DePINs：新的 Web3 领域将加密货币带入现实世界

没有什么比一个全新的神秘缩写更能让普通加密货币爱好者兴奋不已了。这个周期，DePIN旗帜高高飘扬。

People in crypto get excited about new cryptic abbreviations to rally around. This cycle, the DePIN banner is flying high, and compared to some of the past crazes, this one is actually pretty wholesome. Not just that — it’s exciting, it has a ton of potential, and it marries Web3 and the real world in a way that actually makes sense… All while being a beast the mainstream crypto space is unprepared for.

加密领域的人们对新的神秘缩写感到兴奋，并聚集在一起。这一轮，DePIN大旗飘扬得高高飘扬，相比过去的一些热潮，这一次其实还算是比较健康的。不仅如此，它令人兴奋，它具有巨大的潜力，并且它以一种真正有意义的方式将 Web3 和现实世界结合起来……尽管它是主流加密货币领域尚未做好准备的野兽。

Why? Before we dive into that, let’s quickly put the spotlight on the “what.”

为什么？在我们深入探讨之前，让我们快速关注“什么”。

Demystifying DePIN

揭秘 DePIN

For now, quite a few people — even crypto-natives — arch their eyebrows at the mention of DePIN as the term is yet to fully settle in. So in the interest of clarity, DePIN stands for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, or in simple terms, real-world applications. DePINs leverage tokens to incentivize people to set up hardware for providing and rendering real-world services. Think car-sharing, peer-to-peer solar power trading, 5G or WiFi connectivity, street mapping, electric vehicle charging, environmental data collection through smartphones, and other exciting use cases.

目前，相当多的人——甚至是加密货币原住民——一提到 DePIN 就皱起了眉头，因为这个术语还没有完全定型。因此，为了清楚起见，DePIN 代表去中心化物理基础设施网络，或者简单地说，实际应用。 DePIN 利用代币来激励人们设置硬件来提供和呈现现实世界的服务。想想汽车共享、点对点太阳能交易、5G 或 WiFi 连接、街道测绘、电动汽车充电、通过智能手机收集环境数据以及其他令人兴奋的用例。

This op-ed is part of CoinDesk's new "DePIN Vertical" devoted to exploring the future of decentralized infrastructure.

这篇专栏文章是 CoinDesk 新的“DePIN Vertical”的一部分，致力于探索去中心化基础设施的未来。

As an example, consider Silencio, which enables people to record noise pollution levels with their smartphones and earn token rewards for it. Another DePIN, Wingbits, uses tokens to incentivize people to set up private antennas tracking planes’ location data broadcasts. For history buffs among us, the fundamental model behind DePINs isn’t new; only the term, coined by Messari in late 2022, is actually relatively recent.

以 Silencio 为例，它使人们能够用智能手机记录噪音污染水平并为此赚取代币奖励。另一个 DePIN Wingbits 使用代币激励人们设置私人天线来跟踪飞机的位置数据广播。对于我们这些历史爱好者来说，DePIN 背后的基本模型并不新鲜。只有 Messari 在 2022 年底创造的这个术语实际上是相对较新的。

Early on, the name got its fair share of smirks — nothing wrong with that, memes are the way of Web3 — but its introduction set off a powerful movement imbued with a promise of change. And this change, interestingly enough, goes both ways, not only aiming at how we manage and earn from devices, but also making us, the Web3 natives, reconsider the way we think about Web3.

早期，这个名字引起了很多人的嘲笑——这没什么错，模因是 Web3 的方式——但它的推出引发了一场充满变革承诺的强大运动。有趣的是，这种变化是双向的，不仅针对我们如何管理设备并从设备中赚钱，还让我们这些 Web3 原生者重新考虑我们对 Web3 的看法。

Bringing crypto into the real world is an exciting idea, if not a one-of-a-kind opportunity. It’s what the masses have been waiting for: real, tangible use-cases for blockchain that people actually need and use daily. The flipside is that this one-of-a-kind opportunity takes a bit more effort from launching another dog-themed memecoin, and has a lot of its own specifics too.

