Macauley Peterson

German conglomerate Bosch, a major player in sensor manufacturing, has multiple Web3 initiatives underway. The latest is a small device capable of generating data on real world conditions such as weather, light and noise pollution, and seismic activity.



Connected to Web3 rails, it’s part of a growing segment of crypto known as Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/depin">DePIN</a>).



The new device, known as Bosch XDK110 Rapid Prototyping Kit, is a smart sensor that allows users to earn crypto rewards by providing data, without involving a centralized intermediary.



Each device is outfitted with a unique digital identity that enables it to interact with <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/peaq">peaq</a>, whose &#8220;krest&#8221; network is running on Polkadot &#8220;canary network&#8221; <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/ksm">Kusama</a>. Peaq has secured a full <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polkadot-rethinks-parachain-auctions">Polkadot parachain</a> lease, which is not yet in use.



A third partner, Fetch.ai, provides autonomous AI agents that can optimize the devices&#8217; activity to maximize owner rewards, the companies say. Fetch’s DeltaV marketplace enables data consumers to connect with a network of decentralized suppliers.



Bosch is “not really focused on one blockchain or on one decentralized marketplace,” Peter Busch, product owner of the company’s distributed ledger technologies mobility team, told Blockworks.



“So in terms of data sovereignty, privacy, security, what we can accomplish with these decentralized technologies — self-sovereign identity — is really that we are using [our personal data] in a more anonymous way.”



The trio of companies showcased a proof-of-concept at a recent hackathon at the University of Applied Sciences in Saarbruecken, Germany.



Fetch has been working with Bosch for quite a while, aiming to create privacy preserving data sharing around the use of AI agents, as part of MoveID, a publicly funded project led by Bosch, which has similar goals.



“One of the key aspects is to enable self-sovereign identities in vehicles and in mobility infrastructure,” Maria Minaricova, Fetch’s business development lead, told Blockworks.



“You give the machines identity, and they can operate autonomously,” she said.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/drive-to-earn-app-dynamic-maps-crypto-rewards">‘Drive-to-earn’ app aims to bootstrap ‘dynamic maps’ with crypto rewards</a>



Taking control of privacy and monetizing user-generated data is one of the chief narratives around Web3 technologies, generally. And the EU is making a large push in this area, Busch said, even as the role of crypto is politically fraught.



“We are looking for alternative technologies apart from the classic cloud technologies from Google and Amazon,” he said. “They are in [the car] already and they take more and more parts of the car, and this is quite a dangerous situation.”



“Together with peaq, for example, we have a use-case where you can show how the car interacts with the charging [point] in a decentralized way,” Busch said, while preserving the privacy of the driver’s data.



Token incentives bootstrap the deployment of such devices and services — Helium’s wireless mobile data is one notable example.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/helium-cell-plan-goes-nationwide">Unlimited Helium Mobile cell plan goes nationwide for $20 a month</a>



Payments can settle on different blockchains — not only on Fetch.ai, a Cosmos-based blockchain, but also peaq, on Polkadot, and even, to existing Web2 systems, through the use of APIs.



Updated Dec. 7, 2023 at 9:13 am ET: Clarified that while peaq has a Polkadot parachain, it&#8217;s not currently in use.



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Bosch DePIN device lets you share data and earn crypto

In the trendy area of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN), a recently launched smartphone app proposes to bootstrap the creation of &#8220;dynamic maps&#8221; through token incentives.



Even though its proposed blockchain-based token economy is months away from launch, the app has already met with early success, mapping 1 million kilometers in about 2.5 months. That’s a faster pace than <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/where-are-the-web3-apps" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hivemapper</a>, a hardware dashcam and app that competes with Google Street View using token incentives, the company says.



Hivemapper and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/helium" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Helium</a> are two sources of inspiration for Natix — the company behind the app — as it moves towards a crypto business model, CEO and co-founder Alireza Ghods told Blockworks.



