In Web3 infrastructure, trust is everything — especially when you’re building decentralized networks that rely on thousands of independent participants. For DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks), that trust is often built through staking.
In this lesson, Tom Trowbridge — co-founder of Fluence and author of the DePIN Token Economics Report — breaks down how staking works in DePIN, why it’s essential for digital networks, and how smarter staking design can unlock long-term scale.
What Is Staking in DePIN?
In simple terms, staking means locking up tokens as a form of collateral.
In digital DePIN networks — such as decentralized cloud providers offering compute, storage, or content delivery — users and providers often don’t know each other. That creates a trust problem.
Staking solves this by aligning economic interests:
If a provider fails to deliver service — their stake gets slashed.
That slashed stake (usually in the network’s native token) is burned, creating a financial penalty for bad behavior. The result: providers have a strong incentive to perform honestly and reliably.
Why Fixed Token Amounts Can Be a Problem
Some projects define staking requirements as a fixed number of tokens per device (e.g. 200 tokens per GPU). The problem? Token prices fluctuate.
Example:
- If the token is low, providers may not feel truly “invested”
- If the token is high, it can price out participants — creating high capital costs that limit onboarding
Tom cites io.net as a real-world case where required stake has ranged from $250 to $1,200 per GPU, simply due to price swings.
To solve this, other projects — like Fluence — have introduced USD-pegged staking models. In their case, staking is set at $12,000 worth of tokens per CPU, offering:
- Predictable economics
- Consistent customer-provider alignment
- A stable entry point for contributors
Staking Can Power Governance
In some networks, staking also unlocks governance rights.
Example: Theta
- Only the top 31 nodes by stake can vote on governance
- As the network grows, these spots become more valuable
- This dynamic creates an auction-like incentive — where demand for voting power increases token demand
This dual-use model turns staking into more than just a trust mechanism — it becomes a way to participate in network direction and capture upside.
Who Should Stake in the Future?
In early DePIN networks like Filecoin, stakers were often retail participants — everyday users contributing storage or computing from home. But as the space matures, we’re seeing a shift toward institutional-grade hardware and professional operators.
That creates a new challenge:
These operators aren’t crypto-native — they don’t want to buy and hold volatile tokens.
Tom suggests a solution: separating hardware and capital.
- Hardware providers focus on operations
- Investors or community members provide stake
- Both parties share rewards and risks
This opens the door to broader participation, reduces costs for providers, and creates flexible, scalable economic alignment across the ecosystem.
Final Thought
Staking is the core mechanism that builds trust, distributes responsibility and powers decentralized scale. But for staking to work long-term, it needs to be:
- Predictable
- Accessible
- Designed for real-world conditions
The future of DePIN staking likely won’t look like early DeFi. Instead, it will combine capital efficiency, transparent governance, and professional infrastructure — all tied together by token economics that actually work.
📖 Explore the full DePIN Token Economics Report by Tom Trowbridge for more insights into staking models, reward systems, governance, and how crypto infrastructure is evolving.
