DePIN Is Not a Meme - DePIN Day Bangkok Summary

In recent months, the DePIN Day conference series, spearheaded by Fluence and our collaborators, has emerged as a cornerstone for thought leaders, researchers, developers, and enthusiasts in the DePIN ecosystem. These events are designed to foster discussions around the latest trends, challenges, and future prospects in the DePIN industry.

The most recent edition of DePIN Day took place on November 15th during the Bangkok Devcon Week, hosted by Fluence in partnership with Spheron Network, Parasail Network, Livepeer, Reppo Network, Impossible Cloud Network, Arcium, Uplink, Open (RSS3), Ceramic Network, Titan Network, and Inferix. The event provided a platform for insightful panel discussions and networking opportunities.

To access all the talks, visit our YouTube channel.

📌 DePIN Is Not a Meme by Tom Trowbridge (Fluence)

The Bangkok edition of DePIN Day marked a significant milestone for Fluence, capping off a series of successful events over the past few months. Fluence co-founder Tom Trowbridge shared a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on DePIN, standing out amid the current wave of meme coin trends.

“DePIN is not a meme because these businesses are generating value and value propositions,” Trowbridge emphasized.

DePIN drives adoption through crypto-economic incentives and relies on key components like governance. For Web3 to thrive, scalable digital resource networks are essential to reducing reliance on centralized cloud infrastructure. The physical nature of these networks makes them tangible and understandable to the public, unlocking significant institutional potential.

For businesses to adopt platforms like Fluence, the infrastructure must meet Web2 standards, such as tier-4 CPUs. Companies like Spexi and Hivemapper illustrate DePIN’s value in action: Spexi offers drone mapping that’s three times clearer and ten times faster than airplanes, while Hivemapper updates maps 40 times more frequently than centralized systems.

DePIN isn’t just a fleeting trend—it’s a transformative innovation that generates real value. With revenue directly reflecting this value, DePIN networks may not require massive funding rounds, as they are designed to sustain themselves through their own economic models.

📌  Building Trust and Driving Adoption for DePIN and AI Infrastructures by Sylvan Zhang (Parasail Network)

Sylvan Zhang, founder of Parasail, shared insights on building trust and driving adoption for DePIN and AI infrastructure. He highlighted the importance of staking, explored innovative tokenomics mechanisms for DePIN projects, and discussed Parasail’s partnership with Filecoin.

“DePIN project building only needs to focus on its core parts, leaving details like on-chain collateral, slashing, and reward management to be handled by the Parasail stack,” Zhang explained.

Parasail has developed an active and dedicated staking mechanism for Filecoin, empowering users to stake and collectively secure the network. This mechanism includes a liquid staking token that seamlessly integrates with additional DeFi use cases. Parasail’s solutions extend to a variety of applications, including bridging, cross-chain swaps, auction swaps, and on-chain strategies.

In collaboration with Filecoin Web Services, Parasail is also enabling restaking functionality and looks forward to rolling out this feature soon, further expanding the ecosystem’s capabilities.

📌  The Cloudless Computing Platform by Evgeny Ponomarev (Fluence)

Fluence co-founder Evgeny Ponomarev provided an in-depth look at the Fluence stack, highlighting recent updates and the platform’s transformative potential.

“The Fluence DePIN platform frees computation from centralized clouds by offering natively decentralized, low-cost, and verifiable compute,” Ponomarev explained.

He emphasized the challenges posed by the current cloud service oligopoly dominated by Azure, Google, and AWS, as well as the monopolization of hardware in the rapidly growing AI and LLM space by NVIDIA. DePIN presents a significant opportunity to reduce costs in compute infrastructure. On Fluence, a token stake is required to activate the network. Each CPU core is designed to generate $10/month, necessitating a 20X stake per core and yielding a 60% APY.

Earlier this year, Fluence launched its mainnet, introducing a groundbreaking cloudless function that boosts operational efficiency. In September, the platform launched staking, opening up new possibilities for users to engage with the network.

Looking ahead, Fluence is set to unveil Cloudless Virtual Machines—a virtualized compute solution built for flexibility and scalability. These virtual machines enable users to access compute capacity from multiple machines and providers, all managed through a unified console connected to certified data centers. Ideal for companies focused on data security and cost-effectiveness, Cloudless Virtual Machines represent the next frontier in decentralized infrastructure.

📌  Empowering Devs With Decentralized Compute by Prakarsh Pathak (Spheron)

Prakarsh Pathak, Head of Ecosystem at Spheron, shared insights on empowering developers and builders with decentralized compute. He also highlighted how Spheron is pioneering the world’s first DePIN-based super-compute network, enabling edge machines to power AI workloads effectively.

“Decentralized compute actually faces a lot of issues through latency, and it is one of the biggest problems of decentralized compute,” Pathak noted.

Spheron’s decentralized network aims to democratize access, ensuring that no powerful entity can control the future of AI. “Computing is the digital oil that we are democratizing and making available at scale,” Pathak emphasized. Central to this vision is the Spheron matchmaking engine, a cutting-edge solution that leverages globally connected data centers and localized fizz nodes to deliver high-performance compute.

