DePINed podcast

Privacy is becoming a critical layer for Web3 infrastructure — especially as stablecoins, DeFi, and RWAs move on-chain and attract institutional adoption. But how can decentralized systems ensure both transparency and confidentiality?In this episode of the DePINed Podcast, host Tom Trowbridge, Co-Founder & CEO of Fluence, sits down with Francis Otshudi, CTO of iExec, to explore how privacy-preserving infrastructure is evolving in Web3.Together, they discuss:- How iExec uses Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) to enable confidential computation on decentralized infrastructure- Why privacy is not just about security, but about ownership of digital assets and data- The shift from protocol-first thinking to productized platforms in DePIN and Web3- How confidential stablecoins, private DeFi strategies, and privacy-preserving KYC can unlock institutional adoption- Why iExec is focusing on Web3-native users first This episode dives into one of the biggest challenges for decentralized compute today — making privacy usable, scalable, and compatible with real-world use cases.🎧 Listen and watch the episode on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts and follow DePIN Space for more materials with founders building real-world decentralized infrastructure.

Bitcoin mining, energy efficiency and decentralized infrastructure are increasingly intersecting as new hardware models emerge.In this episode of the DePINed Podcast, host Tom Trowbridge, Co-Founder of Fluence, sits down with Alex Busarov, Founder of Heatbit, a company building home heating devices that mine Bitcoin.The conversation explores how Heatbit turns a simple physical principle — electricity becoming heat — into a new consumer hardware category. Instead of treating heat as a waste product of computation, Heatbit uses it as a primary function, effectively transforming Bitcoin mining into a household appliance.In this episode, they discuss:- How Heatbit turns a space heater into a Bitcoin mining device- Why compute always produces heat and how that changes energy economics- The idea of distributed “home data centers” instead of centralized mining farms- Why energy costs are becoming the dominant factor in Bitcoin mining- Heatbit’s vision for making Bitcoin mining accessible to everyday users again🎧 Listen and watch the episode on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts — and follow DePIN Space for more materials with founders building real-world decentralized infrastructure.

GPU compute is becoming the core infrastructure layer of AI, but financing that infrastructure is still broken. Traditional lenders can’t efficiently underwrite small-to-mid GPU loans and the ABS market can’t move fast enough for hardware that depreciates in 3–5 years.In this episode of the DePINed Podcast, host Tom Trowbridge, Co-Founder & CEO of Fluence, sits down with Conor Moore, сo-Founder of USD.ai, a lending protocol building asset-backed GPU loans and turning them into a yield-bearing on-chain token.- Why GPU lending barely exists in TradFi and why private credit doesn’t serve the “missing middle”- How on-chain rails make GPU credit “tradable day one,” bypassing slow securitization cycles- What USD.ai’s loan terms look like: ~3-year duration, 70–80% LTV, ~7–15% rates depending on offtake quality- Why non-recourse, asset-localized collateral (bankruptcy-remote SPVs + title) matters for compute operators🎧 Listen and watch the episode on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts — and follow DePIN Space for more materials with founders building real-world decentralized infrastructure.

2024–2025 became a breakout moment for decentralized sky monitoring.In this episode of the DePINed Podcast, host Tom Trowbridge (Co-Founder & CEO of Fluence) sits down with Franck Marchis (Co-Founder & CEO of Skymapper) to explore how a decentralized network of telescopes and all-sky cameras can monitor space and the atmosphere — satellites, debris, drones and unexplained phenomena — with data that’s verifiable and hard to fake.Franck breaks down how Skymapper is scaling a global observation layer by plugging into existing hardware and why incentives and coverage design matter as activity above our heads accelerates.In this episode, we cover:- Why Space Situational Awareness is becoming critical as satellite activity explodes- How SkyBridge connects existing telescopes into a coordinated DePIN network- Incentives (points → token) designed around coverage gaps, sky quality, and network usefulness- The next expansion: all-sky cameras + AI classification for drones, aircraft, re-entries, and anomalies- What trusted, multi-point observations could change for investigating UAPs and rare atmospheric events🎧 Listen and watch the episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts — and follow DePIN Space for more materials with founders building real-world decentralized infrastructure.

In this episode of the DePINed Podcast, host Tom Trowbridge, co-founder & CEO of Fluence, sits down with Marcus Hearne, founder & CEO of Ubitel.Marcus is building Ubitel — a DePIN-powered connectivity platform that uses Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) in mobile phones to create secure, anti-sybil infrastructure for global internet access.In this conversation, we explore how phone-level TEE can become a trust layer for DePIN networks, why consumer devices may be better suited for secure attestations than traditional server hardware and how Ubitel is approaching eSIM as a go-to-market strategy while building toward a broader decentralized infrastructure vision.Topics covered include:– Using phone TEE for anti-sybil security and real-world attestations– Why consumer devices can unlock new DePIN trust models– eSIM as an entry point to decentralized connectivity– Stablecoin payments, points systems, and token design considerations– Scaling DePIN networks through real usage, not speculation🎧 Listen and watch the episode on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts — and follow DePIN Space for more materials with founders building real-world decentralized infrastructure.

