From peaq network

DePIN is a new name for an old movement — one that peaq was purpose-built to power and enable — the intersection between the connected world and Web3. peaq is the home of DePIN. It is the layer-1 blockchain with the most DePINs building on top of it. This blog dives into the reasons why that is.

DePIN is short for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks. DePINs use tokens to incentivize people to offer services to other people using physical hardware, like for example, earning rewards for offering WiFi or 5G to people walking by via a router. 

Such projects are Web3’s best ever shot at real-world adoption. In this piece we’ll be running through what makes peaq the perfect layer-1 blockchain for DePINs, and what builders should be taking into account when deciding on which chain to build their DePINs.

If you’re curious to learn more about DePIN before understanding why peaq is the best place in Web3 to build them on, we’ve got a blog for that.   

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Why do we need a layer-1 blockchain focused on DePIN?

Remember Yahoo?

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If you’re a zoomer (Gen Z), chances are you don’t.

In the late 1990s, Yahoo was the kingpin of the internet, offering a range of services from search to email, news, and even horoscopes. It was a general-purpose solution doing a bit of everything.

Until Google and Facebook came along, and we all know how that story goes.

We've seen this play out many a time in recent history. Kodak was the one-stop shop for all things photography — until Canon and Nikon came along. IBM was the one-stop shop for all things computers — and then came Microsoft and Apple. The moral of the story is simple: Organizations dedicated to a specific niche have an unfair advantage over organizations that take a more general approach: focus. 

In the Web3 space, most people are used to layer-1 blockchains being ‘general purpose’, meaning suited to anything and everything. Examples include Ethereum and Solana. But the tides are starting to turn, and the DePIN sector is driving this change. Yes, you could technically build a DePIN on any general-purpose smart-contract platform — but a network tailor-made as a layer-1 for DePINs will serve you better than a general-purpose network built with little to no concern for your specific needs.