News
peaq has always been the layer-1 for decentralized physical infrastructure networks, or DePINs, and in Q1 this year, it has once again lived up to this commitment. With more than 25 projects now building on peaq, it is now the second-largest DePIN ecosystem in Web3, outdone only by Ethereum – at the time of writing, of course. And that’s just one of the many exciting things to note for the first three months of 2024, so without further ado, let’s dive in.
Smart homes are cool and futuristic, but how smart is too smart? When your comfy tech snoops on you on Big Tech’s behest, that’s probably a good place to draw the line. AYDO gives you the tools to draw that line with as it is working on a smart home platform on peaq to rival those of centralized companies.
AYDO joined the peaqosystem last January to change the paradigm for smart homes, linking them with blockchain and empowering people to truly own the devices amping up their comfort. By tapping the ZigBee protocol, it will be compatible with more than 3,000 devices, empowering smart home owners to manage their residences on a privacy-first platform. Among AYDO’s prospective use cases are smart rental contracts or Airbnbs that will issue rewards to tenants for not breaking such rules as noise levels or energy consumption limits.
A DePIN connects many thousands of devices all around the globe, and getting them to function as a network providing valuable real-world services is a matter of having not just a solid layer-1 backbone like peaq, but also a scalable and efficient data infrastructure. Data, after all, underpins most value exchanges in DePINs, be it an electric vehicle charging session or a drone delivery from a nearby steakhouse. And with Staex, the data behind those steaks will travel on some of the most decentralized pipelines out there.
Originally a Deutsche Telekom project, Steax joined the peaqosystem to provide the DePINs building on peaq with a decentralized connectivity layer. It will enable the community to keep tabs on devices linked with the network by building an indexing pallet, also giving builders a user interface for managing peaq IDs on their DePIN. Additionally, Staex will integrate peaq with its Mesh Communication Component (MCC), a protocol that enables devices on a decentralized network to communicate with each other from any location.
When reading this blog, it’s easy to take Internet access for granted — but we really shouldn’t. The sad reality is that billions of people still lack access to this crucial, literally life-changing resource. In many cases, these are the very people who’d benefit from it the most, getting access to education, knowledge, and business opportunities that could help them thrive. Wayru is working to close this gap, unlocking Web access for all as it builds its connectivity DePIN with a focus on the LATAM region.
Wayru joined the peaqosystem to bridge the digital divide. As part of the integration, Wayru will make its WiFi hotspot software compatible with peaq and connect its mobile app with the peaq blockchain, which will let people set their hotspots on peaq. Wayru operators will be able to migrate to peaq and tap the opportunities it provides to DePINs and their participants. Wayru will also enable the hotspots to earn $WRU tokens on peaq and add liquidity for the tokens.
Do you drive? If yes, did you ever have to ask yourself: What if I ran out of gas, and there wasn’t a single gas station around for a refill? Replace gas stations with chargers, and you get something electric vehicle owners have to ponder on quite often, as there aren’t that many chargers to go around out there. In fact, range anxiety is one of the major hurdles to electric vehicle adoption. But PowerPod is working to change this tide by empowering anyone to open their charger to the public — and earn rewards for providing peer-to-peer charging sessions.
PowerPod joined the peaqosystem to set the foundation for an electric vehicle market without range anxiety. PowerPod will outfit its devices with peaq IDs, enabling them to connect with the blockchain and the wider peaqosystem. It will also tap peaq for storing its data and launch its point on the peaq mainnet in the future. PowerPod will use peaq to deploy its rewards mechanism, granting users tokens for interacting with the DePIN.
When code is the law, as it is in Web3, even the smallest vulnerability can end up being the “legal loophole” that lets hackers drain wallets and steal funds. With DePINs, projects focused squarely on the real world, the trouble can also extend beyond the tokens — there can be actual real-world damage, too. That’s why smart contract security should never be an afterthought, and smart contract audits from firms such as Hashlock is an important step to ensuring security.
Hashlock joined the peaqosystem to help the DePINs building on peaq make their code as secure as possible. As part of the collaboration, it offers a 50% discount on smart contract audits to all DePINs in the peaqosystem. With the audit complete, Hashlock can optionally publish a report on its official channels as a testament to the DePIN’s commitment to security.
The cloud market is bustling, projected to grow to more than $1.2 trillion by 2028. The appeal of cloud solutions is so strong that even some Web3 projects are tapping centralized hosting services like AWS or Google Cloud. Acurast is here to change the game with a mobile-first DePIN for distributed computation — a Web3-native alternative to centralized cloud providers.
