As Bitcoin continues to capture our attention and tease us near the $100k mark, I can't help but think that investors are distracted and missing out on some great Web3 opportunities in the crypto space.
In this article we are going to cover a DePIN project called DIMO ("dee-moh"), whose primary purpose is to allow users to collect, manage, and monetize their vehicle data. This post is a continuation of what we wrote about DIMO earlier in the year.
The Future Of Money
Satoshi Nakamoto's vision was permissionless digital cash for the masses. However, since 2017 Bitcoin has been transformed into something resembling "digital gold". Now we tend to focus more on its USD value, rather than its utility as a permissionless payment method.
Of course, it's possible to use Bitcoin for small purchases via the Lightning Network (LN), a layer 2 solution has certainly improved over the past few years. That said, we still don't know if the LN is decentralized enough to be a sustainable long-term solution.
Crypto projects like DASH and Bitcoin Cash are now trying to be the peer-to-peer digital cash that Bitcoin was originally intended to be. Meanwhile, we have other blockchain use-cases popping up like decentralized exchanges (DEXs), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
One use-case in particular that has the potential to impact the real-world is called DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network). DePIN projects use token incentives to roll-out physical infrastructure and stimulate real-world economic activity.
DIMO's Mission
If you own a modern car, it's probably already collecting information on things like tire pressure, engine, oil life, etc. and sending it all back to the manufacturer, who then sells it to insurance companies, dealers and advertisers for extra profit.
DIMO puts you back in control of your car's data, allows you to choose who to share it with, and rewards you in $DIMO tokens for sharing it.
How It Works
There are two ways to connect your car to DIMO's network:
- If your car comes with a mobile app, you can likely connect for free after downloading and installing the DIMO app to your smartphone.
- If your car doesn't come with an app, you can purchase a small hardware device that plugs into a port under your steering wheel.
At that point, you can start collecting data from your car and get rewarded in DIMO tokens on a weekly basis.
From the DIMO developer docs:
The DIMO Network enables vehicles to be part of a network where users have ownership over their vehicle data (as an asset) and have the ability to earn rewards when sharing that data with a service provider.
Progress
Car Registrations - Over 188,000 cars - associated to 38,960 unique owners - have been registered (or "minted") to the Polygon blockchain. You can see these car registrations happening in real-time in the "network-updates" channel in DIMO's Discord.
Developer SDKs - Just six months ago there were no SDKs (software development kits) for developers to work with, making DIMO integrations a challenge. With help from the community however, there now exist SDKs for both blockchain transactions and data.
MATT3R Partnership - DIMO and MATT3R have partnered to address the issue of accessing large, high-quality datasets for AI and AV (autonomous vehicle) model training. MATT3R's "K3Y" device allows users to collect visual & sensor data from their vehicles.
Tokenomics
The DIMO token has a maximum supply of 1,000,000,000, with 278,212,429 currently in circulation. At $44,591,371, DIMO's market cap is relatively low compared to other DePIN projects.
More details on token issuance can be found in the DIMO docs:
450,000,000 $DIMO (45% of the total supply) has been allocated to fund the Baseline Issuance. The initial airdrop was effectively a large distribution of Baseline Issuance and left 382,491,185 $DIMO. This pool will be distributed over 40 years by issuing 1,105,000 $DIMO to users per week for the first year, with issuance decreasing by 15% each year.
The rewards are distributed to drivers via smart contracts on the blockchain. Wallets that haven't been "sanctioned" are eligible for rewards. You can find more details on how the rewards are distributed here.
The DIMO token was minted on the Polygon blockchain, however that doesn't mean it will always be there. Migration to another blockchain (or its own blockchain) at some point in the future is always a possibility, as we've seen other DePIN projects do recently.
You can trade $DIMO on a DEX like Uniswap using a wallet such as Metamask. It can also be purchased on the centralized exchange Coinbase.
Caveats
Although DIMO may have more utility when it comes to selling and purchasing car data, when compared to "digital gold" Bitcoin, or digital cash alternatives like DASH, keep in mind that $DIMO tokens are not as censorship-resistant.
As mentioned earlier, "sanctioned" addresses aren't eligible for awards, essentially making it a permissioned system. Another important point to consider is that a contract from OpenZeppelin is used to implement roles in the rewards contract. This will remain in place until "an Oracle is used to run rewards autonomously".
Also consider that the smart contracts powering DIMO are upgradable by the owners at anytime "to implement future features for posterity", and this could have an impact on your tokens incidentally, or if malicious actors were involved.
All that said, the fact that Ethereum and Polygon are transparent blockchains makes the likelihood of shenanigans small, but it does introduce a single point of a failure that you should be aware of.
Until next time...
As traders have their eyes fixed on the Bitcoin price hitting $100k, they could be missing out on some interesting Web3 opportunities. DePIN is a real use-case for blockchain technology that has the potential for explosive growth in the coming years.
If you learned something new from this article, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the HIVE blockchain. You can also follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.
Resources
Dune DIMO Protocol Analytics [1]