Leo Lin’s Keynote Speech at The Ninth Global Blockchain Summit
This article offers an in-depth look into Leo Lin’s keynote address at The Ninth Global Blockchain Summit. As the CEO of aitos.io, he has been instrumental in shaping the global blockchain+IoT as well as DePIN landscape. Lin’s speech, titled “BoAT3: The IoT Oracle for DePIN Enablement,” was delivered on September 20th, aligning with this year’s summit theme: “Blockchain New Economy, Future of Web3.
Leo Lin: Good morning, everyone! I’m Leo Lin from aitos.io. Our primary focus has always been on driving innovation in the fields of IoT and blockchain. Today, I’m delighted to discuss the highly trending DePIN track within the Web3 community. I will delve into how the DePIN model can expedite the construction of digital infrastructure and shed light on our ongoing exploration of BoAT3, the IoT oracle service, and its critical role in establishing a trustworthy connection between the physical and digital realms.
We currently find ourselves in the midst of a digital infrastructure construction surge, exerting a profound influence on our lives, work, and economic landscape. The foundational 5G network is facilitating quicker internet access and enabling more devices to connect. Energy is undergoing a digital metamorphosis, exemplified by the digital network of charging stations, which is not only making electric vehicle adoption feasible but also championing eco-friendly and sustainable transportation solutions. Likewise, the transportation sector is undergoing digitization with advancements such as vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), Vehicle-to-vehicle( V2V), and Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), all of which are contributing to a significant reduction in transportation risks and a boost in overall efficiency. These digital infrastructure developments have the potential to connect various scenarios and are poised to create the next trillion-dollar digital economy.
Once these infrastructures are finished, they will create network effects and offer long-term infrastructure services, resulting in substantial social and economic advantages. However, their construction phase comes with its share of challenges, including significant upfront investments. Due to the lengthy construction timeline and the necessity for sustained CAPEX and OPEX, these projects typically require government leadership or large corporations and institutional investors to initiate and finance them from the top down. This often leads to extended initial setup times as the responsible parties require time for decision-making and top-down Design. This situation also gives rise to a dilemma between supply and demand. Demand-side applications are often hesitant to adopt these infrastructures until the supply-side development is mature and fully realized. In the absence of established applications to support them, construction entities may be reluctant to make investments. Lastly, a major challenge lies in the risk of Platform monopolies. Infrastructure is considered a public good, and it should be accessible and inclusive for all institutions and individuals.
Considering the challenges and questions at hand, we’ve observed intriguing projects emerging within the Web3 community in recent years. DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) as defined by Messari towards the end of the previous year, it operates on a model of incentivized sharing tailored for the global community, aiming to collaboratively expedite the development of digital infrastructure from the grassroots level. Simultaneously, it ensures that the global community collectively owns this digital infrastructure.
Let’s examine the most advanced DePIN project, Helium, as an illustrative example. Over the past few years, Helium has achieved the remarkable feat of deploying over a million LoRa gateways worldwide, thanks to the collective efforts of hundreds of thousands of global community contributors. These gateways form the foundation of a global Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity network. Helium has devised an incentivization mechanism wherein community members can purchase LoRa gateways, perform DIY installations on their balconies or rooftops, and actively participate in the network’s connectivity services, thus earning corresponding rewards.
As the network expands with more nodes joining, it starts to exhibit network effects. This, in turn, encourages the development of various applications running on the network, generating external revenue. These earnings are then reinvested into the infrastructure by the builders, motivating them to allocate more resources to its expansion.
Crucially, the DePIN model places individual participants at the forefront of infrastructure construction, with each entity shouldering the responsibility of capital expenditures for devices, installation, maintenance, and ongoing operational expenses. This approach significantly reduces the CAPEX and OPEX investments typically associated with digital infrastructure. Moreover, since individual entities are at the helm, the incentive structure enables a quicker transition from project initiation to full-fledged operation, partially mitigating the “chicken and egg” challenge between the supply and demand sides. It allows for supply-side construction to commence without waiting for the demand side to mature.
