Which DePIN data is the best? Why is it said that the value of Aethir($ATH) may be underestimated?

Original author: TVBee (X: @blockTVBee)

DePin is a type of project that seems relatively abstract, unlike public chains, DeFi, or MEME projects that have more intuitive perceptions. However, DePin may actually be an application with broader scenarios...

The DePin Track and Data Not to Be Ignored

The uniqueness of DePin is reflected in two aspects:

The first is the business scope and service targets of DePin.

DePin is developing in areas such as cloud computing, cloud rendering, file storage, network hotspots, and even meteorology, with its services not limited to the Web3 field.

For example, Aethir, as a decentralized cloud computing platform for AI training and inference, as well as game computing, has provided a large amount of cloud computing services for Web2 enterprises. GEODNET, based on GNSS satellite reference station geographic and meteorological data information platform, is dedicated to providing services for agriculture, engineering, transportation, geology, and more.

Second, the data for DePin is relatively difficult to obtain. Although the working principles of public blockchains are not entirely the same, there are many similarities, and the data for DeFi products and MEME is more homogeneous, making it relatively easy to access. In contrast, the differences among DePin projects are significant, and their main operations may not be executed on the blockchain, which often leads to the data in this area being overlooked.

Defillama is a very powerful data platform, but it mainly focuses on DeFi projects. @tokenterminal is a data aggregation platform that focuses on a broader range of projects and data.

Recently, @AethirCloud has established a deep cooperation with Token Terminal.

How deep is the cooperation? Both parties have collaborated to establish the #Aethir smart contract registry on-chain, which is a data tool exclusive to Token Terminal, used to identify various behaviors and data of Aethir applications on-chain. Based on this, standardized calculations can be performed on Aethir's on-chain data.

On this basis, Aethir has been classified under infrastructure, making it comparable to other similar projects. Based on this, a comparison of several major DePin projects will be made below.

DePin Data Comparison

demand side

Use the two indicators of protocol fees and protocol revenue to measure the demand situation of the DePin project.

Protocol Fee

The protocol fee calculation is the total amount of fees paid by all users over a period of time, which can reflect the ability of the DePin project to create economic value.

For example, in the past year, Aethir has generated a total of 58.7 million USD in protocol fees. It holds a 5.7% market share in the infrastructure market as reported by Token Terminal.

Aethir's protocol fees have a notable characteristic: overall, the protocol fees show a growth trend that is not correlated with the bull and bear markets of Web3. The period of March to April saw a significant decline in the cryptocurrency market, yet Aethir's protocol fees did not decline at all during this time.

This is because Aethir is an enterprise-level cloud computing platform, and its clients and sources of income mainly come from Web2 companies in the gaming industry, AI enterprises, and so on.

Protocol Income

Protocol revenue is the retention part after deducting dividends from protocol fees, and it can reflect the net capital inflow of the DePin project as well as the income distribution system.

For example, in the past year, Aethir has accumulated dividends of 22.2 million USD, and the retained protocol revenue is 36.5 million USD ( 5870-2220 = 3650).

The protocol fee and protocol revenue data in the table mainly come from Token Terminal, while the data for Geodnet comes from Defillama.

Data Comparison

In contrast, the protocol fees generated by public chains are the highest. Yes, public chains, as a decentralized accounting system or database, are essentially a form of DePin. However, public chains serve as the main carrier of the Web3 ecosystem and will not be labeled as DePin.

Apart from public chain projects, Aethir is the DePin project with the highest protocol fees and protocol revenue. The once-popular Filecoin has protocol fees that are less than one-tenth of Aethir's.

Value Comparison

Using FDV divided by protocol fees and protocol revenue, this ratio is similar to the calculation logic of the price-to-earnings ratio and can be used to evaluate and compare the value of projects.

Comparing the data, it is found that Aethir's FDV/Fees and FDV/Revenue ratios are the lowest, which indicates that Aethir may be the most undervalued project among those listed in the table.

Interestingly, it is not because Aethir is not listed on Binance's spot trading. Another project $GEOD is listed on fewer exchanges, yet its two ratios are also higher than Aethir.

supply side

Active Node

DePin nodes refer to the physical infrastructure that truly provides services in a decentralized physical infrastructure network. This includes GPUs, CPUs, cloud servers, storage devices, wireless hotspots, etc.

The more active nodes there are, the stronger the service capability of the DePin network and the higher the total service cost.

The active node data mainly comes from the official websites of various projects, while Akash's data is sourced from the depinscan platform developed by IOTX ( DePin data platform, where you can view social data, token market data, and even the global distribution map of nodes for each DePin, etc. ).

Data Comparison

Due to the significant differences in node costs for different types of infrastructure, data comparison of active nodes should be conducted within a single category.

Among GPU types, Aethir has the highest number of nodes. In this category of projects, Render has the highest market capitalization; however, no active node data was found on its official website, only the total number of nodes since the project started, which is 5600, and this number is only 1.3% of Aethir's active nodes.

In terms of cloud service types, Ethereum has the highest number of nodes.

Value Comparison

Still use FDV divided by the number of active nodes as a multiplier of value/cost to measure the value of DePin projects.

Although different types of nodes have different costs, the cost of GPUs is likely to be higher than that of cloud servers, storage devices, and other hardware. Therefore, Aethir's "value/cost" multiplier is the lowest, further indicating that Aethir may be undervalued.

After Aethir, Helium's multiplier is also very low and may be underestimated from the supply-side perspective.

Ecological Integration

Active Addresses

According to Metcalfe's Law, the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of active users. Therefore, using the number of on-chain active addresses as an indicator for comprehensive ecological comparison.

The number of active addresses in the table mainly comes from Token Terminal, calculating the average daily active addresses over the past year. The Theta data comes from its official website and should reflect data from the past day.

Data Comparison

Undoubtedly, the most active addresses belong to the Solana public chain, followed by Ethereum. Of course, the DePin networks for different purposes are not comparable.

In GPU computing-related DePin projects, the highest active address is Theta, but its data is sourced from the official website and does not represent average annual data, making it potentially incomparable with data from other similar projects. Under comparable conditions, Aethir has the highest active address among GPU computing-related DePin.

Value Comparison

Without considering data comparability, Theta may be an undervalued GPU computing DePin.

Under comparable conditions, Aethir is an undervalued GPU computing type of DePin.

Final Thoughts

Aethir is the first GPU computing DePin project to accept Token Termina deep data acquisition. Based on the ratio of FDV to demand, supply, and the square of active address counts, $ATH may be in a state of undervaluation.

Unlike other projects, Aethir and other major services primarily serve DePin projects outside of Web3, and their revenue is not related to the fluctuations of the cryptocurrency market. Aethir's revenue shows a trend of stable growth.

On the other hand, DePin projects represented by Aethir generate revenue from non-Web3 fields, which is extremely rare. This means that the main revenue model of these projects is not in the secondary market and may even siphon funds into the crypto space from outside…

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