DePin is a fast-growing industry and I’m personally very excited about it. I’ve been seeking out investment opportunities within this field, eventually stumbling upon NATIX Network. In this article I’ll explain my investment thesis and why I’m excited about what’s being built here.
NATIX Network TL;DR:
- Founded in 2020 in Germany, 4 years in the making!
- Trusted by renowned organizations such as E.ON, Deutsche Telekom, and the City of Den Haag, all of whom have benefited from NATIX’s range of products.
- Patent-pending AI technology that transforms any camera into a smart, fully privacy-compliant device.
- The cameras, using NATIX’s AI technology, scan their surroundings and detect events (e.g. traffic congestions, crowd size) without capturing personal or identifying data (faces, license plates, etc.). Thus, the term ‘internet of cameras’ was coined, which describes the usage of a global, decentralized network of AI-powered cameras collectively creating a real-time, digital map of the world.
- It’s essentially a DePin ecosystem, which stands for decentralized physical infrastructure network. It refers to a global network of physical hardware/infrastructure that’s kept online by incentivizing individuals through tokens.
This brings tremendous benefits over traditional global networks (e.g. cloud, IoT, WiFi networks, et al). Mainly because it abstracts away the need for large investments and costs associated with bootstrapping a large network of hardware/devices distributed over the world. Having to install, operate, and maintain a network of physical infrastructure of that size is not cheap by any means.
- Other than the associated costs, privacy has also been a factor why a network like this has not been built before. However, NATIX’s AI technology transforms all of its analyzed data from live-footage into plain text. And it simultaneously removes all identifying/personal data from its footage and analyses. Boom, privacy compliance!
- There are endless opportunities and use cases for a global, AI-powered network of cameras. The bigger picture is the usage for smart cities and smart applications that require real-time, real-world data and insights from live footage.
- Backed by industry giants such as Cogitent Ventures and Moonrock Capital. And by non-giants such as myself 😉
What is NATIX Network
NATIX is building a real-time map of the world. It’s all made possible through a global network of crowdsourced camera’s using NATIX’s AI technology.
NATIX coins the term “Internet of Cameras”. Their AI technology has the capability to turn regular cameras into smart and privacy-compliant cameras that are able to contribute to NATIX’s geospatial data economy.
This people-powered network of AI cameras collects all kinds of interesting data and insights, thus creating a decentralized, dynamic map of the world. The use cases of a vast network of AI-powered cameras are endless.
Think of monitoring traffic and road conditions, which can be used to optimize urban traffic and give real-time suggestions for safer/faster routes. Or what about law enforcement utilizing the network to detect crime and violence in real time? There are less grandiose use cases as well, like finding available parking spots.
Integrating AI into cameras
There are over 45 billion cameras around the world that collectively create a ginormous amount of data and camera footage. Due to the overwhelming amount of data/footage, only a small percentage of it actively analyzed. Partly due to the hassle of sending/receiving/processing exabytes of data.
Well, what if each camera, from smartphones and drones to CCTC- and dashcams, were equipped with AI technology? More specifically; NATIX’s patent-pending AI technology that can analyze the data/footage right on the device and provide AI-power insights?
That would be a huge increase in efficiency and would create a powerhouse DePin! Simply installing NATIX’s software on any camera, turns it into a smart and 100% privacy-compliant powerhouse that analyzes the data in real-time.
I have a camera. What’s in it for me?
DePin wouldn’t be DePin without an incentive to participate! Here is how NATIX operates and how you earn a nice little side income:
1. Data collection
AI software analyzes all the footage from the cameras within the network in real-time to detect a wide range of events. The collected data is in the form of plain text and 100% privacy-compliant, meaning it’s free of any personally identifiable information. More on that later.
2. Data validation
You have to make sure the data is authentic and accurate. That’s why multiple decentralized data validation techniques are deployed to ensure reliability and trustworthiness.
3. Data monetization
The NATIX marketplace facilitates real-time applications with all their data needs in exchange for a fee. Market demand determines the data worth, leading to camera owners being rewarded for their contributions. Capitalism baby.
Drive& app — use NATIX Drive& to drive and earn!
The quickest way to get involved right now, is to download NATIX’s Drive& app and to start driving! (And earning). NATIX Drive& allows you to drive and earn, anywhere, anytime. Earn points while driving, and redeem those points for products and discounts. And, soon, you can start earning the native NATIX token 🙂
The traction on their app is impressive:
100% privacy compliance you say?