DePIN embodies a globally community co-built infrastructure network, where the benefits on the demand side are collectively owned by the entire global community. It represents an unlicensed, public infrastructure accessible to anyone and any organization. It enables supply-side participation without the need for formal permissions, while users can seamlessly access and utilize the network for their requirements.
We believe that DePIN offers an effective complement to the conventional top-down approach in constructing digital infrastructure, capable of expediting the digitalization process for humanity. Furthermore, DePIN serves as a pivotal link between the physical world, real-world assets (RWA), and the digital realm of Web3. It has the potential to become a significant narrative in the next phase of technological evolution.
Now, let’s explore why the DePIN model can efficiently coordinate the efforts of hundreds of thousands of contributors worldwide, all without traditional employment relationships, as they work collectively toward a common goal of building infrastructure. To achieve this, there’s a need for a fair and transparent incentive distribution protocol within the DePIN framework, known as PoPW (Proof of Physical Work). Allow me to clarify what PoPW entails.First and foremost, PoPW involves defining the nature of physical work and developing a precise means of measuring the amount of work completed. It also requires a method for verifying which specific contributor or builder performed the work. This is at the heart of PoPW. Additionally, there’s the essential step of recording PoPW entries in real-time onto a globally accessible and tamper-resistant ledger. This ledger enables every builder to monitor their own contributions and view the PoPW entries of fellow builders. When it comes time for incentive distribution, the calculations are based on the PoPW records stored in this ledger.
For each participating builder, this system ensures complete clarity regarding their contributions and the corresponding rewards they’re entitled to receive. Consequently, within the DePIN model, we regard PoPW as the central mechanism that empowers the global community, comprising hundreds of thousands or even millions of contributors, to actively participate in the development of infrastructure networks.
Now, let’s explore how the DePIN’s common mechanism, PoPW (Proof of Physical Work), can be described from a technical perspective. We utilize digital means such as the Internet of Things (IoT) in different scenarios to measure workloads and promptly record them on the blockchain. This introduces the ability to securely record trustworthy data of IoT devices onto blockchain.
To provide a more technical explanation of PoPW, we observe a variety of devices continuously operating and making significant societal contributions. This constitutes “Physical work.” It encompasses various metrics, such as the amount of electricity delivered by a charging station, the data transmitted by a wireless base station, or the volume of green energy generated by solar photovoltaic systems. These represent external business services and warrant fair compensation based on precise workload measurement. The fusion of IoT and blockchain, coupled with the use of smart contracts, facilitates equitable compensation for community contributors.
IoT devices collect workload data through sensors, such as tracking the electricity output of a photovoltaic system. Using the device’s embedded wallet, the workload is signed with the device’s private key, generating a verifiable certificate for the measured workload — this is what PoPW signifies. To complete the process, PoPW needs to be submitted to the blockchain, allowing smart contracts to distribute resources based on contributions and the workload measured by PoPW. This step introduces the necessity for an oracle mechanism since contracts require access to off-chain data. PoPW encapsulates off-chain data generated by IoT devices, thus requiring IoT oracles to act as intermediaries. IoT oracles determine and validate whether the data originates from genuine devices in a process referred to as “PoPW Validation.” Once PoPW has undergone verification, it can be permanently recorded on the blockchain, incorporated into contracts, and distributed in accordance with contract-defined rules.
To sum up, PoPW entails the collection and measurement of workloads using IoT devices to generate “Physical work.” This is achieved through digital signatures generated using the IoT device’s embedded wallet, resulting in PoPW. PoPW is then submitted to IoT oracles for validation. Once validated by the oracles, the confirmed PoPW is sent to the contract, which, following pre-established rules and methodologies, executes commercial processes, completing the business cycle.
In the upcoming era, DePIN has the potential to emerge as a pivotal narrative. This is because it serves as a crucial link between the physical world and the real world. Furthermore, we’re witnessing an increasing number of developers and projects aspiring to leverage DePIN for transforming their established scenarios, technologies, and products into DePIN applications.
