Get to know MetaBlox: the new DePIN player with five times more nodes than Helium 5G

Reduce usage costs for WiFi.

Written by: Weilin

Since December last year, Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks has been condensed into the word “DePIN” and has returned to the hot topic list in the Web3 world.

Build a data layer and incentive system based on the blockchain network, and then provide specialized software and hardware for users to contribute excess computer, network and even energy resources and sell them to individuals or companies in need. DePIN application builders use this to form a closed business loop.

Among more than 650 DePIN projects, the decentralized wireless network Helium, which was born in 2013 and transformed into Web3 in 2017, has attracted much attention. The project focuses on the two popular scenarios of “Internet of Things and 5G” and attracted 405,525 Helium IoT devices and 4958 Helium 5G mobile devices join the network.

An important basis for Helium’s success is that it occupies the most popular and increasingly needed scenario of “wireless network”. Internet applications and the Internet of Things all require wireless networks. More new DePIN applications are also targeting this “easiest to obtain” Resource features, bringing device/node layout to the general public.

Recently, another wireless network DePIN application “MetaBlox” has built 29,009 own WiFi node devices, which is 5.4 times the number of Helium 5G subnet devices. Relying on the wireless network resources contributed by these node devices, MetaBlox is providing enterprise-level WiFi roaming to users around the world.

In decentralized wireless networks, those who win the nodes win the world. MetaBlox has figured out this trick and is using low-threshold access methods, equipment discount marketing and brewing incentive plans to attract contributors to wireless network resources.

Breaking Helium’s unique new DePIN volume WiFi scene

Use cases and scenarios connect to the real world. DePIN seems to be easier for ordinary users to understand and experience than Web3 applications such as DeFi, GameFi, and SocialFi, and it can build business models without relying on the common pure financial gameplay of Web3. Capital has seen room for growth in the DePIN track, and approximately US$10 billion in venture capital has poured into the top 10 DePIN projects by market value.

The veteran Web3 storage facility Filecoin attracted $250 million in financing, and now the Web3 wireless network facility Helium has reached the same level.

Helium raises US$250 million (picture from Messari)

Among the new DePIN unicorns, Helium is the most popular.

Helium, which entered the Web3 world in 2017, has deployed its own decentralized wireless network infrastructure. It is the world’s largest LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) standard network. It mainly supports two scenario use cases of the Internet of Things and 5G, allowing users to purchase and connect their own To build the network through hotspots, participants will receive crypto-asset incentives, and MOBILE, which was later hyped by the crypto-asset market, is the incentive token of the Helium 5G subnet.

Sharing and incentivizing, after the launch of Helium, some IoT and 5G software and hardware service providers quickly connected to the network. Currently, the number of Helium IoT devices is 405,525, while the number of Helium Mobile 5G devices is 4,958.

According to data in April 2023, Helium has deployed nearly 1 million hotspots (Hotspots) since its launch, covering more than 77,000 towns and cities in 192 countries, forming an extensive decentralized WiFi network. The $20/month 5G telecommunications service launched in the United States late last year was out of the spotlight due to its low price.

The success of Helium has also verified the effectiveness of the Web3 model in utilizing wireless network resources, and more DePIN infrastructure based on wireless networks has emerged.

On third-party DePIN data websites, wireless networks (WiFi) are becoming the most DePIN scenarios after servers. Among them, Helium is undoubtedly the highest in terms of attention and market value, followed by WiFi Map and WiCrypt, with more wireless Network DePIN is already on the way. The biggest feature of latecomers is that it is new enough, and an important indicator of “newness” is that the incentive token has not yet been launched.

Among the many DePIN projects in wireless network scenarios, a network called MetaBlox is on the rise. The outstanding indicator is the number of nodes. There are currently 29,009 MetaBlox’s own WiFi nodes. This number is 5.5 times that of Helium, and it is still rising. high.

According to the official website of MetaBlox, MetaBlox provides free enterprise-level secure WiFi roaming services to users around the world, and its various performance indexes are comparable to or even exceed 5G mobile cellular networks.

Today, as Web3 applications emerge in endlessly, MetaBlox provides a non-intrusive and secure WiFi bridge for traditional world users to migrate to Web3 without the need for repeated logins. On the other hand, MetaBlox WiFi router and its natural geographical location provide the most direct cooperation platform and traffic channel for other DePIN infrastructure project parties and layer2 applications.

To put it simply, users can not only achieve hardware miner rewards on MetaBlox WiFi routers, but also participate in network co-construction or complete other tasks through the MetaBlox App to receive rewards. Since this network also serves Web3 scenarios, users will also have the opportunity to receive airdrop rewards for the SocialFi and DeFi applications it supports.

Going one step further, we want to know why MetaBlox, which has been deeply involved in the DeWi track for more than two years, was able to deploy more than 30,000 node equipment distributed in 98 countries in a short period of time? Can it surpass Helium and become another major Web3 WiFi provider?

