need for a central authority. This is the basis for secure communication between machines.32

• peaq access: A rights management system.24 This allows you to define exactly who or what can access a machine. For example, you can give a user the right to drive a rental car for one hour.

• peaq verify: A three-tiered security system to ensure that the data sent by devices is genuine.30 This is extremely important because if the data could be faked, the entire system would collapse. The three tiers are:

  1. Cryptographic Signature: Each device digitally signs its data with its unique ID.33

  2. Pattern Recognition: Artificial intelligence looks for unusual patterns in the data that could indicate fraud.33

  3. Comparison with External Sources: The data is compared with trusted external information (so-called oracles) to confirm its accuracy.33

• peaq store: A secure on-chain storage for important machine data.30

• peaq pay: A payment system that ensures money is only transferred after a service has been successfully provided.29

peaq expands its capabilities by collaborating with other leading projects:

• Artificial Intelligence: Through a partnership with Fetch.ai, developers can deploy intelligent agents that automate tasks.6 Further collaborations with

  Autonolas and Nevermined enable autonomous services and payments.5

• Easy Sign-On: The integration of Particle Network allows users to simply log in with their Google or email account, without having to deal with complicated crypto wallets.5

• Connection to Other Blockchains: Thanks to LayerZero, projects on peaq can interact with over 90 other blockchains, which enormously increases their reach.5

• Fast Data Access: The partnership with Subsquid makes it easy for apps to quickly retrieve and display data from the peaq network.36

The $PEAQ token is the currency of the peaq network. Its functionality (the "tokenomics") is designed to keep the network running, reward participation, and facilitate the countless economic interactions between machines and people.

The $PEAQ token has three main functions that reinforce each other and create a steady demand 10:

• Transaction Fees: Every action on the network, whether a simple transfer or a complex machine payment, costs a small fee. This fee must always be paid in $PEAQ.38 The more activity on the network, the more $PEAQ tokens are needed for these fees.

• Network Security (Staking): peaq is secured through "staking." Token holders can "deposit" their $PEAQ tokens to support trustworthy network operators (the collators). As a reward for this contribution to the network's security, they receive more $PEAQ tokens.10 This motivates people to hold their tokens rather than sell them.

• Co-determination (Governance): Owning $PEAQ tokens gives you a right to vote.10 Token holders can vote on important decisions for the future of the network, such as technical updates or changes to the economic rules. This distributes control over the network fairly among all participants.

These three functions create a positive cycle: More usage leads to more fees, which increases demand for the token. This, in turn, makes it more attractive to stake tokens for network security, making the network more secure and attractive for new projects—and so the cycle begins again.

The distribution of the $PEAQ tokens was planned to fairly balance the interests of all stakeholders—from early investors and the team to the community.

In total, there are 4.2 billion $PEAQ tokens.5 The following table shows how they are divided and when they become available.

The release schedules (vesting) are particularly important. The core team and the development company EoT Labs have to wait a long time before they can sell their tokens (almost four years in total).40 This is a strong sign that they believe in the long-term success of the project and are not looking for quick profits.

peaq has an economic model where the creation of new tokens decreases over time.18 The network started with an annual inflation rate of 3.5%.39 These new tokens are used as rewards for network security and to fund the ecosystem.

The inflation rate decreases by 10% each year until it stabilizes at a long-term rate of 1%.39 This ensures that there are strong incentives to support the network at the beginning, but the value of the token is not diluted by too many new tokens in the long run. The community can later adjust these rules by voting.40

Of the new tokens, 40% go to the stakers and 60% go into a community treasury to fund new projects and the growth of the network.40

To enable safe development and testing without endangering the main network, peaq uses three different networks, each with its own token.6

• $PEAQ: The main token for the peaq mainnet, where the real economic activity takes place.

• $KREST: The token for krest, the so-called "canary network."6 This is a real, functioning test network with real value. Here, developers can test their projects under real conditions before launching on the more valuable main network.3

• $AGUNG: The token for the pure testnet. Here, the tokens have no value and are only used for initial experiments.6

The krest network is particularly clever. It is not only an important testing ground but was also used to build a dedicated community. Those who owned and used $KREST tokens had a chance to receive later $PEAQ token gifts (airdrops), which attracted many early supporters.28

The true value of a blockchain is shown by how many projects and users it actually has. peaq has already made impressive progress here and has gathered a large community of developers, users, and strategic partners.

