A decentralized physical infrastructure network or DePIN has really emerged as a beacon of innovation as it expands the decentralized technology beyond just digital infrastructure. In our previous article on DePIN Rollups, we highlighted that DePIN market is growing rapidly and it’s projected to reach $3.5 trillion by the end of 2028. Such rapid growth has also led to the creation of DePIN leading appchains such as Polkadot Parachains, Avalanche L1, and Cosmos SDK chains. 

Let’s learn about some of the popular DePIN appchains and how they benefit them. We have filtered these projects based on its unique concept, network effects, funding raised, deployed projects, and critical parameters. Before that, let’s appchains is exactly pioneering the DePIN revolution. 

Appchains are single-use Layer1 blockchains that serve a specific use case application instead of offering an ecosystem to various general-purpose applications. Speaking about DePINs, appchain allow projects to achieve Dedicated throughput with a sovereign chain, blazing fast response, Ethereum-compatibility and Etherem-level security, Low or even gasless transactions, flexibility & modularity, and more. Simply put, appchains allow DePIN projects to maintain a high level of performance and scalability, which is difficult to achieve in a shared ecosystem. 

1. Data

Data layer

• Synternet 

Synternet (previously known as Syntrophy) has built a decentralized and permissionless data Layer protocol with Cosmos SDK. Synternet offers as a customizable execution layer to use across diverse blockchains, enabling developers access to real-time data from any preferred chains. Syntrophy’s data layer essentially includes a publish-subscribe model in which data providers stream data for subscribers (interested parties), thus democratizing the data access. This unique concept of Synternet has attracted good investors, raising a total equity funding of $9M via seed rounds and ICOs. A big reason behind Synternet’s populatiy is its next-level scaling and performance capabilities powered by Cosmos SDK, also includes:

• Seamless deployment of latest features without lacking the degree performance or security. 

• Cosmos’ Golang-based contracts ensure efficiency and robustness.

• Sharding through Cosmos ‘zones’ enables horizontal scaling as well as parallel transaction execution for easy scalability. 

• High security plus reliability with BFT- Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT). 

• And, more. 

Marketplace

• Pundi AI

Pundi AI (rebranded from Function X) is an AI training & data platform that allows everyone to participate in generating data, verification, annotation, and also trading. All these activities take place on Pundi AI’s open-source marketplace to ensure transparency and zero monopoly. Pundi AI does not share solid information about its funding, but it has a huge TVL of 91.03M , 749.06M transactions, and 133.53K addresses. Pundi AI’s data marketplace is running on a Cosmos SDK-based chain to constantly improve its transaction matching service while also achieving unprecedented throughput and cross-chain interoperability with IBC (Inter-blockchain communication protocol). 

2. Computing

GPU/Compute

• Akash Network: Akash Network is one of the pioneers in DePIN compute marketplace that allows everyone to buy, sell, and trade GPU. Anyone can provide hardware compute resources on the network and earn rewards. Likewise, developers can get resources at 85% lower cost than average cloud providers.
  
  There are over 32 projects (15M+ transactions) currently deployed on Akash Network and the network has onboarded 184 GPUs; around 92% more than its capacity while opening 27k more leases in Q2 2024.  Such fast expansion of Akash network is accommodate through Cosmos SDK chain offering:

• Seamless onboarding of new leases and dApps through ABCI protocol. through the use of ABCI

• 10X cheaper gas fee.

• Support for massive, changing requirement of scalability. 

• Flexible interoperability with Cosmos and Ethereum-based  networks.  

•  AIOZ Network: AIOZ Network is a DePIN Network designed mainly for AI, storage, and streaming. AIOZ makes computing resources available in all these three categories, enabling interested parties to run a node and contribute their spare resources to empower dApps building in leading categories like storage, AI, and media delivery. AIOZ Network doesn’t share solid information around funding, but it has total transactions of 1,952,615K, and it offers a blocktime of 5,940 ms. 

AIOZ Network operates on top of its Cosmos SDK DePIN appchain to achieve capabilities like:

• One account with three different addresses to access the Cosmos and AIOZ network from a single place. 

• Maintaining compatibility with the EVM chain and all the Ethereum-based dApps. 

• Infinite horizontal scalability to ensure the network can handle massive transaction volume with no compromise in performance. 

