📝 Editor’s Note:

Welcome to part 2 of OurNetwork’s DePIN week.

After digging into DIMO, Livepeer and GEODNET in Tuesday's issue, we’re taking a look at the economics of DePIN, courtesy of Robert Koschig, of the venture firm 1kx. We're also getting a look at Aethir, the cloud compute network, Lit, the security and identity network, and Silencio, the noise-monitoring network. Let's dig in.

– ON Editorial Team

DePIN Economics | Aethir | Lit | Silencio

• In a series of articles the venture firm 1kx and research platform, Messari, analyzed the tokenomics of DePINs. Core is the flywheel of overcoming the chicken-egg problem of lacking demand due to insufficient supply. DePINs are on a good track — revenues 10x’d over the past two years, with annualized revenues exceeding $ 1M for more than 10 of the 20 DePINs with data available. For some, like Arweave, these revenues started to exceed the emitted rewards.

• DePINs emit 0.1% to 0.8% of their total token supply as monthly rewards in the early years. Incentives vary over time, and in scope — some target supply only, while others require additional responsibilities. For example, Filecoin spent a max of ~0.6% for providing storage, and operating the chain.

• Digital Resource Networks (DRNs) offer 0–400% reward-based profit margins. Physical Resource Networks (PRNs) typically achieve ~50% margins for low-cost nodes, and 200%+ for higher-cost nodes (e.g. GEODNET, where nodes start at $400).

• Aethir's decentralized GPU cloud network has seen a nearly 3x ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) growth in the past year, from ~$36M to ~$105M. Aethir stands out among competitors as a decentralized cloud leader with real, actual revenue, surpassing other DePIN GPU projects. The Aethir ecosystem has ~120+ partners leveraging Aethir’s decentralized cloud to launch innovations at scale. The growing client demand for GPU computing has rapidly increased Aethir’s cloud computing annual revenue.

• Aethir’s network has grown nearly 10x, from 43,000 to 425,000+ GPU containers in less than a year. The network is managed by Indexers who are connecting clients with the closest containers. Aethir’s 91,000 Checker Nodes monitor the containers to ensure all clients receive premium computing services.

• All GPU compute power in Aethir’s network is staked with the project's native ATH token. Over 1.6B ATH tokens are staked, split between Aethir AI and gaming staking pools, Aethir Edge operators, and Cloud Hosts. Over 50% of ATH is staked by Cloud Hosts, which are GPU compute providers in Aethir’s network.

• The Aethir network has distributed over 1.1B ATH tokens as rewards for 65,000+ staked Aethir Edge devices. Aethir Edge is a consumer-grade cloud computing device that enables anyone to become a compute provider in Aethir’s DePIN stack. The Edge operators received 30% of all ATH rewards dispersed to Aethir’s stakeholders so far. All Aethir Edge devices receive 100 ATH per day, showcasing Aethir's dedication to rewarding the community for its role in supporting the network's clients.

• Lit protocol offers decentralized key management and multi-party computation (MPC) with use cases in wallets, DeFi, AI agents, digital identity, and various Web3 Infrastructure networks. Protocols like Lens, Genius, Thales, Humanity Protocol, Arweave, and Livepeer are leveraging Lit. Since the Datil mainnet launched in August 2024, these use cases increased the dollar value managed in the wallets secured by LIT to about $150M, with a rapid increase in 2025. The number of chains used increased to 13.

• Programmable Key Pairs (PKPs) and Wrapped Keys (WKs) are both solutions offered by Lit for managing private keys, but they have distinct characteristics. Of the 1.13M wallets currently on Lit, about half of them (590k) are WKs, whilst the rest are PKPs that offer enhanced security.

• By the end of 2024 Lit network processed over 27M requests. Those requests entail decryption requests (15M), signing (PKPs or WKs at about 11M) and compute (Lit action execution, 1M). The monthly requests have been consistently on record highs of about 2.5M requests.

• Silencio, the noise-measuring network, has successfully migrated 725,486 devices onchain, accounting for 24% of all devices on the peaq network. With 990,000 total users and a goal to fully transition its user base onchain, Silencio is driving adoption at scale. Over the last 30 days, 600,452 devices actively contributed data, showcasing strong engagement. The cumulative device growth graph highlights the seamless migration process.

• Silencio has processed over 5.03M transactions, averaging 80,000 daily in March. These span venue measurements, street mapping, and token interactions. The graph below shows diverse use cases across urban planning and hospitality, highlighting Silencio's utility in environmental intelligence.

• Silencio recorded 600,452 active devices in the last 30 days, reflecting strong user engagement post token generation event (TGE). Gamified initiatives like Deep In Luck raffles have distributed over 500M SLC tokens monthly, incentivizing participation. The daily active users (DAU) evolution graph highlights sustained activity levels.