Even at the launch of its main network, peaq showed considerable momentum. Over 50 projects from more than 20 different areas such as mobility, energy, and connectivity were already on board.9 This shows how great the need for a specialized platform for DePINs is.

Some key figures illustrate the scale:

• Connected Devices: The number of machines, vehicles, and sensors active in the peaq ecosystem is a key indicator of success. Reports speak of over 350,000 to more than 3 million devices.3

• Value of Devices: The total value of the hardware running in the peaq ecosystem is estimated at over $1 billion.10

• Funding: The project has raised a total of over $43 million from investors. This included both large investment firms and thousands of small investors, underscoring the broad confidence in the project.7

• Community: peaq has built a large and active global community with over 300,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 160,000 members on Discord.43

A look at individual projects shows how peaq's technology is being used in practice.

• Silencio (Environmental Monitoring): Silencio is an app that allows anyone to measure noise pollution with their smartphone and receive rewards in the form of tokens.6 The project is already very successful, with over 35,000 active sensors that have collected billions of data points.12 Silencio benefits from peaq's high speed and low costs and makes extensive use of the

  peaq verify system to ensure the authenticity of the collected data.4

• ELOOP (Car Sharing and Machine Tokenization): ELOOP is a perfect example of the machine RWA idea. The company has tokenized its Tesla car-sharing fleet in Vienna. This means investors could buy digital shares in the cars and be part of the revenue.6 Now, ELOOP is building a platform on peaq that will allow any company to tokenize its machines—from wind turbines to delivery drones—to raise capital and create new investment opportunities.44

• MapMetrics (Navigation): MapMetrics is a navigation app that rewards users for anonymously collecting traffic data while driving.46 What's particularly noteworthy is that MapMetrics switched from the large blockchain Solana to peaq.5 The developers cited peaq's special tools and DePIN-focused infrastructure as the reason. This switch is a strong signal that peaq's specialized strategy is working.

• Other Projects: The diversity in the peaq ecosystem is vast. It includes Farmsent, which is building a decentralized supply chain for farmers 4,

  Charge.xyz, a network for private charging of electric cars 46,

  DeNet, a decentralized data storage 46, and

  Wicrypt, a project for decentralized internet sharing in Africa.46

peaq is pursuing a dual strategy: it fosters a base of crypto developers while also forming partnerships with large, globally known companies.

• Collaboration with Large Corporations: peaq has established relationships with well-known companies such as Bosch, Airbus, Continental, NTT, and the payment giant Mastercard.2 A successful collaboration with just one of these giants could bring millions of devices and users to the network.

• Partnerships in the Web3 Space: peaq has connected with many other important crypto projects to strengthen its technology:

  • AI & Automation: Fetch.ai, Olas, and Nevermined provide the tools for intelligent, autonomous machines.5

  • Interoperability & Liquidity: LayerZero connects peaq with over 90 other blockchains.5

  • User-Friendliness: Particle Network simplifies the login process for users.5

  • Institutional Access: Integrations with Fireblocks and Safe make it easier for large institutions to use the peaq ecosystem.5

  • Funding for Projects: peaq is a main investor in a $100 million fund from Borderless Capital that specifically finances projects on peaq.5

This mix of grassroots movement and collaborations with established companies makes peaq's path to broad adoption safer and more promising.

The market for blockchain technology is highly competitive. peaq's strategy is not to compete directly with the large general-purpose blockchains, but to establish itself as the specialist for DePIN and the machine economy.

Only a few projects have specialized in DePINs as clearly as peaq. The closest competitors are IOTA and IoTeX.

• IOTA: IOTA uses a different technology called "Tangle," which was developed for fee-free micropayments between machines.15 Interestingly, the very first ideas for peaq were based on IOTA's technology.14 However, peaq has since opted for a completely different, more established architecture based on Substrate and Polkadot. This makes peaq a more pragmatic and developer-friendly choice.

