Remember “move to earn”? I once said it was dead and it was.
The very reason for this - which frankly affects the vast majority of crypto projects is that it lacks a “marketable product or service” that can drive “actual” external value(revenue).
All the “move to earn” apps that existed(don't know if some are still around) had this one thing in common. They all simply kept minting tokens for users without any structure to sustain that inflation.
Surely they made a profit for themselves, probably the mission from the start but it looks like things are beginning to change.
DePINs happens to be a narrative people are speculating to be one of the major movers in coming bull runs. But we are not here to talk about prices but service, so what the heck are DePINs and how's that on its way to improve our cities?
Let's find out.
What are DePINs?
Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs) are decentralized applications that use tokens to incentivize people to crowdsource and build connected real-world physical infrastructure.
Source: peaq.network
All of that might sound like garbage, I know, infrastructure is a big word, so here's where we bring in an example to fully explain the concept.
Natix.network
If you've been following some of my articles lately you'd probably come into instances I've talked about “data” as the new currency. This is a lot bigger than people can imagine.
The virtual world is a hub of data, blockchain technology is taking this to a whole new level, immutability, verifiability, traceability, what more attributes can a good data source have?
This puts the next world of machines, business and more in a data-driven economy where what determines growth falls greatly on the quality of their data.
Natix is building a data driven economy - literally.
With its “Drive To Earn” incentivization product, it empowers the public to sell data of their surroundings as they travel to the Natix.network which in-turn sells this to businesses.
Real-time data is crucial to the world, Natix is building real world infrastructures to service the world with valid public data.
Natix calls this a people-powered map enabled by Natix “internet of cameras”.
NATIX Network aims to combine NATIX’s patent-pending AI technology with the world’s 45 billion existing cameras (in smartphones, drones, cars, and IP cameras) to create the largest crowd-sourced camera network ever. .
Almost any camera, anywhere can run the AI software, collect metadata (with the highest grade of privacy compliance) and populate a Decentralized Dynamic Map (DDMap). The camera's owners earn crypto in return as the real-time data is monetized to support real-time applications. As a result, NATIX Network creates a new crowdsourced geospatial data economy powered by the “Internet of Cameras”.
It’s a solution that reduces infrastructure costs to almost $0 for Data Consumers (as the cameras are owned by private individuals) and is 100% privacy compliant.
This is a billion dollar industry where Google is centrally raking in up to $11 billion yearly, purely user data monetization.
Natixs looks to decentralize the data market with its tokenized data infrastructure. It runs on a two-token system: iLand NFTs and a fungible token: Natix.
NATIX DDMap divides the globe into tiles, each with a unique intelligent Land NFT, aka "iLand NFT". Our community members can get them and it will generate passive income. Any data generated by the NATIX Network cameras will be on one of these tiles. Upon monetization of this data, the tile owner is entitled to a royalty on every transaction on that tile. Additionally, iLand NFT holds governance functions within the network.
The iLand NFTs are NATIX’s unique invention to incentivize regional data growth, fund the network’s long-term development, and help the network to identify and realize potential development within areas of its DDMap.
All things considered, that shouldn't be a cheap NFT.
Of course, this is all surface info and should most definitely not be taken as financial advice.
What Natix is building is quite a big deal, a network of individual cameras sending field data to a public database and in return, earning tokens.
iLand NFT owners now benefit from the work of these individuals if businesses subscribe to use the data on any of these locations.
This is the kind of development that puts crypto on the map of sustainability, smart cities mapped by smart contracts and intelligent AIs, this is the future.
Data is gold.