As more technologists and entrepreneurs begin to realize the power and potential of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN), new decentralized wireless (DeWi) projects have been springing up everywhere. The question is, which of these networks have been designed well, and are resilient enough to survive long-term?

Scrolling through X, I stumbled upon a post that claimed a project named Wayru is the second largest DePIN by device count, right after WifiMap and just before Roam. In this post, we are going to take a brief look at this new Solana-based wireless DePIN project, and try to verify the claim made by the X post.

Wayru aims to make wireless Internet available to some of the world's underserved regions. Hotspot operators (individuals or businesses) deploy WiFi hotspots (miners), and earn $WAYRU tokens based on uptime and user connections. Users burn WAYRU tokens to mint Data Credits, which provide access to premium services on the Wayru Network.

Helium Derivatives

Before continuing, some honorable mentions are in order.

Similar to how most decentralized exchanges (DEXs) either copied or innovated upon Bancor's original idea, these wireless DePIN projects are either copying or innovating atop Helium's original idea to use token incentives to roll-out decentralized wireless networks.

Wayru is building its own version of a Helium-like network alongside other projects like Drop Wireless, Roam, XNET, World Mobile, Dawn, and Dabba.

Some of the these projects are focused on utilizing LoRaWAN to connect IoT devices, while others are concentrated more on WiFi connectivity and carrier offload services. Some are focused on specific geographic areas, like Dabba in India, and Wayru in Latin America.

Although Wayru started off as a multi-chain project on Algorand, IoTeX, and Peaq, it has since migrated mainly to the Solana blockchain.

Joining The Network

Smartphone users access Wayru’s network through the Wayru mobile app. The app allows users to locate and connect to Wayru-enabled WiFi hotspots, manage connections, and potentially earn rewards (by validating hotspots, for example).

You can also earn WAYRU tokens with your own wireless hardware (after upgrading the firmware to WayruOS), or by purchasing a specialized miner, such as the two below:

Outdoor Wireless Miner

Indoor Wireless Miner

After physically configuring the wireless access point, you can then use the Wayru app to mint the device as an NFT on the blockchain and start earning rewards for providing wireless connectivity.

You can check Wayru's YouTube channel (link below) for more detailed guides on how to setup a wireless access point and connect it to the Wayru network.

According to IoTeX's DePINscan website, Wayru is the second largest DePIN network when it comes to device count, with over 12,000,000 devices connected.

Carrier Offloading

Like Helium and XNET, Wayru has also been getting into carrier offloading (in beta for now) so that major mobile carriers can leverage home or business wireless Internet routers to alleviate excess traffic from cell phone towers.

Tokenomics

The Wayru token was minted on Solana with a maximum supply of 10 billion. It has the following initial allocation to the foundation and investors:

Unlike Helium, which had no initial allocation, 55% of the total supply of WAYRU goes to the foundation, investors, and other insiders, which could present future problems. We already discussed the potential downsides of an uneven initial token allocation in previous articles.

Until next time...

The DePIN market is still nascent, so there is plenty of room for various competitors/alternatives to grow together. Eventually we will reach a saturation point though, and launching a new decentralized wireless network will become much more difficult.

At first glance, Wayru doesn't seem as professional or established as Helium. That said, they appear to be gaining traction. Exercise caution if you choose to invest the project's token. In any case, WAYRU may be worth keeping an eye on.

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.

Further Reading

Three Emerging DePIN Projects On The Polygon Blockchain

Sources

Wayru YouTube Channel [1]
Wayru Miner Products [2]
Wayru Token Paper [3]
Wayru Whitepaper [4]