• Supporting for both the EVM-compatible (Solidity) and Web Assembly smart contracts. 

• Phala Network: Phala Network is a decentralized cloud platform that combines blockchain’s transparency and trust attributes with the power of AI to support the development of modern applications. For DePIN, Phala plays a crucial role through its cutting-edge tech, which consists of an Oracle, middleware, and a coprocessor for general-purpose computing.
  
  Phala Network is built as a leading Polkadot Parachain with 39k+ miners, 111K+ vCPU, 17k+ cross-chain transactions, and 209957334 total transactions. Also, Phala has raised x as funding. A Parachain-powred appchain allows Phala Network to offer compute power to diverse chains in the ecosystem while enabling features like privacy-eich DeFi trading, DID confidential details, light bridges, and more. 

• Stratos: Stratos is a decentralized storage network that offers a reliable, highly scalable, and self-balanced storage and computation network to offer modern blockchain solutions and dApps. Stratos taps into DePIN paradigm with its provision of resource nodes. Users with resource nodes will share GPUs and another computing resource with Stratos and thus receive 60% of the rewards for their contribution.
  
  
  Stratos has built its networks as Cosmos SDK-based appchain, enabling IBC to communicate with the Cosmos ecosystem and leverage Cosmos’ multi-chain bridge access to unlock wider use of Stratos storage. To date, Stratos is home to 27+ projects, and it has raised $1.8M in funding recently.

Also read: How Rollups are Powering the Biggest DePIN Use Cases of This Cycle?

3.  Sensor

Mobility

Soarchain: Soarchain is a Cosmos SDK-based DePIN appchain built for mobility, making cars smarter and more connected. With Soarchain, each vehicle can become a node to contribute to a vast, real-time data powerhouse that aims to maintain a safe and highly efficient ecosystem of transportation. Nodes or data providers earn rewards for their contribution to anonymized data. Soarchain chose to build its appchain with Cosmos SDK to:

• Rapidly deploy and ensure scalability of its network infrastructure.

• Avoid single point of failure and censorship issues.

• Benefit from real-time assets and transaction tracking. 

• Tap into huge Cosmos’ liquidity.

While Soarchain doesnot share clear information about total funding raised, it has backing of popular investors like Block Builders, Emurgo, Republic, Hyperithm, Chorus One, and Cogitent ventures.

4. Cloud services

•  Jackal Protocol: Jackal is a key player in decentralized cloud storage service that delivers fast and reliable data storage to businesses, individuals, and blockchain networks. DePIN projects building in both the digital and physician resource categories can leverage Jackal’s advanced storage service to improve performance and resilience for their projects.

Jackal has built its DePIN appchain Cosmos SDK framework to maintain its high-performance network of 45M+ TVL and achieve the following capabilities:

• 6.0s block time.

• $0.0004 fee per transaction.

• 500+ Mbps speed.

• Seamless management of 259,104+

• Wallets

• Smooth scaling & upgrades.

•  Titan Network: Titan Network serves as a one-stop solution to DePIN cloud services, efficiently matching idle resources from community to global demand. Interested parties can run their node on Titan to contribute their digital fungible resources like storage, compute and bandwidth and get rewarded from the network.
  
  Titak Network has built its DePIN appchain to achieve unrivaled interoperability, scalability, and interoperability with the full-fledged Cosmos ecosystem. Also, Titan aims to offer a peak of 300,000 to 400,000 TPS to serve as a high-performance blockchain while also maintaining very low gas fees and providing support to large-scale web2 applications.
  
  Titan Network stands out with 277528 nodes, 76+ countries covered, 16435TB storage, and 124588 Unique IPs. Such growth has allowed Titan to previously raise a funding of $6.25M and recently raising $1Million grant from Protocol Labs. 

• Cudos: Cudos is a cloud infrastructure service that blend in cloud computing and Web3 technology to support high-perfomance applications in AI, Metaverse, high-performance computing, and a lot more.
  
  With Cudos Intercloud, anyone can rent scalable computing infrastructure to deploy dApps that are easy, cost-effective, fully secure and permissionless. Developers can quickly connect digital wallets and spin up their virtual machines from Cudos’ distributed pool of suppliers.
  
