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Original title:Is AI ready for the metaverse storm in Web3, is DePIN prepared?

Hashtags: DePIN, AI, Macro

Difficulty:intermediate

Meta Description：

AI provides computing power and forms intelligent network application scenarios, while blockchain/Web3 establishes order for AI (intelligent networks). However, is DePIN ready for this?

Introduction

In 2024, the cryptocurrency market is contemplating how to massively integrate DePIN devices into the blockchain. Of course, there are also established projects that have been practicing the concept before DePIN, such as the well-known Filecoin, and DeepBrain Chain (DBC), which is not as well-known in the blockchain industry due to its early business ecosystem focus on AI. DBC, which launched its GPU computing power mainnet on November 22, 2021, based on blockchain technology, has achieved a high-performance distributed GPU computing power network that can be infinitely scaled.

Today, the DePIN track has been highly sought after by the market and has been given high expectations. However, we believe that DePIN is still severely underestimated. Without the narrative of “AI and Web3 in the metaverse storm,” the ultimate fate of humans and AI will be a confrontation between carbon-based life and silicon-based life, which is why Hawking and Musk warned the world about the “AI threat theory” long before GPT. The best way to deal with AI is through the narrative of “AI and Web3 in the metaverse storm.” AI provides computing power and forms intelligent network application scenarios, while blockchain/Web3 establishes order for AI (intelligent networks). However, is DePIN ready for this?

01. Urgency

DePIN consists of three components: decentralized computing power, storage, and network (CDN). In the decentralized storage track, Filecoin is widely recognized, along with Arweave and Storj. The decentralized content delivery network (CDN) field has seen effective practices from Theta, a decentralized streaming platform. In terms of decentralized computing power, DFINITY has dominated the CPU territory for complex logical calculations, while DBC has focused on adapting to metaverse applications such as 3A cloud gaming rendering and AI deep learning algorithms using GPUs.

Beneath the industrial logic, the current valuation of the DePIN track is in the tens of billions of dollars range, with Messari predicting the track’s scale to grow to $35 trillion by 2028. With the rise of AI, there’s an urgent need for decentralized solutions in the GPU computing power track at the industrial value level. Giants like OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, hold the initiative in AI industry reshaping with each new product release.

Before the rise of DePIN, apart from oligopolistic monopolies, there was a lack of a unified, open marketplace for decentralized AI computing power, and the infrastructure faced security issues such as data privacy, intellectual property protection, and defense against malicious attacks.

DBC’s solution is built on blockchain technology, incentivizing the on-chain utilization of globally idle GPU computing power. DBC has technically achieved a global decentralized GPU high-performance computing power scheduling network based on blockchain technology. Its high-performance computing nodes can take various forms, including large GPU server clusters, small and medium-sized enterprise idle GPU servers, and individual idle GPUs.

Since 2023, DBC and DePIN have entered the vision of the crypto world. Early practitioners like DBC can serve as a mirror for the industry. DePIN is a direction for resolving the dilemma of AI computing power: from personal PCs to data centers, decentralized GPU computing power lowers the price by utilizing dispersed idle GPU resources. It can provide more flexible and scalable computing solutions for early-stage AI entrepreneurs and metaverse cloud gaming applications.

With the development of decentralized technologies like blockchain and Web3.0, the exploration of combining high-performance GPU computing with decentralization is ongoing, such as using idle computing power to build volunteer computing platforms. Decentralization is becoming an important direction for the development of high-performance computing power. However, for decentralized high-performance computing to be widely adopted, breakthroughs are needed in performance, programming models, incentive mechanisms, and other aspects.

02. Importance

From a technical architecture perspective, DBC consists of two core components: a high-performance GPU computing power network and a blockchain mainnet. Their relationship is similar to the underlying technology architecture and incentive layer logic of IPFS and Filecoin. Another similar project is DFINITY, driven by CPU computing power, but the difference lies in CPU primarily being used for complex logical calculations, while DFINITY focuses on blockchainizing the demands of mainstream network applications. DBC, on the other hand, focuses on GPU computing power, which is more suitable for narratives like “AI and Web3 in the metaverse storm,” such as cloud gaming rendering and deep learning algorithms.