📌 Building the Backbone of DePIN: Data Access, Indexing, and Middleware

The panel discussion brought together a distinguished group of technologists and experts, including Wes Floyd (Eigenlayer), Felix von Hanstein (The Graph), Clements Wan (Consensys / Infura / DIN), Renna Ba (Offchain Labs), moderated by Joe Bender (DIMO). They delved into building the backbone of DePIN, focusing on key elements such as data access, indexing, and middleware.

Clements Wan shared insights on how DIN serves as a critical endpoint for Infura and MetaMask—two of the most widely used products in the crypto space. He highlighted how DIN ensures internode consistency, improves economics, and enhances service quality by efficiently routing to the best providers and granting seamless access to networks.

The panelists expressed their enthusiasm for how each new DePIN project addresses unique challenges, from weather data solutions to database management, and approaches the pressing issue of network security. Renna Ba spoke to the importance of supporting the growth of DePIN startups, emphasizing the need to raise awareness and guide builders in identifying their challenges, while also collaborating with them to refine their tech stack.

📌  DePIN -  Why Verification Matters by Guy Wuollet (a16z)

Guy Wuollet, investor at a16z Crypto, shared his perspective on DePIN from an investor’s point of view, discussing why projects should prioritize DePIN and the best strategies for building within this space.

“DePIN projects hold the greatest potential for consumer crypto, with the ability to impact our everyday lives in ways that other crypto projects cannot,” Wuollet explained.

Wuollet emphasized that DePIN projects are particularly exciting because they represent the largest upgrade over existing solutions. As he put it, "DePIN is consumer crypto, and the real-world use cases can onboard new users." These projects enable permissionless access to essential services that we rely on daily. While previous blockchain use cases have largely focused on financial services and entertainment, DePIN expands the scope of what blockchain can support. Unlike earlier blockchains, which evolved independently of the real world—such as Ethereum’s development of a financial system detached from centralized systems—DePIN bridges this gap by integrating directly with real-world infrastructure.

Wuollet also shared an important insight on token economics, stating, “One of the most effective things you might do with your token is introduce an inflationary reward,” highlighting its potential to incentivize long-term participation in DePIN projects.

📌 Fireside Chat with Juan Benet (Filecoin ) and Tom Trowbridge (Fluence)

In this fireside discussion, Juan Benet, co-founder of Filecoin, and Tom Trowbridge shared their reflections on Filecoin and the evolving DePIN space.

“Building foundational protocol and then building adapter interfaces is extremely powerful and enables you to build amazing products with product-market fit,” Benet noted, emphasizing the importance of foundational infrastructure in creating successful products.

The DePIN landscape has seen remarkable evolution. In the early days, selling the concept of DePIN was a significant challenge, but today it has achieved tremendous success, with networks scaling globally—especially in terms of participation and incentivization. Benet explained that while IPFS and Filecoin are often discussed together, they serve distinct purposes. “IPFS is a way of describing the addressing and movement of information; it’s essentially an HTTP designed for peer-to-peer interactions,” he explained.

Filecoin, on the other hand, functions as a separate incentive layer, designed to create a large-scale storage platform for serving data in a DePIN-oriented way within the IPFS network. As Benet highlighted, product builders and engineers must make strategic decisions to develop foundational products, leveraging mechanisms like block rewards—something that remains underutilized in the broader crypto space.

📌 AI-Powered Decentralization: How DePIN is Shaping the Future of Intelligent Infrastructure

The following panel discussion featured Ria Riaz (Livepeer), Mark Rydon (Aethir), Henry Wang (Open (RSS3), and Ben Fielding (Gensyn), moderated by Nick Liubimov (Cointelegraph).

The conversation opened with a focus on how DePIN offers distinct advantages for AI applications, particularly in comparison to centralized systems. The panelists highlighted that low latency is crucial for scaling AI, and the larger a decentralized compute network becomes, the more likely users will be positioned closer to one of its compute nodes.

Ben Fielding emphasized:

“Scalability, efficiency, and automation are probably the three biggest things, and DePIN allows builders to create an efficient marketplace over resources to enable people to interact with those markets directly and scale to the right place.”

This framework enables developers to tap into decentralized networks for optimized AI performance.

The panel also delved into DePIN's deterministic nature, which acts as a crucial safeguard for AI and helps drive wider adoption. Unlike centralized platforms like Twitter, where content manipulation and opaque feed algorithms can raise concerns, decentralized AI provides a transparent, user-driven model that curates more relevant content. This shift addresses the growing challenge of distinguishing between content moderation and censorship, offering a clearer, fairer approach to content distribution.

📌  The Role of People in DePIN Future by Konstantin Tkachuk (Titan Network)

Konstantin Tkachuk, co-founder of Titan Network, shared valuable insights on the role of individuals in DePIN's future, focusing on the true owners of decentralized infrastructure and how they benefit from the network.

“There are billions of devices sitting idle for 21+ hours a day, and the potential to leverage all those devices will be the most powerful DePIN network,” Tkachuk explained.