This transformation requires the capacity to seamlessly and credibly integrate PoPW generated within these scenarios into the Web3 ecosystem. This integration relies on IoT oracles founded on PoPW. BoAT3 (Blockchain of AI Things for Web3) offers an open service tailored for DePIN applications, particularly IoT oracles. BoAT3 empowers DePIN applications to swiftly adapt IoT devices within their scenarios to ensure trustworthy data is recorded on the blockchain. This, in turn, expedites the establishment of the core PoPW capabilities essential to DePIN. Consequently, DePIN developers can concentrate more of their efforts on refining their core businesses and managing community engagement.
BoAT3 boasts robust capabilities for seamless collaboration between software and hardware. As previously mentioned, PoPW must originate at the data source, necessitating the deployment of lightweight wallets on the device side to consistently and credibly acquire PoPW. Throughout the entire lifecycle, PoPW retains its verifiability and trustworthiness.
Considering the diverse array of DePIN scenarios, it becomes essential to identify a versatile platform. BoAT3 has proactively integrated with leading chip and module manufacturers. This integration offers a swift and cost-effective solution for adapting IoT devices within the expansive and fragmented landscape of DePIN scenarios, ensuring they can reliably generate PoPW.
BoAT3 encompasses several key components, including the DePIN unit, IoT Oracle Node, DePIN public services on the DePIN chain, and distributed storage. The DePIN unit refers to IoT devices equipped with DePIN capabilities. These devices can integrate with blockchain chips, blockchain modules compatible with BoAT3, and middleware. This integration empowers IoT devices operating within Physical work scenarios to measure and sign workloads, thereby generating PoPW.
PoPW can then be transmitted from the DePIN Unit to the IoT Oracle Node. The oracle employs a whitelist mechanism based on DID (Decentralized Identifier) to verify the authenticity of the device using its public key. Only devices registered in the whitelist are considered genuine DePIN devices. Verified PoPW is then processed through BoAT3’s rule engine and sent to the respective connectors. Each connector is associated with different dApps on various blockchain platforms, facilitating the seamless transmission of PoPW to smart contracts.
For certain information that is both crucial and sensitive, unsuitable for direct registration on the blockchain, BoAT3 offers solutions like zero-knowledge proofs and confidential technology containers to ensure privacy protection. These measures enable the verification of PoPW without exposing the original data. All off-chain PoPW data is securely stored in a distributed storage system. Particularly sensitive data can also be placed in a permanent, distributed storage service.
BoAT3 serves as an open infrastructure, welcoming any community member to establish an IoT Oracle Node. BoAT3 additionally provides DePIN public services, including node management, access management, ZK verification, and more. BoAT3’s goal is to fully utilize the composability advantages of Web3, making it easier to flexibly combine these critical technology protocols for swift deployment and iterative improvements.
In the past two months, Messari has made updates to the DePIN Map, covering various sectors such as wireless networks, Geospatial networks, energy networks, Mobility networks, as well as digital resource networks like storage, computing, and bandwidth. We are witnessing a growing number of real-world scenarios being reimagined by different DePIN projects and applications.
We also aspire for BoAT3 to assist more community developers in swiftly bringing their DePIN products to life and continuously improving them. BoAT3’s overarching vision is to act as a boat between the physical world and the digital world. It aims to facilitate the transfer of trusted data from the physical world to the digital realm and the secure transmission of digital instructions from the digital world to the physical world. DePIN is playing a pivotal role in accelerating the development of digital infrastructure, and BoAT3 has the potential to seamlessly integrate more imaginative and valuable DePIN RWA into the Web3 ecosystem. BoAT3 and DePIN together have the potential to expedite the realization of this visionary goal.
In recent months, we have been actively cooperating with the Future3 Campus incubator’s DePIN track, which was initiated in partnership with Wanxiang Blockchain and HashKey Capital. Our goal is to empower more DePIN developers and projects with BoAT3, enabling them to rapidly prototype products, conduct testing, and facilitate real-world implementation. Furthermore, we invite more community members who share an interest in DePIN to join our DePIN track and collaborate on the development of intriguing DePIN projects.
That concludes my presentation. Thank you, everyone.