Acurast joined the peaqosystem to provide DePINs with a distributed compute option for their backend needs. As part of the integration, it opens its network of smartphones converted into distributed computation nodes for DePINs building on peaq. It will also deploy its versatile on-demand data oracle on peaq and explore tapping peaq IDs for the devices on its DePIN for data verification.
After months of hard work, penomo, the tokenization platform for green energy assets, has completed the fourth and final milestone of the Ecosystem Grant Program. As the final stride, it completed the first version of the portal that will enable the owners of green energy RWAs to turn them into on-chain tokens. As the next steps, penomo will further polish its platform, move toward proof-of-concept projects, and eventually launch on the peaq mainnet.
Brainstem Digital Health is building a health data app for wearables, making for an exciting DePIN for fitness enthusiasts and people who care about their wellbeing. Moving closer to the eventual launch on peaq, the project has added peaq ID support to its app, which is currently in development. The feature enables people to set up a peaq ID for their health tracker, connecting it with the peaq blockchain.
Moving fast, Steax, a relatively recent addition to the peaqosystem, has already completed its indexing tool for peaq IDs. The tool enables anyone to look up the IDs that have been created on peaq, displaying all of them on a handy dashboard. From there, people can research different machines further, accessing such important data as their type or location, as long as that information has been provided by the owner.
NATIX, a DePIN building the Internet of Cameras, announced a strategic partnership with Silencio, a DePIN for measuring noise pollution. Building on peaq, both projects are among the fastest-growing DePINs in the space, and their decision to bring their communities together is set to further spur their growth.
Wingbits is a DePIN for tracking airplanes and collecting flight data. Over the first quarter of 2024, it continued to scale up, surpassing 2 billion plane position updates collected per day and bringing its list of countries with a footprint to 62.
In another major development for the project, Silencio has seen its user base skyrocket to more than 200,000 people. With more and more people joining in to combat the global noise pollution, Silencio is already one of the fastest-growing DePINs in Web3 — and one of the flagship projects when it comes to bringing the DePIN model to the masses.
Blockchains by nature are solitary creatures, but thankfully, where there’s a will, there’s a bridge. In peaq’s case, the bridge is Wormhole, a leading blockchain interoperability protocol, which connects peaq with more than 30 chains, including Ethereum and other popular layer-1s. The integration unlocks billions’ worth of borderless Web3 liquidity for DePINs building on peaq and making it easier for DePINs from other ecosystems to migrate to peaq or build some of their functions on it.
DePINs leverage thousands of connected devices in every corner of the Earth, but how do you make sure that these are all real devices broadcasting correct data? peaq verify is a three-tiered framework for doing exactly that. Tier 1 sees the device sign the data with its own peaq ID to establish its provenance. Tier 2 taps machine learning to spot patterns in the data from various devices and flag outliers. Tier 3 leverages a trusted oracle as an additional point of reference for making sure the devices broadcast their data truthfully.
ELOOP, the project behind a fleet of tokenized car-sharing Teslas in Vienna, has unveiled the plan to open up the business model for anyone, unlocking a new category of RWAs for the Web3 community. To this end, it is collaborating with peaq to launch a machine tokenization platform on the network, which is already being tested on peaq’s sister chain krest. The platform will enable communities and businesses to tokenize rights to their machine assets and offer them to the public as on-chain tokens on peaq.
Few have as much enterprise experience as Michael Ganser, former CEO of Cisco Germany, who also held a variety of other leadership roles in and outside the company, one of EU’s top IT powerhouses. This quarter, Michael has joined the Peaq Foundation in an executive role. In this position, he will take the lead on peaq’s enterprise strategy and help to convey its vision to top boardrooms across the world.
peaq has long been working with the Fetch.ai Foundation and Bosch, both within the Gaia-X moveID project and beyond it — and in this quarter, this relationship made another step forward. peaq has joined the Fetch.ai Foundation, armed with an allocation of $100 million and co-governed by Bosch and Fetch.ai. The development unlocks advanced AI tech for DePIN builders on peaq and positions peaq at the spearhead of the push for real-world AI and Web3 adoption.
peaq has raised $15 million in a multi-tranche pre-launch funding round led by Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital, with participation from many other leading Web3 investors. The funds will fuel the Ecosystem Grant Program, which supports DePINs building on peaq, and support the development of more Modular DePIN Functions. The development comes at a crucial time for the project as peaq gears up for the mainnet launch and its first-ever public token offering.
That’s it for this edition of DePIN Digest. We’ll be back again this time next quarter to recap what is likely to be one of the most exciting – if not the most exciting – period in peaq’s history.