• IoTeX: IoTeX is also a strong competitor focused on DePINs.29 IoTeX has its own solution called "W3bStream," which focuses on verifying real-world data. Some experts believe IoTeX is technically more advanced here, especially through the use of special secure hardware (TEEs).34 Critics have described peaq's approach to data verification as too optimistic.34 However, this criticism often overlooks peaq's three-tiered security system (

  peaq verify), which combines multiple layers of protection.33 The competition will likely revolve around whose toolbox for developers is ultimately better and easier to use.

The following table compares the specialized platforms:

The biggest competition for peaq may not come from other specialists, but from large, established all-purpose blockchains like Solana.29 These networks have huge advantages: many users, a lot of capital, and countless developer tools. The well-known DePIN project Helium, for example, moved to Solana, which shows that you don't necessarily need a specialized blockchain to be successful.29

A founder must therefore decide: Do I build on a smaller, specialized platform like peaq with custom tools, or on a huge platform like Solana with immediate access to a larger market? peaq is betting that its specialized approach will be convincing in the long run. The switch of MapMetrics from Solana to peaq is the best evidence that this bet can pay off.5

Despite the competition, peaq has carved out a strong position with clear advantages:

1. Clear Focus: peaq is "The Layer-1 for DePIN."3 This clear focus is reflected in its technology, partnerships, and marketing. All-purpose platforms that want to be everything for everyone cannot convey this as convincingly.

2. The Modular Toolbox: This collection of ready-made building blocks is peaq's main technical advantage. It makes the development of DePINs much easier, faster, and promotes collaboration between projects.10

3. Partnerships with Large Corporations: Collaborating with global corporations like Bosch and Mastercard gives peaq a credibility and reach that is unattainable for most crypto projects.4

Ultimately, peaq's development—away from a pure technology focus towards a clear market orientation—shows great maturity. By understanding the needs of a specific market and building the best solution for it, peaq has a good chance of succeeding in the long term.

A comprehensive look at its vision, technology, and market position allows for an outlook on the future development of the peaq network.

peaq's public plans are ambitious. The goal is to build a complete financial world for machines, called "Machine DeFi."51 Important next steps include:

• Machine DeFi Suite: The development of its own decentralized exchange (DEX) and money markets for machines. This would allow machine shares (RWAs) to be traded, lent, and used as collateral, which would greatly increase their utility.51

• Own Stablecoin and Launch Platform: Plans also include its own stablecoin (a stable digital currency) for the machine economy and a launch platform where new projects can raise money from the community.51

• Technical Improvements: Performance is to be further increased to enable over 100,000 transactions per second, and there will be an additional software kit for the Python programming language.51

The successful implementation of these plans is crucial. A functioning financial world for machines would be the logical next step and would set in motion a strong cycle in which real assets are not only run on peaq but are also financed and traded there.

Despite its strong foundation, peaq also faces significant risks:

• Technical Risk: The technical goals are very high. Managing over 100,000 transactions per second securely and decentrally is a major challenge. The peaq verify system is particularly critical. If hackers were to succeed in tricking this system and feeding it false data, it could jeopardize the economic basis of all projects on peaq.

• Competitive Risk: As mentioned, the competition from large all-rounders like Solana is enormous. peaq's specialized tools must offer so much added value that projects consistently choose peaq over the larger networks.

• Regulatory Risk: DePINs and RWAs are technological and legal new territory. Future laws on data protection or the taxation of digital assets could become a problem for projects in the peaq ecosystem.

• The Chicken-and-Egg Problem: Every DePIN network needs two sides: providers (who supply hardware) and users (who use the service). It is very difficult to successfully build up both sides at the same time. If demand for the services fails to materialize, the whole system will stall.

The risks are matched by a huge opportunity. The market for the Internet of Things is estimated to be worth several trillion dollars.19 DePINs are considered one of the most promising areas in the crypto world because they have a clear real-world benefit and enable sustainable business models.3

peaq has cleverly and strategically positioned itself at the center of this development. It doesn't just want to be a part of the DePIN market; it is actively shaping it by providing the fundamental infrastructure for it. The project combines a long-term vision with pragmatic implementation, has strong partners, and a growing community.

In summary: If the peaq team succeeds in implementing its ambitious plans and overcoming the challenges, it has the potential to become the invisible but indispensable backbone of the future machine economy—and thus enable a more decentralized, fairer, and more efficient world.