In this episode of the DePINed Podcast, host Tom Trowbridge sits down with Harry Dewhirst, Founder & CEO of 375AI, to explore how edge AI is turning the physical world into actionable intelligence.375AI is building a real-world data intelligence network that captures activity across highways, intersections, and urban environments — converting massive volumes of raw video into lightweight, privacy-preserving metadata at the edge. With millions of vehicles tracked daily and deployments across major U.S. markets, the network is designed to deliver real-time insights for logistics, finance, autonomous systems, and beyond.In the conversation, Harry shares:- how 375AI compresses terabytes of unstructured video into usable data using edge AI- why controlled deployments and premium locations are critical for data quality and monetization- how the network is already generating commercial demand shortly after TGE- the role of buy & burn tokenomics in aligning real-world revenue with long-term network value- why offline commerce intelligence could become as important as online analytics🎧 Tune in to learn how real-world data, edge AI, and DePIN are converging to unlock a new layer of intelligence — and why the physical world may be the next major analytics frontier.

2025 became a year of product depth and infrastructure maturityOver the past twelve months, Fluence moved from a narrow compute narrative to a fully-fledged CloudStack — production-ready CPUs, virtual servers, a rebuilt provider stack and a platform designed to serve real workloads at scaleTo close the year, Fluence co-founders Tom Trowbridge and Evgeny Ponomarev sat down to reflect on what was built, why certain decisions mattered, and how those foundations set the stage for what comes next.A natural part of that evolution is GPUs and AI. In 2025, Fluence expanded beyond CPU compute into GPU containers, VMs, and bare metal — opening the door to AI workloads and a market that continues to reshape global infrastructure. This episode unpacks how Fluence approaches GPU economics, capacity, and scale — and why compute is becoming one of the most valuable commodities of the next decade.Beyond the product itself, the conversation also touches on ecosystem building. Through DePIN Day and the DePINed Podcast, Fluence continues to invest in the DePIN community — creating a shared space where founders, builders, and operators can connect, learn and grow together. That ecosystem work feeds directly back into stronger products, better alignment, and a healthier market overall.

Jason Brink, Co-founder and CEO of Datagram, shares insights on building decentralized infrastructure networks. He discusses why most DePIN projects fail and highlights Datagram's robust model that supports B2B services like voice and video. The conversation reveals how Datagram utilizes a buy-and-burn token model for sustainability and transparency. Jason also emphasizes the importance of genuine user engagement and outlines future plans for VPN and AI services. With over 400 B2B clients, Datagram is setting a new standard in decentralized connectivity.

Small, specialized AI models are catching up to and in many cases outperforming — frontier LLMs. Fortytwo is building a decentralized compute network where thousands of lightweight models collaborate, rank each other’s outputs, and produce reasoning-quality results that rival the biggest models in the world. This is swarm Inference powered by DePIN.In this episode, Tom Trowbridge (Co-Founder of Fluence) talks with Ivan Nikitin, Co-Founder of Fortytwo — a decentralized AI network that recently surpassed GPT-5–class models on coding, math and hard-science benchmarks.🚀 This episode breaks down why the era of mega-models is slowing, how swarm architectures overcome hallucinations, and why decentralized compute may be the future of AI infrastructure:- Why small specialized models now outperform frontier LLMs on domain tasks- How Fortytwo’s “swarm ranking” filters out hallucinations and boosts accuracy- The limitations of giant models: diminishing returns & rising compute costs- Decentralized compute: consumer hardware as a global AI network- The Fortytwo reward system: reputation, incentives & proof-of-InferenceIf you want to understand why decentralized compute is challenging the frontier-model paradigm — and how swarm Inference could redefine the future of AI — listen now! 🎧

Explore how decentralized energy is transforming the power grid — rooftop solar, home batteries, virtual power plants, and on-chain financing. This is the new DePIN-powered energy economy.In this episode, Tom Trowbridge (co-founder of Fluence) talks with Jason Badeaux, co-founder of Daylight Energy — one of the fastest-growing decentralized energy networks in the world.Daylight recently announced a $75M funding round, combining venture capital with project finance to deploy thousands of solar-plus-storage systems across the U.S. This episode breaks down why electricity demand is exploding, how decentralized energy solves the bottleneck, and why the future grid will be built at the edge — home by home, community by community.What we cover in this episode:- Solar + battery systems becoming the new distributed power plants- The energy crunch: AI, EVs, industry and the surge in electricity demand- Virtual Power Plants as a scalable alternative to traditional utilities- Energy subscriptions: zero-upfront solar & storage for homeowners- DePIN incentives creating community-driven grid expansion- On-chain financing and real-world yields through Daylight’s GRID token- The roadmap to 1M decentralized energy homes and gigawatt-scale impactIf you want to understand how DePIN intersects with energy, why virtual power plants are the future, and how decentralized finance will fund the next wave of power infrastructure — listen now! 🎧