Infrastructure built by many, not one
Building a wireless network, a mapping database, or a fleet of compute servers has traditionally meant one company raising capital, buying or leasing hardware, and rolling it out site by site. DePIN, short for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, flips that model. Instead of a single corporation owning every antenna or server rack, independent individuals and small businesses buy or operate the hardware themselves and connect it to a shared network, earning token rewards for the capacity they contribute.
The hardware itself is nothing exotic: wireless hotspots that provide network coverage, servers offering spare compute or storage, sensors collecting weather or air quality data, dash cams mapping streets as they drive. What makes it a DePIN is the coordination layer, a blockchain-based protocol that tracks who contributed what, verifies it well enough to trust, and pays contributors in the network's token according to rules anyone can inspect.