DIMs Overview

Whether a DePIN focuses on physical resources or digital resources or targets a specific vertical, it must interface with real-world smart devices that generate an incredible amount of data. The need for a modular, end-to-end tech stack that connects real-world data to the blockchain world is essential.

IoTeX Reference Architecture for DePINs

Blockchain, as an immutable ledger, is a perfect foundation to document facts about what happened in the physical world; however, before writing "proofs of physical work" from devices to the blockchain permanently, a series of steps must be completed to verify the real world activity that actually happened and if the data is trustworthy.

Devices must be registered on-chain, raw data must be collected, parsed, sequenced, and stored, and computations over data must be performed in a verifiable fashion before any "proof of real-world activity" can be settled to a blockchain. The reference architecture above shows nine essential layers for DePIN projects to consider.

IoTeX introduced the concept of "DePIN Infrastructure Modules (DIMs)" as the methodology enabling any infrastructure builder to provide their implementations for the different layers required to a DePIN project. This provides DePIN projects with a vast array of options for creating their custom tech stack.