  Cudos operartes its network on top of Cosmos SDK chain. The main reason Cudos team mention for choosing Cosmos SDK is its scaalble and sustainable architecture, interoperability via IBC, low fee, security and decentralization.
  
  Such a powerful network and unique compute rental concept has allows Cudos to attract many crypto investors and hence the projects has raised £10 million ($12.97M) from a series of successful funding rounds.

5. Bandwidth

• Giant Network: Giant is a DePIN appchain built as Polkadot Parachain to revamp the traditional bandwidth and connectivity econony. The protocol turns bandwidth into tradable assets to be utilized globally; for example- 20GB of data will be represented as a fungible token, and it is eligible for buy, sell, and trade. 

Giant includes 3 major players– consumers who stake their rewards in $GIANT to secure the network, providers who generate returns from capital investments (unused bandwidth), and developers who use new bandwidth-focused solutions. Giant Network leverages features like pooled security, maximum scalability, and thought-through governance from Parachain’s unique appchain architecture. Giant Networks serves its DePIN services to 209+ countries and various regions, plus it has recently raised $5M in funding. 

6. Storage

Crust Network:  Crust is a decentralized storage platform offering decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN), IPFS storage, omnichain interoperability, and a powerful on-chain storage.  With Crust Network’s incentivized service layer, users get complete control over their data and on-chain assets to avoid security issues and other inconveniences. 

Crust currently provide decentralized storage service to more than 200 projects and it has recently raised a funding of $301.5K. A Polkadot Parachain-based appchain allows Crust Network to stay closer to the edge while achieving relatively low-cost and superior performance. 

7. RWA (Asset tokenization)

• IntainMarkets: Intain, a leading finance platform, has launched its Avalanche L1-based marketplace, IntainMarkets, to power tokenized asset-backed securities. An on-chain platform backed with the efficiency, scalability, and interoperability of Avalanche L1 (prev. Subnets) architecture will allow the network to accommodate $8-10 million transactions in a more economical and viable way. Despite being a new project, IntainMarketers is growing really fast as it has the backing of Intain, which facilitates over $5.5B assets across 25+ deals and an ever-expanding ecosystem. 

8. Infrastructure

Peaq:  Peaq is a Layer1 blockchain designed to offer a powerful and highly resilient global infrastructure to build DePIN solutions for use cases spanning mobility, energy, wireless connectivity, storage, and more. 

Peaq is one of the fastest growing DePIN networks boasting $25M+ tokenized RWA assets, 1M+ machine, robots & devices, 45+ DePIN projects, and 20+ industries covered. 

Peaq’s DePIN appchain is built as a Polkadot Parachain, which allows Peaq to get these main capabilities:

• Super decentralization to achieve 90+ Nakamoto Coefficient.

• 10k+ TPS with Agile core time and Elastic scaling.

• Interoperability with all the other Parachians and Substrate-based chains.

• Support for modular DePIN functions to power and efficiently tokenize real-world robots, machines, vehicles, etc.

With its unique concept and powerful ecosystem, Peaq has raised $15M in pre-launch funding and a total equity fund of $24.9M in multiple rounds.

Also, there are DePIN appchains that are new, not fully matured, or do not share much information about funding & traction. Such names incudes Khala Network (GPU, Compute), Dig Chain (RWA), Cloudverse (marketplace), Onigiri (supplychain), and Genesis L1 (RWA).

Note:  All the data related to project’s funding, traction, and growth has been authenticated from popular analytics platforms like Messari, L2 Beat, Coindesk, Traxn, Crunchbase, Statistica, Dune Analytics, and CoinMarketCap.  

DePIN has definitely brought radical transformation in physical infrastructure management and utilization. It has changed the way people can think of ownership, operation, and governance of critical real-world systems. However, that’s the beginning. Going forward, we expect to see much more innovation in the DePIN horizon and thus more DePIN projects will be developed. 

If you are planning to launch a DePIN appchain, explore appchain services at Zeeve once. Zeeve supports all the leading appchain frameworks like Polkadot Parachains, Cosmos SDK, and Avalanche L1. Also, you can launch DePIN rollup quickly with Zeeve RaaS. With Zeeve, you will save up to 60% in cost and 90% in time. For more information about Zeeve’s blockchain-related offerings, connect with our experts. Send your queries via mail or discuss your requirements on a one-to-one call.