Welcome back to the DePIN Hub Newsletter, your trusty sidekick along your DePIN journey 🧳
The internet’s an amazing tool, but sadly enough, it’s still not available to everyone. This has far deeper socioeconomic consequences than missing out on TikTok videos or Facebook posts. Luckily, DePIN is here to save the day! 🦸♂️
Join us as we shine a light on 4 awesome DeWi projects bringing connectivity to the developing world. Let’s go! 🚀
This issue is brought to you in partnership with:
Decentralized and Tokenized Internet Network 📡 🌎 Bridging the digital divide, one connection at a time.
DePIN Hub Leaderboards 🏅
Growth statistics of some standout DePIN projects based on social metrics and token price
Featured Blog Post 📝
ICYMI, here’s a must-read article from our DePIN Hub website.
🔗 What is Port Forwarding and Why Do We Need It?
Did you know that your router has over 65,000 ports? 🤯
Whether you’re running an ATOR Relay, other DePIN gear, or just playing games, learning the basics of port forwarding can help improve your device’s security and performance. 😎
In The News 📰
🔔 GEODNET achieves 6,000 base stations. This impressive milestone further cements their position as the world’s largest RTK network.
🔔 WeatherXM raises $7.7M as it continues on its path to becoming the world’s largest weather network. Want to join the decentralized weather revolution? Grab your station 👉 Here
Feature
Connecting the Unconnected with Decentralized Wireless 🌐
As the world transforms into the digital era, the internet has become one of our most vital tools. Missing out on this connectivity however leads to serious consequences. Not only does it keep entire regions lagging behind, it forces young people away from rural areas and into increasingly overpopulated urban zones.
One of the main reasons for this is that it’s not economically feasible for big infrastructure players to branch off into less affluent regions.
Enter DePIN. 👋
Like many other technology sectors, DePIN flips the connectivity model on its head. The open and permissionless Decentralized Wireless (DeWi) movement provides local communities with the tools they need to get connected. But instead of funding the big telco providers, internet users can support local equipment owners instead, who in turn get rewarded in crypto for helping to build out these DeWi networks.
There are several projects tackling this issue, each one with its own spin or area of focus. Today we’ll be taking a look at Wicrypt, World Mobile, Wayru, and Dabba. 🔍
Wicrypt
If you’ve been keeping up to date with DePIN Hub, then you’ve likely heard about Wicrypt. This Nigeria-based startup has steadily grown from local initiative to global project, securing large partnerships in Africa and China and winning multiple technology awards along the way.
Wicrypt’s wireless network is built upon the theory that connectivity should be affordable, accessible, decentralized, and demonopolized. To achieve this, they’ve incentivized the rollout of their network infrastructure by rewarding WiFi hotspot owners in $WNT tokens.
The $WNT token is supported by the Polygon blockchain, but Wicrypt also has collaborations with DePIN blockchains like peaq and IoTeX. 🤝
Wicrypt provides powerful WiFi hotspots offering advanced features not usually seen on typical home routers; features such as built-in token mining, GPS for mapping purposes, SIM card slots for flexible reception and an extended WiFi range up to 200m.
On top of these technical features, hotspot owners can unlock additional monetization by leveraging the platform’s native advertising system. 🤑
If you’re looking to bring WiFi to your local community, or just want to earn some passive $WNT rewards, we suggest taking a look at the Spider hotspot. Hostpotty has partnered up with Wicrypt to offer DePIN Hub readers an attractive discount, which you can access through this referral link.
To learn more about Wicrypt, visit their project page on DePIN Hub, watch our interview with co-founder Ugochukwu Aronu, or read this deep dive into the project’s history and tokenomics.
World Mobile
World Mobile is no stranger to the world of crypto utility, having been formed long before the sector landed on the name DePIN. Premier League fans may recognize the project as World Mobile’s been a proud sponsor of Fulham since 2021. ⚽
Yet the project might still be unknown to many as it’s based on Cardano, a blockchain that doesn’t usually come to mind when thinking of DePIN. In recent times, the project has embraced a multi-chain vision, with bridges to Ethereum and BNB coming soon after the release of its AyA whitepaper. The Cardano Foundation has always made it a point to show their support for banking the unbanked in Africa, and World Mobile plays an important role in that ecosystem by connecting the unconnected. 📵 ➡️ 📱
As the name suggests, World Mobile focuses primarily on mobile connectivity. This is important for the African continent, as mobile phones tend to be the typical gateway to internet services and payments. World Mobile looks to build upon that by further spreading connectivity and reducing prices.
World Mobile has run several pilot projects, most notably on the Tanzanian archipelago of Zanzibar. They’ve since gone on to deploy gear in Pakistan, and recently launched commercial services in the USA following a successful network deployment in Reno, Nevada. The US deployment saw the beginning of World Mobile’s decentralized AirNode sales, with the first batch selling out within 36 hours of launch!
The ecosystem is supported by the $WMT token and DePIN Hub readers considering an AirNode purchase can secure a place on their exclusive whitelist, ahead of next month’s Batch 2 launch here.
