Release 2,.0White Paper, fully enter DePIN, can the 7-year-old public chain IoTex of internet of things usher in a second spring?

Author: Haotian

How to understand the concept of internet of things for seven years as described in the 2.0 White Paper released by @iotex_io? In simple terms: IoTeX, which used to focus on the on-chain digital payment settlement layer in the past, is upgrading to become a modular general layer dedicated to serving AI+DEP. Its years of experience in payment, ledger, and hardware device connectivity have finally come together under the new trend of DEP. Next, let’s talk about my understanding:

If you are familiar with the development history of IoTeX, you will find that IoTeX 1.0 started with a global payment layer and then moved on to solutions for hardware device data ownership and privacy, although the narrative has changed, it has always been focused on hardware devices and data sovereignty.

The current trend of AI+DePIN is hot. AI itself is aimed at data training for large models, distributed computing power involves Proof of Work issues related to hardware devices, and distributed inference is directly related to the verifiability of data sources. DePIN itself mainly solves the network framework problem of how distributed hardware devices collaborate. Obviously, these are the directions that IoTeX has been working on for many years, so it is not surprising that the brand upgrade of IoTeX2.0 is positioned as a modular DePIN network universal architecture layer.

Specifically, IoTeX2.0 defines a universal modular network architecture for the DePIN industry, which mainly includes:

1. The Modular Security Pool Layer (MSP), based on TOKEN stake model, provides a ‘secure Consensus Mechanism’ for projects participating in the IoTeX DePIN network Stack.

2. Modular DePIN architecture layer (DIMs), as a universal DePIN technology stack layer, this layer provides many basic functional layers such as RPC, Data Availability, Hardware SDK, identity, Sequencer, Storage, etc., which can be directly enjoyed by relevant developers as a full-featured DePIN network architecture, similar to the OP Stack DePIN Stack convenient development stack layer;

3. DePIN Application Layer, at the top of the DePIN Stack, presents a rich DePIN landing Application Layer, where project parties can directly build DePIN applications and create DePIN L2 sovereign chains based on IoTeX L1.

It should be said that IoTeX2.0 envisions a comprehensive and complex DePIN universal layer service solution, which has a flavor of ‘DePIN as a Service’. The unified consensus layer, unified Stack layer, unified DID identity layer, unified DA layer provided by the IoTex chain are all part of this solution.

The question is, why is IoTex2.0 confident in redefining the entire industry of DEP? The content of the White Paper is quite complex and covers a wide range. I mainly selected three key technical details to illustrate.

1. W3bstream long Prover system verification scheme: We define the on-chain and off-chain worlds as virtual and physical worlds, respectively. The data in the on-chain virtual world must be deterministic and verifiable, while the data source in the off-chain physical world is full of complexity and uncertainty. How can off-chain hardware devices effectively prove their workload and screen out deceptive witch devices?

The W3bstream architecture aims to solve the “Proof of real-world activity” problem, allowing off-chain hardware devices to prove the effectiveness of their workloads to the on-chain Verifier through four Prover methods: ZKPs, TEEs, SMPCs, and BYOP.

Simply put, ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proof) is a common end-to-end trusted verification method based on zk-SNARKs. TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) directly builds a trusted connection by constructing an Enclave isolation environment on the hardware side. W3bstream acts as a data transmission and scheduling center, which verifies, cleans, processes, and stores data according to unified standards. It transforms complex off-chain data into verifiable on-chain deterministic data.

2. ioID Unified Identity Scheme: In a pure on-chain environment, unique identification can be achieved through addresses, hash values, NFTs, SBTs, etc., to ensure traceability. However, in the DePIN application environment, achieving accurate matching and traceability in communication and interaction between humans and machines, as well as between machines, is a major challenge. To address this issue, ioTex 2.0 has built a DID identity layer.

IoTeX primarily completes a trap identity registration and verification system through SSI self-identity recognition and VCs verifiable credentials, building a unique DID identity for hardware devices participating in the DePIN distributed collaboration, and then based on the data management system to trace, verify, and incentivize the contributions of hardware device providers.

3. ioConnect Unified Hardware Device Abstraction SDK Solution: Due to the large diversity of DePIN hardware devices, there is a need for a trap unified standard to measure the workload of different hardware. Therefore, IoTex2.0 has abstracted a hardware SDK unified solution.

For example, different hardware devices and platforms such as ESP32 control chip, Arduino Open Source electronic prototype platform, STM32 semiconductor controller, Raspberry PI single-board computer, etc., can be directly and indisputably integrated into the DePIN contribution network through a unified SDK solution.

Above.

Overall, after the ioTeX 2.0 upgrade, it is aimed at becoming a unified DePIN network infrastructure. Whether it can succeed is still full of unknowns, and whether the DePIN track can become the Bull Market main uptrend as everyone wishes is still brewing. But it is worth looking forward to that an old chain that has been working on trusted communication and privacy data solutions around hardware devices for seven years is taking the lead in doing this.