The barbaric growth of the "disruptor" Roam powers DePIN yields, and Roam Growth launches to provide users with more sustainable income

On December 3, 2024, the number of self-built nodes in the Roam network ranked first on the DePINscan data platform, surpassing 910,000.

The number of Roam nodes reached 910,000, ranking first on DePINscan (Image source: DePINscan.io)

There are many more related data points reflecting this "wild growth" speed for Roam.

As the only decentralized wireless network built through the upgraded OpenRoaming™, Roam has over 4 million OpenRoaming™ available WiFi hotspots in more than 190 countries worldwide. Combined with the current over 910,000 self-built WiFi network nodes, the total number of globally available WiFi nodes for Roam is close to 5 million.

Roam is also the only Web3 IDP project among the 15 corporate alliances in the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) OpenRoaming™ program. Most WBA members are large fixed operators, including BT in the UK and AT&T in the US, as well as tech giants like Cisco and Google.

In October of this year, Roam launched a new product, Roam eSIM, completing another piece of the global wireless network access puzzle. Since its launch, the number of registered users for Roam has increased from 750,000 to 1 million in less than a month, and it has now reached 1.63 million, with this number still rapidly growing.

These figures are proof of Roam's new business model that connects Web2 and Web3 and achieves large-scale application deployment.

So what’s next? As an explorer in the DePIN track, how will the "wild growth" of Roam further expand the reach of Web3?

Focusing on DePIN Yields, Roam Growth Product Launching Soon

In modern society, wireless networks have almost become a necessity, linking offline users with online scenarios to form a complete ecosystem. This makes optimizing and expanding network connection channels an undeniable choice. Currently, through Roam's solution, users can share public WiFi nodes via the Roam App or upgrade their WiFi to the more secure and convenient OpenRoaming™ WiFi, helping more users connect to the network for free and conveniently. Users can also earn Roam eSIM data for free through network contribution activities like check-ins, enjoying seamless roaming network services in over 160 countries and regions.

Additionally, users can choose to run Roam devices (Rainier MAX60) to deeply participate in ecosystem construction, which is the upcoming Roam Growth. As a key module in the Roam ecosystem, Roam Growth aims to create more dimensions of sustainable income for participants in the Roam Network. By collaborating closely with other developers/ecosystem project parties, Roam Growth promotes innovation and ecological construction of more decentralized network applications, helping users turn hardware devices into powerful cooperative platforms and economic tools, allowing them to earn additional rewards effortlessly.

The first phase of the Roam Growth product, the Roam Loan Program, is a collaboration with the PayFi project Huma Finance loan plan, enabling users to acquire Roam routers with a lower threshold. Users have two loan options to purchase router mining machines:

1) Stablecoin payment. Users pay a 30% down payment, with the remaining 70% funded by Huma Finance. (Users need to repay the loan with the router's initial airdrop rewards and mining rewards within the specified period. After the loan is settled, the mining rewards from the router will belong to the user.)

2) Pledging SOL. Users pay 4 SOL as a deposit, and the full amount for the router will be provided by Roam/Huma Finance. Similar to the above plan, the router's initial airdrop and mining rewards will be used to repay the loan. Once the loan is settled, users will unlock 4 SOL, and the subsequent mining rewards from the router will belong to the user.

(Image source: X @eli5_defi)

Currently, Roam has officially released three types of devices: the first-generation MetaBlox OG Miner router (discontinued), and the latest AC device Rainier MAX60 and AP device Baker MAX30 router launched in January this year. Both devices feature excellent performance and security. The Roam Rainier MAX60 integrates Wi-Fi 6 high-speed transmission technology, providing network speeds of up to 9.6 Gbps, capable of connecting over 200 devices simultaneously, achieving seamless sharing in multi-user environments, adopting advanced low-power design with 2TB expandable storage, and pioneering support for dApp applications, capable of running CDN, network storage, IP-based services, AI, and other decentralized applications.

These routers meet users' low-cost needs and are easy to operate, allowing anyone to complete deployment within 10 minutes. Users can easily share router nodes on the Roam network, enhancing coverage and reception range, providing and enjoying a smooth and efficient network connection experience.

Users participating in network construction through Rainier MAX60 and Baker MAX30 will receive more token incentives. Additionally, Roam announced during the ABS 2024 Asia 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 the TGE, as a reward for their contributions to the early network ecosystem construction of the project. This airdrop activity is still open to all eligible users.

Beyond DePIN, Building a "Telecom Data Network" Connecting People and Devices

Typically, DePIN projects build independent physical infrastructure networks in a decentralized manner, covering services such as connectivity, storage, computing power, mapping, and weather forecasting, providing services to enterprises or individuals to generate revenue. From this perspective, Roam can be categorized as a DePIN project, but in fact, Roam's ecological positioning is not limited to this. More accurately, Roam positions itself as a Physical Layer 1 that connects and shares data between people, devices, assets, and AI, serving as the Telecom Data Layer that supplies the entire DePIN ecosystem.

Roam has successfully attracted a large number of real users through a free-use business model, building a physical device network that connects real users with the online ecosystem through wireless network connections. Ecological partners can build various applications based on Roam data scenarios on the Roam platform. Moreover, beyond user data, Roam can also collaborate with other infrastructure project parties on data storage, CDN, or IP-based service collaborations. At the same time, Roam will engage in data commercialization services with trusted third-party partners, and the value generated from these collaborations will be uniformly distributed to Roam router owners in the form of mining rewards as a return for users' contributions to the ecosystem. Additionally, the WiFi advertising industry is maturing, and revenue is predictable. In the future, router owners can also choose to enable advertising features to earn additional Roam Points as incentives.

Wireless network connections, as a natural user entry point, along with deep collaborations based on user data with other ecological project parties, endow Roam with the characteristics of a Physical Layer 1. Roam Growth will bring more optional ways to earn incentives and more sustainable income for users' hardware devices. As one of the four ecological modules of the Roam telecom data network, the launch of the Roam Growth product will accelerate the construction of the telecom data network, laying the foundation for building the Physical Layer 1 of the DePIN ecosystem.

Driving Web3 Towards the Mainstream

If DePIN is the key to driving Web3 towards the mainstream, then Roam will undoubtedly be a key player in this process. Today, Roam plays a crucial role in promoting the WBA's OpenRoaming™ program, and WBA has high hopes for Roam, expecting it to undertake the task of increasing the overall OpenRoaming™ network node growth by 20% in the coming years. With its rapidly growing global WiFi node count and registered user base, Roam has attracted the attention and support of many traditional operators, who see the potential for revitalizing the traditional telecom industry through Roam. This stems from its user-centered, bottom-up promotion strategy. Now, as the revenue module Growth is about to launch, 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, jointly promoting WiFi, an essential option in modern life, to become safer, more convenient, and accessible to a larger audience.