将加密货币带入现实世界是一个令人兴奋的想法，即使不是一个独一无二的机会。这就是大众一直在等待的：人们每天实际需要和使用的真实、有形的区块链用例。另一方面是，这个独一无二的机会需要付出更多的努力来推出另一种以狗为主题的模因币，并且也有很多自己的特点。

Why DePINs aren’t regular dApps

为什么 DePIN 不是常规的 dApp

So what makes DePINs special? To answer this question, let’s imagine a hypothetical DePIN that enables you to earn tokens for measuring local temperature through a smart thermometer. That’s already where we bump right into one of the many, many elephants in the room: the hardware.

那么 DePIN 有何特别之处？为了回答这个问题，让我们想象一个假设的 DePIN，它使您能够通过智能温度计测量当地温度来赚取代币。这就是我们遇到房间里众多大象之一的地方：硬件。

How do we go about the thermometers? Do we let users connect any third-party devices capable of recording and sending data? Sure, and let’s applaud our own open-source spirit while we’re at it. But let’s not forget to write the code that will support the widest variety of smart sensors and will feature a simple user interface that will make adding them a breeze. And that’s no easy task, mind you.

我们该如何使用温度计呢？我们是否允许用户连接任何能够记录和发送数据的第三方设备？当然，让我们为我们自己的开源精神鼓掌吧。但我们不要忘记编写支持最广泛的智能传感器的代码，并具有简单的用户界面，使添加它们变得轻而易举。请注意，这不是一件容易的事。

The alternative is to manufacture the hardware ourselves, which lands us in yet another animal reservation. Now, we’re no longer simply building a dApp, we’re also building a custom piece of hardware and taking on the joys of manufacturing, storage, and shipment. Of course, we can always buy a white-label solution, hire contractors, and do a ton of other reasonable things, which all lead us to our next trunked beast: the token economics.

另一种选择是自己制造硬件，这使我们陷入了另一个动物保护区。现在，我们不再简单地构建 dApp，我们还在构建定制硬件并享受制造、存储和运输的乐趣。当然，我们总是可以购买白标解决方案，雇用承包商，并做大量其他合理的事情，所有这些都将我们引向下一个巨兽：代币经济学。

You see, the price of all of that has to be accounted for in the token economics. Whether we expect the community to purchase a thermometer from us or not, we have to be mindful of this investment when we lay out the rewards and incentives. People will expect a return on their investment in hardware, after all, and quite reasonably. And with that, we are no longer writing token economics for people, as regular dApps do, we are writing them for people and value-generating machines — machines that are growing more intelligent by the day and turning from mere tools into economic agents.

你看，所有这些的价格都必须在代币经济学中得到考虑。无论我们是否希望社区从我们这里购买温度计，我们在制定奖励和激励措施时都必须注意这项投资。毕竟，人们会期望在硬件上的投资得到回报，而且是相当合理的。这样，我们不再像常规 dApp 那样为人们编写代币经济学，而是为人和价值生成机器编写代币经济学——这些机器日益变得更加智能，并从单纯的工具转变为经济主体。

See how significant this distinction is? And that’s only the supply side so far.

看出这个区别有多重要了吗？到目前为止，这还只是供应方面。

Being real ain’t easy

做真实的人并不容易

Now, let’s consider the other part of the equation. A crypto token can live off the hype, memes, and sheer unhinged speculation we know Web3 for. A DePIN can’t. In our case, it needs weather companies, researchers, and anyone else willing to buy the temperature data we collect. In other cases, it’s devices using its IoT connectivity network, or drivers looking for charging spots; the gist is, DePIN

现在，让我们考虑等式的另一部分。加密代币可以靠炒作、迷因和我们熟知的 Web3 的纯粹疯狂猜测来生存。 DePIN 则不能。就我们而言，它需要气象公司、研究人员和任何其他愿意购买我们收集的温度数据的人。在其他情况下，是使用物联网连接网络的设备，或者是寻找充电点的司机；要点是，DePIN