1st International Workshop on Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN 2023)

Track ID: Work-01

 

Description

Decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) is an emerging research area in Web3 and IoT domains, which leverage blockchain, IoT and tokenomics to incentivize communities to build physical infrastructure networks and machine economy from the ground up. DePINs are expected to disrupt existing IoT business models and enable developers to build innovative, machine-driven and decentralized IoT applications. A lot of research challenges need to be addressed to fully realize the ultimate vision of DePIN - giving back control of devices and data to users. This workshop provides a unique opportunity for researchers and industry practitioners sharing recent progress and latest work on the key aspects of DePIN and their applications.

 

Objectives and Motivation

Today’s IoT applications are mainly built on centralized, cloud-based infrastructures that are fully managed by organizations, with user and data lock-ins as the primary goals. The centralized ar- chitectures, while simplifying the design and deployment of IoT applications, have posed a lot of concerns regarding security, privacy, identity and data ownership. The emergence of blockchain and Web3 represents a new paradigm shift and has shed light on building innovative and decen- tralized IoT applications that are able to return control of identity and associated data back to users.

Building decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) is one of emerging areas in Web3 space which has received a lot attention from academia and industry recently. By combining blockchain, IoT and well-designed tokenomics, community-driven DePIN that are not controlled by any organization could be built. In particular, DePIN are creating new opportunities for de- velopers building machine economy applications in multiple industry sectors. Although DePIN are disrupting existing business models and have great potential for changing how IoT businesses work fundamentally, a lot of research challenges need to be addressed. The workshop aim to bring researchers and industry practitioners together to share recent progress and latest work on the theoretical and practical aspects of DePIN.

 

Novelty

DePIN is an emerging research area in the intersection of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and IoT, and attracts increasing attention from both academia and industry. The technical innovations pre- sented in this workshop is expected to address a number of key challenges (e.g., device identity and management, off-chain computing, security and privacy, scalability, tokenomics, etc.) for deploy- ing large-scale DePIN in practice and establish a solid foundation for building the future machine economy.

 

Workshop Content

The workshop welcomes contributions describing design challenges, methodologies, implementa- tions, use cases, and tokenomics of building DePIN. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

• System architectures and implementations of DePIN
• Layer 2 solutions and cross-chain protocols for DePIN
• Off-chain computing and blockchain oracles for DePIN
• Experimental evaluations and performance analysis of DePIN
• Testbeds and simulators for DePIN
• Hardware and firmware design for DePIN
• Device identity and management for DePIN
• Security and privacy of DePIN
• Disruptive and sustainable business models for DePIN
• Tokenomics of DePIN
• Governance protocols for DePIN
• Use cases of DePIN in industrial and consumer environments

 

Tentative Timeline Schedule

 

Intended Audience 

The intended audience includes academic researchers and industry practitioners in the intersection of blockchain, cryptocurrency and IoT areas.

 

Presenters, panelists, moderators, and paper submissions you have already identified

The following keynote speaker, panelists, moderators and special issue publication opportunity have been identified:

• Keynote speech: an IoT & Blockchain expert from Siemens will be invited to give the keynote speech.
• DePIN panel:
  • Two panelists from the leading DePIN projects in industry will be invited;
  • Two panelists from universities/research institutes will be invited;
  • A moderator will be invited from either academia or industry.
• Special issue: A special issue is being planed for the journal Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors). Authors of selected papers from the workshop will be invited to submit an extended version to this special issue.

 

Paper Submission Deadline

Important Dates:

• Deadline for Paper Submissions: July 30th, 2023
• Acceptance Notification: September 8th, 2023
• Deadline for Camera-Ready Paper Submissions:  September 29th, 2023
• Deadline for Presentation Submissions: October 2nd, 2023

Papers should be six (6) pages in length and follow the instruction provided for the main Conference. The conference allows up to two additional pages for a maximum length of eight (8) pages with payment of extra page charges once the paper has been accepted.

Please submit your paper for this Workshop using the link to eWorks:

eWorks

Call For Papers: 

PDF

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Xinxin Fan: xinxin@iotex.io

 

Chairs

Xinxin Fan: IoTeX

Dr. Xinxin Fan is the Head of Cryptography at IoTeX, a Silicon Valley-based technology platform that empowers the emerging machine economy with innovative combination of blockchain and IoT. He is responsible for directing the company’s strategy and product roadmaps as well as developing the core technologies and IP portfolio. Before joining IoTeX, he was a senior research engineer of the Security and Privacy Group at Bosch Research Technology Center North America. Dr. Xinxin Fan received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2010. He has published 60+ referred research papers in top-tired journals, conferences and workshops in the areas of cryptography and information security and is an inventor of 17 patent filings for innovative information security and privacy-enhancing technologies. He is also an IEEE Senior Member, a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) from (ISC)^2 , and a (co-)chair of IEEE P2418.1 and IEEE P2958 standards working groups.

 

 

Lei Xu: Kent State University

Dr. Lei Xu is an assistant professor at the Computer Science Department, Kent State University. He is an expert in applied cryptography, blockchain, and confidential computing. Before joining Kent State University, he was an assistant professor at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, a research scientist at Conduent Technology Innovation, and a research assistant professor at University of Houston. His research had been supported by NATO and DHS. Before that, he also worked as a research staff at Huawei Research. Dr. Xu has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers on top journals and conferences. He also has six U.S. patents on cybersecurity and blockchain technologies.