Titan Network is a people-powered platform that harnesses the untapped potential of idle devices to drive the decentralized future. At its core, Titan operates as a DePIN layer-1 built on the Cosmos SDK, enabling global communities to connect and bridge idle devices. Users can share unused resources such as storage, bandwidth, and compute power, effectively unlocking the global idle edge. Once these resources are aggregated into the network, they can be rented out and incentivize the providers.

Tkachuk further emphasized that the Titan Network founders identified a significant opportunity compared to traditional infrastructure models. This vision is rooted in reducing barriers to participation, solving one of DePIN's biggest challenges: creating an open, accessible network that encourages contribution and innovation.

📌  Platform for Vertical Solutions in the DePIN Space by Vadim Manaenko (Robonomics)

In his talk on vertical solutions in Robonomics, Vadim Manaenko, co-founder of  Robonomics, explored how the platform provides tailored solutions within the DePIN ecosystem, focusing on hardware designed for Cypherpunks and the future direction of the protocol. Robonomics is a secure, serverless IoT platform that connects users with smart devices, operating across the Ethereum and Polkadot ecosystems.

Manaenko emphasized the critical role Web3 plays in the Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics.

“Web3 is needed for IoT and robots because it offers significant advantages, such as eliminating single points of failure and reducing dependency on centralized corporate services. It also lowers the cost of service implementation, creating a more dynamic and engaging environment for builders.”

Robonomics is a fully open-source project, with numerous use cases demonstrating the power of DePIN. Examples include the Altruist Outdoor Sensor, the RISC-V Open Source Server, and the Hikikomori Smart Tamagotchi—each showcasing the platform's versatility and the vast potential of decentralized solutions.

📌  Building World’s 1st DePIN for RTC by Ayush Ranjan (Huddle01)

Ayush Ranjan, co-founder of Huddle01, shared insights into building the world’s first DePIN for real-time communication, a rapidly growing sector bridging bandwidth, compute, and other DePIN areas.

Huddle01 uses IPFS over fiber to power scalable communication, with AI-driven real-time translation that reduces latency to under 50 milliseconds via the dRTC network. Ranjan emphasized that for collaboration to thrive, communication must focus on low latency, performance, and privacy.

Ranjan also critiqued centralized platforms, noting that while uploading data to services like AWS is cheap, exporting that data is costly. "The value created is often retained by platforms and data centers," he said, underlining the need for decentralized solutions that empower users to retain more value from their data.

📌 Building Decentralized Foundations: The Investor’s Role in Shaping DePIN

The panel featured Vinayak Kurup (EV3), Chad Fowler (Blue Yard Capital), Stepan Gershuni (Cyber Fund), Dan Park (Hashed), moderated by Gabriele Zennaro (Outlier Ventures), who discussed the investor role in shaping the future of DePIN. 

In the world of crypto, DeFi dominates the conversation, with DePIN emerging as a powerful force, driven by the demand for innovations powered by crypto-economic mechanisms that were previously unimaginable. Vinayak Kurup highlighted the complexity of verification, describing it as an intersection of art, science, and the physical world.

"We need to ensure that physical devices are performing as intended, especially when dealing with hardware"

he explained, underscoring the challenges of verifying performance in decentralized systems.

The panelists also discussed the importance of regulations and stressed that founders must have a proven track record of executing similar projects. This experience, they agreed, is key to building sustainable projects that can not only compete with traditional companies but also set new standards for best-use cases in the industry.

📌 Data Ownership and Sovereignty in DePIN: Who Owns the Infrastructure?

The final panel discussion brought together technologists and experts, including Yannik Schrade (Arcium), Sebastian Pfeiffer (ICN), Naman Kabra (NodeOps), RG Rmadya (Reppo), with Michael Sena (Ceramic) as the moderator. 

The discussion kicked off with a focus on governance models best suited for DePINs and strategies for defining ownership rights within decentralized networks.

Sebastian Pfeiffer emphasized that decentralization thrives when trust is managed by a system that doesn’t require constant oversight, allowing service providers to build on a network rooted in a community-driven ecosystem. Naman Kabra responded by highlighting the importance of ensuring data isn’t controlled by a single entity, but remains accessible to multiple stakeholders within the infrastructure, all while maintaining a compliance-focused framework for providers.

RG Rmadya from Reppo further contributed, stating that data should belong to the company that generates it. He also pointed out that, with the growing significance of explainable AI, providing transparency in computation processes will become essential. Together, the panelists underscored the need to address data privacy, ownership, and sovereignty to create a robust and successful DePIN infrastructure.

We would like to thank all our partners: Spheron Network, Parasail Network, Livepeer, Reppo Network, Impossible Cloud Network, Arcium, Uplink, Open (RSS3), Ceramic Network, Titan Network, and Inferix, as well as our media partners: Cointelegraph, Incrypted, TokenPost, ​Mpost, Coingape, Chaincatcher, Techflow, Jinse, Blockchain Reporter, BlockMedia, CoinRepublic, BeInCrypto, and Blockbeats for helping us to make this event a success.

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