To better understand the connection between DBC’s GPU computing power network and this narrative, we can introduce an epic typical story: in 2009, the 3D movie “Avatar” brought us an unparalleled visual experience, but do you know how the visual effects rendering for “Avatar” was accomplished? In New Zealand, there was a 10,000 square foot server farm that processed up to 1.4 million tasks per day, handling 8GB of data per second, and running continuously for over a month.

At that time, DBC founder He Yong was attempting “genomic data analysis using artificial intelligence technology,” perhaps not realizing at the time that his future career path would be related to “Avatar.” Because at that time, “Avatar” was just a movie, and Satoshi Nakamoto had just mined the genesis BTC. The imagination of “AI and Web3 in the metaverse storm” based on blockchain would come more than a decade later.

Now, the sensation brought by “Avatar” can be experienced. With hardware devices like Meta and Apple’s AR/VR/XR continuously iterating for high-immersion and low-latency experiences, AI elements like Sora and DeepLink are also driving the construction of the metaverse. The activation of NFTs through ERC-404 will activate the most suitable metaverse applications such as GameFi/chain games… We can expect to achieve a metaverse application-level experience driven by AI and Web3 in this cycle.

Reflecting on the major narrative logic of 2024, we are impressed by how Sora is advancing the construction of the metaverse. However, the underlying support behind this is computing power. Taking CHAT as an example, the GPT-3 model training consumed about 3640 PF-days of computing power, equivalent to performing ten quadrillion calculations per second; according to SemiAnalysis’ speculation, the training cost of GPT4 could be as high as $63 million.

This leads us to the first part of the discussion on the urgent need for AI computing power to be addressed. It’s necessary to mention here that back when He Yong was still researching “genomic data analysis using artificial intelligence technology,” he entered the GPU computing power track due to the high costs associated with AI entrepreneurship brought by computing power.

As one of the early adopters of AI technology application research, he felt the constraints imposed by the high cost of computing power in the AI field. It was this motivation that led to the establishment of DBC, attempting to combine artificial intelligence with blockchain to form an infinitely scalable high-performance distributed computing power network to lower AI costs. Today, DBC’s high-performance GPU computing nodes can provide computing power support for multiple industries, including AI training and inference, cloud gaming, cloud cybercafes, ZK computing, etc.

However, compared to the cryptocurrency market contemplating how to massively integrate DePIN devices into the blockchain, DBC has gone through many practices of denial, forming a synergistic development effect in its ecosystem. As a low-level GPU computing power network, DBC does not directly face various terminal GPU users but is serviced by cloud providers in its ecosystem, such as Hycons.cloud and deeplink.cloud. Hycons.cloud is dedicated to providing users with convenient access to GPU computing power cloud services. Through Hycons, users can easily perform AI training and inference in the DBC network; DeepLink provides ultra-low-latency cloud gaming rendering services, serving various application scenarios such as cloud gaming, cloud cybercafes, cloud esports, cloud hotels, etc.

According to IDC reports, the share of high-performance GPU computing in decentralized computing power demand will double in the coming years, mainly due to the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), the rise of blockchain and cryptocurrency, data analysis and modeling, large 3A games, Vision Pro, and other metaverse application scenarios…

03. Necessity

Our anticipation of economic and even societal order reconstruction based on blockchain/Web3 comes from the contribution of decentralized computing power to the crypto economy. Analogous to the laws of sovereign nations in the physical world, the “2022-2023 Global Computing Power Index Assessment Report” shows that for every 1-point increase in the computing power index, the digital economy and GDP of a country will increase by 3.6‰ and 1.7‰, respectively.

