““DIMO’s goal when we started in 2020 was to fix all the problems that had occurred in the 10 years prior in the mobility space.””

— Yevgeny Khessin

Decentralized Storage Alliance's Ken Fromm had the opportunity recently to sit down with Yevgeny Khessin, CTO and founder of DIMO.

They dove deep into decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) and decentralized storage and how DIMO is powering the future of the automotive industry.

How Decentralized Storage serves the new data as an asset class model

In 2006, the phrase “Data is the New Oil” became part of the lexicon and with it a growing interest in the value of digital information and data. What soon followed was expansions on this analogy such as, “like oil, data is valuable, but if unrefined it cannot really be used”. In the decades since, enterprises and institutions have been struggling to learn how to monetize their data all the while continuing to store vast amounts of data. 

The advent of AI, autonomous vehicles and robots, and other data-driven innovations has renewed interest in this topic to the point that legislation is now being proposed and adopted around the world that enumerates how data can be leveraged as an asset class, along with greater specificity as to the rights of data owners.

In fairness, though, given the concerns surrounding these innovations, data might more aptly described as ‘uranium yellowcake’ rather than oil, in that it requires proper safeguards and controls before it can be processed into ‘hugely valuable single sources of truth’.

The purpose of this paper is to make readers aware of the strategic opportunities with data being more properly treated as an asset as well as better align market requirements for decentralized data storage and access with network and protocol design and development.

This document briefly describes the characteristics of decentralized storage of data to qualify as a legal asset and the properties required in a system to provide value to data owners and custodians. We will include a short description of the categories of data and the differences in handling that data. Finally, we will propose some examples of how existing technology can be used to create such an initial system, along with expected advancements which will meet the Web3 promise of “Read, Write, Own”.  

"NOAA allocates roughly $1.2 billion each year to gather weather data. WeatherXM can deliver comparable coverage for about 1% of that cost."

With this comparison, WeatherXM Co-Founder Manos Nikiforakis set the tone for Our X Space, “IoT, Telemetry, Sensor & Machine Data”, hosted alongside Filecoin Foundation. 

For July’s Space, we brought together:

• Manos Nikiforakis (Co-Founder, WeatherXM)

• Yevgeny Khessin (CTO and Co-Founder, DIMO)

• Aaron Bassi (Head of Product, IoTeX)

Over 60 minutes the group examined how decentralised physical infrastructure (DePIN) is reshaping data markets. They walked through proof chains that begin at the sensor, incentive models that discourage low-quality deployments, and programmes that reward EV owners for sharing telemetry. 

DePIN is really on the rise. Networks are operating, real users are earning rewards, and real enterprises are consuming the data. 

The following excerpts highlight the key moments from our recent X Space, diving deep into the insights shared.

Alexandria, 48 BCE. In the chaos of Caesar's siege, flames meant to block enemy ships licked inland, reaching the Library's waterfront storehouses. Papyrus burst like dry leaves; ink rose as black smoke. Thousands of scrolls that covered topics ranging from geometry, medicine, and poetry vanished before dawn. One blaze, one building, and centuries of knowledge were ash.

The lesson landed hard and fast: put the world’s memory in a single vault, and a single spark can erase it.

Why the Library was a Beacon for the World’s Minds

Alexandria's Library powered the Mediterranean’s information network. Scholars and traders from Persia, India, and Carthage streamed through its gates. Inside, scribes translated and recopied every scroll they touched. India spoke to Athens; Babylon debated Egypt, all under one roof.

Estimates place the collection anywhere between forty thousand and four hundred thousand scrolls. However, the raw tally matters less than the ambition: to gather everything humankind had written and make it conversant in one place. Alexandria became the Silicon Valley of the Hellenistic world. Euclid refined his Elements here; Eratosthenes measured Earth’s circumference within a handful of miles; physicians mapped nerves while dramatists perfected tragedy. Each scroll was a neural thread in a vast, centralized mind—alive only so long as that single body endured.