Sharing WiFi must encourage MetaBlox to use both soft and hard methods

Since DePIN was refined by the crypto-asset research institution Messari at the end of 2022, it has become a major track in the field of Web3 infrastructure and applications, and wireless networks (WiFi) occupy one of the major decentralized physical infrastructure scenarios.

The important reason why this scenario has attracted a large number of builders to adopt the Web3 model is that the wireless network itself requires a lot of modems, routers and other hardware to access the network in a distributed manner.

Wireless network resources are mainly built and owned by centralized telecommunications service providers, and then sold to users, including enterprises, government agencies and ordinary users. Users are often the paying end. DePIN wireless network infrastructure such as MetaBlox attempts to allow downstream resource users to gain benefits from sharing and dilute the cost of WiFi usage.

Traditional WiFi has a series of limitations. Due to its decentralized nature, WiFi coverage is uneven and unstable. Users are also unwilling to pay for a WiFi connection in a single location. This is why when you connect to a wireless network in a coffee shop or restaurant, it is " “Free”, but in fact, the cost of wireless network is already included in the operating costs of physical businesses, and the speed and security of public WiFi cannot be guaranteed.

In order to allow users to use more convenient wireless networks, the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) launched the OpenRoaming framework in 2021, aiming to simplify roaming access between cellular, commercial WiFi networks and public WiFi hotspots. On the one hand, this can solve the problem of constant interruption of wireless network connections, and on the other hand, it also eliminates the need for users to register or log in frequently.

Within this framework, MetaBlox is one of the nine OpenRoaming service providers officially designated by the WBA. Others include Cisco and Boingo, which are more familiar to the public, and MetaBlox is the only team member in the Web3 field.

After spending two years, MetaBlox developed a blockchain-based architecture that uses a unified decentralized identity (DID) approach and a verifiable credential (VC) system to integrate small residential and commercial venues into the OpenRoaming framework (hereinafter referred to as "OR ")middle.

The DID technology adopted by MetaBlox is a new type of decentralized identifier that achieves verifiable, decentralized digital identity. DID can represent any type of subject, such as data model, real object, institutional organization, etc. The specific type is selected by its controller.

The Verifiable Credential (VC) system allows users to decide whether to share personal resources, and can also choose to share under what circumstances and in what manner.

There are over 3 million OpenRoaming nodes and 29,009 self-owned nodes. This is the infrastructure scale accumulated by MetaBlox network so far. The overall nodes cover approximately 98 countries. Its purpose is to provide safe and stable WiFi roaming services to global users.

It is worth noting that Helium5G in similar scenarios is only applicable to the domestic market in the United States due to frequency band restrictions, not global users. It is essentially a virtual card operator (centralized card issuer) mechanism grafted on T-moblie, and It is a sub-network of Helium, and further expansion requires continuous feedback from the Helium mainnet ecosystem. In contrast, MetaBlox WiFi’s degree of decentralization and coverage are obviously more advantageous.

To promote community participation in building a Web3-style WiFi network, MetaBlox’s method is to attract traffic through both software and hardware.

The hardware is MetaBlox WiFi router Miner, which has now been upgraded to the second generation. It is also the node hardware that connects OR and its compatible networks. As more people connect to the OR network, the router will generate mPoints rewards. As a Utility Token (intermediate token) in MetaBlox Tokenomics, mPoints can not only be exchanged for rewards directly in the MetaBlox APP, but also gain access to other cooperative Web3 applications/services. They can also obtain the future governance of MetaBlox through staking. Token.

The online platform is MetaBlox official App. This application supports two registration methods: Web2/Web3; after completing the registration, users can use the currently supported global WiFi roaming service for free. On the other hand, users can also participate in the MetaBlox network co-construction through the App - add their own There are / public WiFi networks where you can claim different amounts of mPoints rewards.

MetaBlox Mining Router and App

Using software and hardware incentives to divert traffic, MetaBlox is still accumulating infrastructure and wireless network resources for Web3 global roaming WiFi.

MetaBlox’s first batch of routers has been sold out, and the next generation is offered at an early bird price of $249 with a 50% discount; MetaBlox’s governance token is expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2024. Currently, users participate in network co-construction through route mining The collected mPoints are the only channel to obtain governance tokens through staking in the future.

With the expectation of incentive value, it is easy to understand that MetaBlox can build an infrastructure scale of more than 3 million OpenRoaming nodes and 29,009 MetaBlox own nodes.

With such infrastructure expansion, MetaBlox is expected to become another major provider of DePIN wireless network services after Helium, and also provide new options for WiFi providers and users. More importantly, WiFi supply under the DePIN paradigm will promote the balance of wireless network resource coverage and serve global Internet users, especially areas with scarce wireless resources.