On December 3, 2024, the number of self-built nodes on the Roam network ranked first on the DePINscan data platform, and the number of self-built nodes on the network exceeded 91w.
Roam has 910,000 nodes, ranking first on DePINscan (Source: DePINscan.io)
Roam has a lot of data on this kind of wild growth speed.
As the only decentralized wireless network built by upgrading OpenRoaming™, Roam has more than 4 million OpenRoaming™ available WiFi hotspots in more than 190 countries around the world. Combined with the current more than 910,000 self-built WiFi network nodes, the number of Roams available WiFi nodes worldwide is close to 5 million.
Roam is also the only Web3 IDP project party among the 15 enterprise alliances of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) OpenRoaming™ program. Most of the WBA members are large fixed operators such as British Telecom and ATT in the United States, as well as technology giants such as Cisco and Google.
In October this year, Roam launched a new product, Roam eSIM, which completed another piece of the puzzle of global wireless network access. Since its launch, in less than a month, the number of Roam registered users has increased from 750,000 to 1 million, and now it has reached 1.63 million, and this number is still growing rapidly.
These data are proof of Roams new business model in connecting Web2 and Web3 and achieving the largest-scale application.
So what’s next? As an explorer of the DePIN track, how will the “wildly growing” Roam further expand the reach of Web3?
Focus on DePIN Yields, Roam Growth product is about to be launched
In modern society, wireless networks have become almost a necessity of life. They connect offline users and online scenarios to form a complete ecosystem. This makes optimizing and expanding network connection channels a must. Currently, through Roams solution, users can share public WiFi nodes through the Roam App or upgrade their own WiFi to the more secure and convenient OpenRoaming™ WiFi, thereby helping more other users to connect to the network for free and conveniently; users can also receive Roam eSIM traffic for free through network contribution behaviors such as punching in, and these traffic can enjoy seamless roaming network services in more than 160 countries and regions around the world.
In addition, users can also choose to run Roam devices (Rainier MAX 60) to deeply participate in the ecological construction, which is the soon-to-be-launched Roam Growth. As a key module in the Roam ecosystem, Roam Growth aims to create more sustainable income for Roam Network participants. Through in-depth cooperation with other developers/ecological project parties, Roam Growth promotes more innovation and ecological construction of decentralized network applications, and helps users turn hardware devices into powerful cooperation platforms and economic tools. This allows users to obtain additional income rewards without feeling.
Roam Growths first product, the Roam Loan Program, is a collaboration with the PayFi project Huma Finance loan program, which enables users to obtain Roam routers at a lower threshold. Users have two loan options to purchase routers and mining machines:
1) Stable currency payment. The user pays a 30% down payment, and the remaining 70% is provided by Huma Finance (the user needs to use a personal account within the specified period). The routers initial airdrop rewards and mining rewards will first be used to repay the loan. After the loan is settled, the routers mining rewards will belong to the user.
2) Staking SOL. The user pays 4 SOL as a deposit, and the full amount of the purchase of the router will be provided by Roam/Huma Finance. Consistent with the above plan, the initial airdrop and mining rewards of the router will be used to repay the loan amount. After the loan is settled, the user will unlock 4 SOL and the subsequent mining rewards of the router will belong to the user.
(Image source: X @eli 5 _defi)
At present, Roam has officially released three devices: the first generation MetaBlox OG Miner router (discontinued), and the latest AC device Rainier MAX 60 and AP device Baker MAX 30 router launched in January this year. Both devices have excellent performance and security. Roam Rainier MAX 60 integrates Wi-Fi 6 high-speed transmission technology, provides network speeds of up to 9.6 Gbps, can connect more than 200 devices at the same time, and realize seamless sharing in a multi-user environment. It adopts advanced low-power design and has 2 TB of extended storage. It is the first to support dApp applications and can run decentralized applications such as CDN, network storage, IP address-based services, and AI.
These routers not only meet the low-cost needs of users, but are also easy to operate and can be deployed by anyone in less than 10 minutes. Users can easily share router nodes on the Roam network to enhance coverage and reception range, providing and enjoying a smooth and efficient network connection experience.
Users who participate in network construction through Rainier MAX 60 and Baker MAX 30 will receive more token incentives. In addition, Roam announced during the ABS 2024 Asian Blockchain Summit that it will airdrop a total of 20 million $ROAM tokens to users who purchase various Roam routers and early MetaBlox NFT holders before TGE to reward their contributions to the early network ecosystem construction of the project. This airdrop activity is still open to all eligible users.
More than just DePIN, building a telecom data network that connects people and devices
Usually, DePIN projects build independent physical infrastructure networks in a decentralized manner, with service scopes covering: Unicom network, storage, computing power, maps, weather forecasts, etc., providing services to enterprises or individuals to generate revenue. From this dimension alone, Roam can be summarized as a DePIN project, but in fact, Roams ecological positioning is not limited to this. To be precise, Roam positions itself as Physical Layer 1 that connects and shares data between people, devices, assets and AI, that is, the Telecom Data Layer (telecom data network) provided by the entire DePIN ecosystem.
Roam has successfully attracted a large number of real users through a free-to-use business model, and has built a network of physical devices that connect real users and the online ecosystem with wireless network connections as the entrance. Ecological cooperation project parties can build various applications based on Roam data scenarios on the Roam platform. In addition to user data, Roam can also cooperate with other infrastructure project parties in areas such as data storage, CDN, or IP address-based services. At the same time, Roam will also carry out data commercialization services with trusted third-party partners. The value generated by the cooperation will be uniformly distributed to Roam router owners in the form of mining machine revenue as a feedback for users to build an ecosystem together. In addition, the WiFi advertising industry is becoming more mature and revenue is predictable. In the future, router owners can also choose to enable advertising functions to obtain additional Roam Points as an incentive.
Wireless network connection as a natural user entrance and in-depth cooperation with other ecological projects based on user data have given Roam the characteristics of a Physical Layer 1. Roam Growth will bring more incentive options and more sustainable benefits to the hardware devices in the hands of users. As one of the four ecological modules of Roams telecom data network, the launch of Roam Growth products will accelerate the construction of the telecom data network and lay the foundation for building the Physical Layer 1 of the DePIN ecosystem.
Pushing Web3 towards the mainstream
If DePIN is the key to push Web3 into the mainstream, then Roam will surely be the key driver. Today, Roam plays a vital role in promoting WBAs OpenRoaming™ program. WBA also has high hopes for Roam, hoping that Roam can undertake the task of increasing the overall OpenRoaming™ network nodes by 20% in the next few years. With its rapidly growing number of global WiFi nodes and registered users, Roam has attracted the attention and support of many traditional operators. Through Roam, they have seen the possibility of revitalizing the traditional telecommunications industry, which is due to its user-centric, bottom-up promotion strategy. Now that the revenue module Growth is about to go online, we have reason to believe that more diverse and sustainable revenue methods will attract more Web2 and Web3 users to participate in the Roam network, and jointly promote WiFi, a must-have option for modern life, to become safer and more convenient, covering more people.