Compared to the technical obstacles faced by new players in the massive integration of DePIN devices into the blockchain, DBC’s blockchain mainnet went live on May 20, 2021, and its GPU computing power mainnet went live on November 22, 2021. As of March 19, 2024, the number of GPUs in DBC’s decentralized network is 580, with a rental rate exceeding 98%. There are many practical applications in the fields of AI, cloud gaming, and cloud esports within the DBC decentralized network, with ecosystem service partners including Huawei, Polygon, and the cloud gaming all-in-one device TIKEREN…

Under DBC’s burning mechanism, the more GPUs rented in the DBC network, the more DBC gets destroyed, thus increasing the value of DBC. In order to expand the GPU computing power of the DBC network and to better leverage computing power for the infrastructure of the crypto ecosystem, the annual new version of the DBC mainnet went live in 2024. It supports GPU short-term rental mode, smart contract functionality, conversion of GameFi games to cloud GameFi, decentralized AIGC projects developing smart contracts based on DBC, and decentralized AIGC projects mining based on DBC GPUs. Due to its support for virtual machines, once a GPU machine joins DBC, it can perform 4 mining functions, mining aleo and ionet while also mining DBC and DLC tokens.

Due to its early-mover advantage and the effects of its ecosystem layout, DBC has already positioned itself as a key player in the “AI+DePIN” track. However, the current market’s expectations of DePIN mainly stem from the industrial value of the track, and DePIN’s value logic in the “AI and Web3 in the metaverse storm” has yet to be fully explored. Imagine if the underlying architecture of metaverse applications relies on centralized networks, storage, and computing power—would this still be the digital advancement we expect from the metaverse?

Imagine a metaverse application user hesitating to entrust their life and important asset transactions or digital currency payments to an untrustworthy mobile network service. The significance of decentralized computing power in the construction of the metaverse world is even more significant—the transformation of computing power/production will inevitably lead to corresponding changes in production relations, social structures, etc.

We’ve discussed this theme in articles like “The Value Logic of ‘Bear Market Bottom’ in Light of ‘Civilization at Rest’.” If the metaverse space is just a digital space for gaming, entertainment, and office work, is it worth using high-end chip technology, possibly breaking through the Moore’s Law of integrated circuit systems, more efficient network communication technology (5G/6G), as well as VR/AR/MR/XR hardware and developing advanced virtual engines and interaction technologies, wearable biometric sensor hardware, and precise motion capture software and hardware to achieve sensory responses, motion rules, and highly immersive experiences in the virtual space of the metaverse world?

Clearly, reconstructing the digitized society with Web3 decentralization, token incentive mechanisms, and DAO governance structures to provide a better societal system and governance structure for human digital evolution is the destination worth aiming for with the collective power of technology and industry to construct digital spaces and anticipate the metaverse world. And all of this is predicated on the foundational layer of DePIN leading the way.

Conclusion

With the Nvidia GTC conference held in the United States, GPU-related topics are increasingly attracting market attention, and DBC is mentioned in various tracks such as “AI+Web3,” “AI+Metaverse,” and “AI+DePIN.” Having crossed nearly two bull-bear cycles and accumulated 160,000 token holders, DBC is also striving to seize this opportunity to further integrate into the crypto-economic market, hoping to list on more major exchanges, including some large exchanges in South Korea. DBC has been deeply rooted in South Korea for 6 years, with multiple large GPU mining pools and South Korean cloud cybercafes in practical use.

This article uses DBC as a case study to analyze the value of the DePIN track while endeavoring to integrate popular tracks such as AI and GPU with DePIN and the crypto world, completing the narrative of “AI and Web3 in the metaverse storm.” Satoshi Nakamoto’s original intention will also be realized in the metaverse world built on DePIN.

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from [ThePrimediaDAO], All copyrights belong to the original author [Jerry, Dyson]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
3. Translations of the article into other languages are done by the Gate Learn team. Unless mentioned, copying, distributing, or plagiarizing the translated articles is prohibited.