“I come from the autonomous driving industry [where] mapping or maps are super important,”  Ghods said. “For me and you, maps are a representation of the real world. For autonomous objects, it&#8217;s their world, that&#8217;s how they operate.”



A future where autonomous agents navigate the real world takes data — lots of it.



Hamburg, Germany-based Natix has been around since 2020 building a privacy-focused computer vision platform for smartphones. But it closed a $3.5 million <a href="https://www.natix.network/blog/natix-network-raised-3-5-million-seed-round-for-development" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seed round</a> in April in a pivot towards crypto as a means to kick-start growth of its app, called Drive&amp; — yes with the ampersand — which has launched on both Android and iOS.



So far the company has logged about 10,000 registered users, and reports around 4,000 weekly active users, a rate of growth which Ghods attributes to its smartphone strategy, leveraging hardware that users already have rather than requiring special devices.



“It’s a supercomputer you have in your pocket” and “a sensor hotel,” he said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A token economy to scale</h2>



Unlike apps that record video or images, Drive&amp; imagery never leaves the users’ devices, allaying privacy concerns. Instead, it’s processed in situ, and converted to anonymized data — that’s why it’s called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_computing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">edge computing</a>.”



Natix takes the data and converts it into maps which can provide valuable information on meatspace such as road congestion, crowd size, and available parking spots.



“Dynamic maps enable a new era of smart city and smart mobility applications ranging from crowd management to autonomous driving,” the project’s <a href="https://docs.natix.network/whitepaper/introduction" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">white paper</a> notes.



But unlocking that value requires scaling the data pool massively.



“You need a certain critical mass before you can monetize these networks,” Ghods said, “you cannot just monetize one driver, but a few hundred drivers per city — that&#8217;s where the story gets interesting.”



This is why the idea of creating a token economy makes sense, according to Leonard Dorloechter, co-founder of Peaq, which is providing the blockchain infrastructure for the planned Natix Network.



“We&#8217;re building a layer-1 specifically for DePIN providing a decentralized backend that has the functionalities which are commonly needed,” Dorloechter told Blockworks.



That includes modules for things like decentralized identity, data storage, access control and payments.



Peaq won a Polkadot parachain auction <a href="https://www.peaq.network/blog/peaq-gears-up-for-mainnet-launch-with-polkadot-auction-win" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">on July 13</a> which will give it a two-year lease beginning at the end of this month.



DePIN is a new buzzword for a concept also known as Proof of Physical Work (PoPw) and popularized by Multicoin Capital <a href="https://multicoin.capital/2022/04/05/proof-of-physical-work/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in April 2022</a>.



“DePIN is the Frodo Baggins of crypto,” Peaq <a href="https://www.peaq.network/blog/what-are-decentralized-physical-infrastructure-networks-depin" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a> in a February blog. “Unassuming, even endearing at first glance. But with it comes the potential to unite Web3&#8217;s most promising fields; IoT/EoT, energy, telecoms, mobility, behind one term.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A ‘Web 2.5’ play</h2>



The Natix approach today is, admittedly, not using crypto, but Ghods sees that as a necessary phase to onboarding users, some of whom eventually will participate in a true Web3 economy, be active in a governance DAO, and so on.



“Do you think we&#8217;re going to onboard the next couple of billion users by giving them the same experience that we’re giving [now] — with downloading wallets and looking at transaction hashes and things?” Ghods asked.



&#8220;They don&#8217;t care about blockchain — it&#8217;s just another technology — but what they do care about is their life being easier or some utility added for them, or added value for them,&#8221; he said.



The app starts off with a points system, where the rewards are redeemable for discounts on consumer electronics. They are not transferable or exchangeable on independent marketplaces.



“If you&#8217;re asking me to connect my MetaMask and I don&#8217;t have a MetaMask, and I&#8217;m an Uber driver…you lose that guy as a user,” Ghods said.



But that’s just a stepping stone.



“We do have a chance to educate you on what crypto is, and I think if you do this right, then we have a chance to onboard you into even creating a wallet,” he said.



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