Detailed Explanation of DePIN Unlaunched Popular Project CESS: Raised 8 Million USD, CDN + Storage Layer1 Network

Author: 0xdabai

On December 29, the CDN + storage Layer1 network CESS built for DePIN announced the completion of an $8 million Seed round financing, with participation from well-known market maker DWF Labs, exchange Huobi, and investor IVS from YGG. Thus, this project, which has received funding from the Web3 Foundation three times and won hackathon championships, is finally approaching the moment of launching its token.

Possibly the Largest DePIN Public Chain

CESS was established as early as 2019 and is a Layer1 designed based on DePIN. It promotes on-chain data sharing, DAPP development, and efficient networking by deploying nodes globally, while considering users' privacy needs. The CESS network is jointly established and managed by node holders.

In 2021, the CESS team submitted a solution named FMD-CESS at a global web3 hackathon organized by the Web3 Foundation, which gained recognition from many senior developers in Europe and the United States, ultimately winning the championship with a high score. This solution is the CESS testnet currently being promoted.

Unlike other storage and CDN public chains, CESS adopts a multi-layer network architecture that integrates decentralized storage networks and CDN networks, enhancing data security and privacy protection, improving data reliability and resilience, while increasing content distribution efficiency. It also reduces development costs, making it easier for developers to use decentralized storage and CDN services.

In this innovative three-layer network and four-layer architecture, CESS sets up different types of nodes, such as storage, consensus, caching, and retrieval. Nodes directly support specified types of services, allowing users to upload/download files or use on-chain services more conveniently and efficiently than other storage and CDN public chains. Anyone can participate as a node, providing storage space and hardware resources to contribute to data storage, caching, and processing, earning token rewards under the economic model.

Started at Harvard

Nicholas, the founder of CESS, graduated from Harvard Business School and is an alumnus alongside the founders of Worldcoin, Gemini, and Omni. He is part of the elite group of notable projects in Crypto and is also a long-time writer for Forbes, as well as the owner of several successful companies.

Other co-founders, such as Joseph, are OGs in the distributed field. Before founding CESS, he served as Chief Network Architect at a leading cybersecurity company in the U.S. Jessie, an early OG in Crypto, deeply understands the significance of decentralized networks, which laid the foundation for subsequent research on DePIN and the establishment of CESS.

The team has already achieved profitability through its strong technical services, making it one of the few public chains and DePIN projects that have not issued tokens but have achieved profitability through network services.

Upcoming Roadmap

After officially announcing the $8 million financing, the team also released its future roadmap. From the poster, in addition to the currently launched testnet, they will also announce nodes, distribution rewards, and token listings.

Among these, nodes are seen as the primary way to obtain future public chain tokens. Participating in the CESS ambassador program for community contributions will also earn token incentives. If one does not participate in node and community building in the early stages, they will only be able to purchase tokens from exchanges after the listing.

The reward plan currently shows potential for airdrop expectations, referencing most projects that conduct airdrop snapshots from testnet to public chain launch. It cannot be ruled out that CESS may airdrop to users who experience the testnet in the future.

The listing of tokens is a top priority in the recent roadmap. Given the market's strong expectations for the DePIN track in 2024, if the project's token opens at a normal valuation, it could potentially yield several times to dozens of times returns, making it a significant opportunity to enter the global top 100.

Market Cap Estimation

Currently, the official valuation of the $8 million financing and the specific economic model of the token have not been disclosed. However, considering recent projects like Helium, Livepeer, DIMO, and IoTeX, it is estimated that CESS's future market cap will be between $500 million and $1 billion. Given that DWF is the main operator and that the investors will not unlock tokens for the next two years after listing, the potential for growth could further expand to $1.5 billion to $6 billion. The reasons for achieving such a considerable valuation are as follows:

First, CESS supports large-scale commercial storage and can achieve performance close to Web2 in a decentralized manner, providing usable infrastructure for mainstream users and traditional industries to enter Web3.

Second, CESS supports online data storage and real-time sharing, which is highly compatible with the storage and retrieval needs of high-frequency dynamic data in Web3, fully meeting the data demands of applications like gaming and social networking.

Third, CESS integrates decentralized cloud storage and CDN, achieving millisecond-level retrieval and return of data.

The reason CESS's future market cap may surpass that of industry OG Filecoin is that CESS aims to build a data value network that not only supports decentralized storage but also realizes the monetization and circulation of user data, empowering users to reshape the value distribution and dominance in the data economy ecosystem.