World Mobile has shown rapid progress over the last 12 months, with node deployments growing by over 150% and commercial services now deployed across three continents. You can follow the network’s continued growth on their network explorer. Here’s a screenshot showing connectivity in Zanzibar.
$WMT is currently sitting at around $150M market cap, small compared to Helium, but large enough to take seriously. While the DePIN focus sticks mainly to peaq, IoTeX and Solana, this low key Cardano play is definitely one to keep an eye on. 👀
To learn more about World Mobile, visit their project page on DePIN Hub.
Wayru
Based in South America, Wayru is championing the concept of shared internet access. By setting up a Wayru enabled WiFi hotspot, owners can earn the token’s native $WAYRU tokens.
Wayru produces dedicated hardware, but through their OpenWRT-based WayruOS software, they’ve also opened the door for hotspot owners to mine tokens using household name brands such as MikroTik, TP-Link and Linksys. 📶
Wayru has several partners and big names backing their project. Perhaps most interesting is the support they received from the United Nations in a pilot project which supported over 2,500 refugees in the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil. The pilot has become a long-term partnership to 10x the current coverage in Ecuador, expecting to expand to other markets in Latin America within the next year. 🌎
Their young network is already supported by over 500 hotspots, 10M mapped networks, and has helped over 450,000 WiFi users get connected, consuming a whopping 1M GB to date. 🤯
Wayru is currently organizing a sale for their OG Genesis hotspots. This is an exciting opportunity as it unlock several exclusive perks:
- Access a 10M $WAYRU airdrop
- Receive a free AirBlocks NFT
- Unlock reward multipliers up to 3x for 1 year
- Mint your NFNode on either IoTeX, Algorand or peaq
- And if you’re lucky, the first 100 orders also get free swag
Sounds good, right? What’s even better is that we scored a 15% discount off the sale price for DePIN Hub readers.
You can grab your very own Genesis hotspot with our referral code DEPINHUB15.
To learn more about Wayru, visit their project page on DePIN Hub.
Dabba
Finally we have Dabba, a project that’s laser focused on democratizing internet access in India. With less than half of India’s 1.43 billion population currently having access to the internet, the potential for growth in this market is massive. 🌱
Dabba is expanding connectivity options for India’s “data hungry generation” by matching remote hotspot owners with Local Cable Operators (LCOs). Based on Solana, Dabba aims to deploy over 100,000 devices in India by the end of 2024. They’ve just launched Season 2 of their hardware rollout.
You too can participate in India’s internet boom by purchasing a Dabba Lite hotspot for just $199!
With over 1,400 hostposts deployed, and 15,000 unique connected devices, Dabba’s network is showing steady progress. The Indian cities of Bengaluru and Pune show the network’s growth in real time, which you can see for yourself on the Dabba explorer map.
To learn more about Dabba, visit their project page on DePIN Hub.
DeWi paves the path for crypto adoption
We often talk about the benefits of crypto and self-sovereignty, but onboarding millions of new people can’t be done without the necessary physical infrastructure. DeWi offers a fast and efficient solution to this challenge, while also rewarding the local community for their efforts. It’s a win-win!
If you’d like to see who else is building in DeWi right now, take a look at our Wireless page on DePIN Hub. There you’ll find a list of all the wireless projects we’re tracking and which blockchains they support. You can even filter into subcategories like WiFi, cellular, IoT and bluetooth. 🤘
Sponsor 📢
Wayru is the world's first DePIN project to partner with the United Nations to tackle the global connectivity crisis starting in Latin America, where +400M people lack connectivity, aiming to bridge the digital divide in emerging countries.
Wayru uses blockchain and the $WAYRU token to incentivize Hotspot deployment and management in areas where internet is most needed, enabling anyone to become a Hotspot Operator by deploying one of their plug-and-play devices or by bringing their own device and using their proprietary firmware, WayruOS. Wayru also allows anyone to own tokenized internet infrastructures through Hotspot Pools, where trusted deployers from emerging markets build decentralized networks in collaboration with a global crypto community. Wayru’s mobile app, both on iOS and Android, allows users to access the internet, onboard devices, share known WiFi with the community, and validate networks to earn.
🛒 OG Genesis Rush Sale is LIVE 🚛
DePIN Hub Podcast🎙️
Brought to you by Peaq Network, harnessing the home of DePIN projects! 🚀
🎈 In this episode, we interview Joey Hiller, Senior Technical Director at the Helium Foundation, smart engineer and great friend, where we share a few stories of the early days of the network.
🔗 Helium on DePIN Hub: https://depinhub.io/projects/helium
In this episode, we interview Alessandro de Carli, Co-Founder at Acurast.
Discover how Acurast is breaking the cloud monopoly with mobile hardware, making the decentralized cloud accessible to everyone. ⚡
🔗 Acurast on DePIN Hub: https://depinhub.io/projects/acurast
DePIN Hub Telegram Group 💬
🔔 Join our new DePIN Hub Telegram group for the latest updates and vibrant community discussions! Join now at https://t.me/depinhub! 🚀🤝
Parting Words 👋
Welcome to crypto! Hope you brought a life vest. 😅
Yours in Decentralization,
The Hotspotty Team
