The article first reviews the market performance and basic situation of the Grass token after its launch, analyzing the significance and potential of the DePIN model. It then introduces two emerging projects—DAWN and Gradient Network—focusing on decentralized bandwidth sharing and edge computing services, discussing their advantages and challenges.
Last month, the Grass token was launched and performed unexpectedly, rising from around $0.6 at launch to a peak of $4, and is now at $3.2. I started participating in March, so I was quite early, but I was intermittently mining with two computers, and when the airdrop occurred, I received less than 300 tokens. At that time, participants were also complaining, so this current price is indeed quite surprising. Here’s a brief introduction to Grass.
Grass is an innovative decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project built on the Solana blockchain. Users can share idle internet bandwidth to earn passive income and support AI training companies. Participants will earn Grass points, which will be used for airdrop distribution.
Looking at the disclosed financing information, there were two rounds totaling $4.5 million, with the amount for Round A undisclosed, but it is said to be valued at $1 billion. Of course, based on its current market value, the circulating market cap is close to $800 million, and the fully diluted market cap is over $3 billion, so VCs should be making a profit. The investors are also well-known, including Polychain and HackVC, among others, making for a pretty impressive investment lineup.
Recently, the DePIN sector has been quite hot. Since GRASS emerged, many similar projects have come out. Let’s briefly introduce what DePIN is: “Imagine you live in a city and need to use various services, such as bike sharing, delivery networks, or broadband networks. In the traditional model, these services are usually provided by large companies that set the rules, decide prices, and monopolize profits, leaving you as a passive consumer.
But in the world of DePIN, everything changes. These service networks are built and managed collectively by users. For example, you can contribute an idle device, share your home broadband, or even help maintain the network. Through these contributions, you not only become part of the network but also earn rewards, such as token incentives or service shares.
In the DePIN system, the profits from the service network are shared among all participants, rather than controlled by a single company. This is a brand new, fairer way of resource sharing that not only improves efficiency but also allows everyone to benefit.
This is DePIN—a decentralized physical infrastructure network, a new world that makes physical resources internet-based and shareable.”
Next, we will participate in two DePIN projects, one is DAWN, and the other is Gradient Network. DAWN and Gradient are both typical cases of decentralized physical infrastructure networks, optimizing the utilization efficiency of idle resources through blockchain and decentralized technology, providing economic incentives to users. The difference is that DAWN focuses more on internet connectivity and bandwidth sharing, attempting to disrupt the traditional ISP model, while Gradient focuses on edge computing, dedicated to providing efficient computing solutions for AI and data processing fields.
First, let’s look at DAWN. The DAWN project is a decentralized wireless network protocol aimed at providing users with fast, convenient, and affordable internet services through a user-driven multi-gigabit mesh network. Here are the main advantages and disadvantages of the DAWN project:
Advantages
Breaking the traditional ISP monopoly: In the U.S., about 52% of people have only one high-speed internet provider to choose from, leading to high service costs and a lack of competition. DAWN enables users to buy and sell internet bandwidth through a decentralized network structure, becoming their own internet service providers, thus breaking the monopoly of traditional ISPs.
Efficient network coverage: DAWN utilizes point-to-multipoint (PtMP) wireless technology, allowing nodes to efficiently communicate directly with multiple nodes, forming a user-driven multi-gigabit mesh network. This not only improves network coverage but also reduces infrastructure costs.
Strong financing support: DAWN has raised a total of $33 million in the past two years, including $15 million in Round A financing in February 2023 and $18 million in financing in August 2024, both led by the well-known investment firm Dragonfly Capital. This shows the capital market's recognition and support for the DAWN project.
Disadvantages:
Hardware deployment threshold: Participating in the DAWN network requires purchasing and installing specific hardware devices, such as RAS and CNHR. For ordinary users, this may increase the complexity and cost of participation.
Intense market competition: The decentralized wireless network field is highly competitive, with other projects like Grass also actively laying out. DAWN needs to continuously innovate in technology, user experience, and market promotion to maintain its competitive advantage.
Technical and regulatory risks: As an emerging technology, DAWN faces challenges in technical implementation and network security. Additionally, decentralized networks may involve regulatory compliance issues that require coordination with relevant agencies.
Gradient Network is a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project built on the Solana blockchain, focusing on edge computing. It constructs a decentralized computing network by incentivizing users to contribute idle computing resources (such as CPU, GPU, or bandwidth from personal devices), providing efficient, low-latency solutions for high-computation scenarios such as AI inference, content delivery, and serverless functions.
Advantages:
Low-latency edge computing: Gradient Network significantly reduces data transmission latency by deploying computing resources at edge nodes close to efficient data sources. This is crucial for applications requiring real-time responses (such as AI inference, autonomous driving, and real-time streaming). For example, its edge nodes can provide rapid processing for AI model inference, improving efficiency compared to traditional cloud services.
Democratization of decentralized computing: The goal of Gradient Network is to break the monopoly of large tech companies over computing resources by creating a decentralized edge computing network that increases accessibility, availability, and affordability of computing resources. Users can participate in network construction and earn rewards by contributing idle devices (such as running sentinel nodes), thus achieving resource sharing and profit distribution.
Strong investment and community support: Gradient Network has received support from well-known investment firms (such as Pantera Capital, Multicoin Capital, and Sequoia Capital), demonstrating recognition of its potential in the capital market. Additionally, since the project launched in August 2024, it has quickly attracted community attention, with 70,000 active nodes as of September 2024, showcasing strong early user engagement.
Disadvantages:
Involved technical elements: Although Gradient Network provides a simple Chrome browser extension (Sentry Node) for user participation, running a node may require certain technical configurations and device support (such as a stable internet connection and compatible hardware). For non-technical users, setting up and maintaining a node may be somewhat complex.
Intense market competition: The DePIN and edge computing fields are competitive, with projects like Aethir and io.net offering similar services within the Solana ecosystem. Gradient needs to continuously optimize its technology, node coverage, and user reward mechanisms to compete effectively in the market.
Regulatory and privacy risks: As a decentralized network, Gradient Network may face regulatory challenges in different regions while operating globally, especially concerning data privacy and network security. Although its sentinel node design emphasizes privacy protection, it may still raise compliance issues regarding data processing, requiring the project team to negotiate with regulatory agencies.
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