Crypto goes to Paris: The Olympics’ unexpected DePIN installation

13.08.2024

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I’m suffering through some post-Olympics depression today. The Blockworks Office’s Roku TV had never seen so much usage before I grew obsessed with the games, and it will likely never be used that much again.

The Olympic flame may have been extinguished, but we’re keeping it alive for one more day on Lightspeed:

The Olympics’ secret crypto placement

There weren’t many crypto ads at the Paris Olympics, but I recently heard of one interesting way in which crypto was present at the summer games.

A decentralized weather tracking network named WeatherXM had 40 of its Pulse weather stations installed around the Olympic venues. The devices, which cost $900 apiece and reward operators with tokens, tracked weather data including precise temperatures, solar radiation and air pressure near where athletes were competing.

Fans who watched Australia take on Samoa in men’s rugby at the Stade de France, for instance, could see one of these devices near the corner of the pitch.

The installation came together when Yannis Pitsiladis, a professor and member of the International Olympic Committee’s Medical and Scientific Commission, struck a partnership deal between WeatherXM and his research company Humantelemetrics, WeatherXM business development executive Thanos Daskalopoulos told me. Humantelemetrics purchased 40 of the weather stations and now will receive token rewards for taking part in the network.

In a statement, Pitsiladis explained that the sensors will be used to track the “microclimate” at sporting events to keep athletes and observers safe during “extreme environmental conditions.” So, perhaps WeatherXM stations could offer more precise monitoring on lightning storms or excessive heat.

Daskalopoulos said that from WeatherXM’s point of view, what he calls “hyperlocal” weather data — the kind that was being collected around the Olympics — could help with performance evaluation regarding how different athletes perform in different weather conditions as well as help event organizers make better decisions based on weather forecasts.

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WeatherXM is an upstart in DePIN, or decentralized physical infrastructure, which has individuals deploy their own devices as part of infrastructure networks that are incentivized using crypto tokens. One popular example is Helium, which runs a decentralized Internet of Things (IoT) network using “miners” that pay out rewards in Solana-based tokens.

Some of WeatherXM’s stations use the Helium IoT network, though the Pulse stations that Pitsiladis and his company purchased don’t, according to the WeatherXM explorer. WeatherXM’s WXM token is based on Ethereum.

One question all DePIN projects have to reckon with is whether they can find a demand source to make running network nodes tokenomically feasible. Daskalopoulos told me WeatherXM is currently focused on business-to-business (B2B) demand and is gearing up to launch an API platform in Q4 this year. WeatherXM is currently doing pilots in “energy, shipping ports infrastructure, agriculture and insurance” and is in talks with weather and climate AI companies, Daskalopoulos said.

Plus, as we know, it’s doing business around the Olympics.

The International Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS), which is affiliated with the IOC, is a third partner in the deal between WeatherXM and Humantelemetrics, according to a statement from Pitsiladis. WeatherXM issued Humantelemetrics a research license to access the data, but its relationship with FIMS is still under review, Daskalopoulos said.

Data and information on how WeatherXM’s sensors were used during the Olympics will come out in a forthcoming report, pseudonymous marketing lead Andriyuh told me.

— Jack Kubinec

Zero In

Here comes Kamino.

The lending protocol has become the second-largest Solana DeFi project by total value locked, according to DeFiLlama.

Part of Kamino’s recent usage spike has come from an incentives program surrounding PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin. Those supplying the token to the platform are earning 18.58% APY, according to Kamino’s website.

Out of around 705 million circulating PYUSD tokens, roughly 250 million are held on Kamino.

— Jack Kubinec

The Pulse

On Friday, no-code token launcher pump.fun announced that token creation will soon be free. Instead of paying $2, the cost is passed on to the first poor soul who buys a given coin. And for devs who manage to complete the bonding curve, there’s a neat little reward: 0.5 SOL (~$80). This payout comes from pump.fun’s reduced migration fee, now 1.5 SOL, down from 2 SOL. So, the incentive is there whether or not the dev ever held the coin—or still does.

Crypto Twitter, ever skeptical, didn’t hold back. @anon_rip lamented, “I don’t see how this system doesn’t get exploited by people buying up their own tokens 100 times over to make 50 SOL,” while @yogurt_eth added, “Nice, so now the hyperinflation of coins will continue as devs do anything in their power launching hundreds of coins a day in hopes of $80.”

One user pointed out that shortly after the switch, only 0.12% of newly-launched tokens were making it to Raydium.

But hey, some are into the chaos. “This is lovely. Incentives are good. It will attract more users and give them the interest to create more,” noted @remy_bull. Still, others aren’t buying it. @kingggwhite criticized, “How is this a win? It incentivizes people to create way more trash in hopes that something will stick—terrible idea.” Meanwhile, @RyomenVentures asked, “Isn’t this just going to increase the volume of tokens ten-fold as all the brokies try to get their 0.5 SOL?”

Pump.fun’s gamble could either pay off or flood the market with (more) trash. As @GeorgeHristov7 said, it’s “the greatest casino on earth.”

— Jeffrey Albus