Yes, I did say that! Let’s look at the Drive& App again.
While you’re driving and lending your camera to the network, the AI is detecting events and rewarding you for your participation. Sounds interesting, but isn’t NATIX then collecting a bunch of personal or identifying information about yourself and other road users?
No, it’s not. The AI converts all that it sees into numeric data and plain text. For example, the number of the cars on the road. No images, videos, or personal identifying information ever leaves your phone.
NATIX calls it privacy by design. And it’s built on two core pillars:
1. Edge Computing Architecture (instead of centralized Cloud)
There is no need to transfer exabytes of raw images and footage back and forth between data centers. That’s because of the usage of local computing (i.e. on-camera or on-device). The AI analyzes the video locally to mine “metadata,” i.e., numeric data such as the number of detected cars and their location. The information shared with the network is the mined metadata. Not only does it protect everyone’s privacy, it’s also easier to transfer all of the results compare to transferring raw footage.
2. Anonymized Detection (free of personal data)
Faces, skin color, vehicle number plates, and other personal information are irreversibly discarded. Computer vision models will perform their detection over anonymized images free of personal data.
NATIX token economy: $NTXT and iLand NFTs
There are two assets part of the NATIX-verse:
NATIX Utility Token: $NTXT
The native utility token of the NATIX Network, the one you’ll want to get your hands on. It naturally plays a central role within the NATIX Network and ecosystem.
From form of payment to staking benefits, $NTXT facilitates network-level activity within the core ecosystem, such as:
– Purchasing data and iLand NFT
– Staking for a fee reduction of network fees
– Bonding to become a network actor. The bonded tokens are released if the actor stops operation, or is slashed in case of malicious action or malpractice
– Staking for the liquidity pool
– Participate in system governance
NATIX NFT: iLand
NATIX divides the globe into tiles. Each tile has a unique, intelligent iLand NFT.
Acquiring an iLand NFT generates passive income for the person who holds it. Any data generated by the NATIX Network cameras will be on one of these tiles. Upon monetization of this data, the tile owner is entitled to a royalty on every transaction on that tile. Additionally, iLand NFT holds governance functions within the network.
The iLand NFTs are NATIX’s unique invention to incentivize regional data growth, fund the network’s long-term development, and help the network to identify and realize potential development within areas of its DDMap.
The iLand NFTs will be airdropped, sold, and later traded in the market. The NFT minting fee, plus a royalty fee on NFT tradings, are reserved to develop the network and incentivize the early actors.
NATIX team and backers
NATIX has been 4 years in the making and is led by a team of 3 co-founders with 10+ years of experience in IoT, Computer Vision or Blockchain:
– Alizera Ghods
– Lorenz Muck
– Omid Magharian
They have a large team of close to 20 employees that are all helping to bring the NATIX vision to life.
And as we all know, a crypto project also needs strong, crypto-native backers. They’ve got those as well! I will update this article once their funding announcement has been posted.
The bigger picture
Ultimately, I truly want to see how well a DePin of this scale can operate. It’s a powerful statement to what humans – and AI cameras – can do when they bundle their powers. Whether they do it solely for the incentives or not, you can’t argue with the beauty of this concept.
As far as the implications and use cases for the NATIX Network if it all runs smooth and efficient? Well, they seem kinda… endless?
NATIX will serve enterprises, government agencies, small-medium businesses or even just citizens with all kinds of real-time data. They are already trusted by renowned organizations such as E.ON, Deutsche Telekom, and the City of Den Haag, all of whom have benefited from NATIX’s range of products.
Through the NATIX marketplace, all kinds of real-time insights are up for grabs. This will play a vital role in the development of smart cities: https://medium.com/natix-io/smart-cities-why-dont-we-see-more-of-them
Specific use cases and interesting data collected by the NATIX AI camera network include:
- Traffic routing
- Planning efficient transportation routes
- Managing city zoning
- Finding potholes or damage to public property
- Finding crime in real-time
- Monitoring crowd sizes and alerting when crowds are too large
The list goes on and on. Super excited for what’s to come.
Thanks for reading, anon <3
Disclaimer: as the title suggests, I am an early investor in NATIX. This article reflects my personal opinion about the project and was not influenced by the team. This article is not financial advice.
Want to learn more about NATIX? Check out their website: natix.network or their Twitter: @NATIXNetwork
