How the 2024 US Elections Could Reshape the Future of DePIN Technology

As the US election date grows nearer, things are heating up in US politics. From Donald Trump’s apparent assassination attempt to current President Biden unexpectedly stepping down from the presidential race, things aren’t exactly going as expected. And, amid all these last-minute changes, crypto appears to have become the political football that the Republicans and the Democrats are passing around in an attempt to gain the upper hand.

Indeed, over the weekend, Trump was the guest of honor at this year’s Bitcoin conference in Nashville, while presumed Democrat candidate Kamala Harris also considered attending. She decided against it – after all, she only had around 48 hours to fit this into an already overflowing calendar. But while the crypto community didn’t get to see Harris and Trump go head-to-head on crypto issues this time, that's not to say we won't be learning all about Harris's crypto stance before long.

For now, with so much up in the air at the moment, it’s difficult to predict what Biden’s exit from the race could mean for the digital asset industry at large, and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) in particular. But many in the crypto industry appear quietly optimistic that Harris could bring a fresh take on innovative technologies to the Democratic party due to her warmer attitude to innovation.

This could be a game-changer. Right now, many crypto supporters are rallying behind Trump, simply because he has vowed to become a pro-crypto president. During the Bitcoin conference, he promised everything from firing SEC chair Gary Gensler to making Bitcoin a reserve currency. However, the concrete details of what this will mean from a regulatory standpoint are few and far between and there’s little evidence that his promises are anything more than political posturing. If Harris can offer a clearer picture of how she will integrate innovative technologies like blockchain and AI into traditional industries across America, she may just gain the approval of a good portion of the crypto crowd.

Regulatory clarity

What could this more supportive stance actually entail, though? One of the most contentious topics is, of course, crypto regulation. So far, most industry participants agree that legislative frameworks for crypto are inadequate at best – and harmful at worst. We still don’t even have the necessary clarity from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the classification of various tokens as securities.

Crypto has seen a few wins over the last few months, most recently in the BNB case, where the US Court ruled that secondary trades of the BNB token don't comprise unlicensed securities trading. But there’s no guarantee the same laws will apply to other types of tokens in other cases, because the necessary framework just isn’t there.

For example, DePIN tokens are far more complex than BNB, because they are often tied to certain physical assets, blend traditional and decentralized financial models, and serve a dual purpose as both utility and investment. As such, they require a far more detailed set of rules that consider their complex mechanisms. This clarity is certainly more important for the future of crypto – and DePIN in particular – than the promise of a more hands-off approach. So, if US citizens do indeed find themselves having to decide between two pro-crypto presidential candidates, this could very easily become the deciding factor.

If Harris does take a more conciliatory stance on the crypto industry, how could her approach differ from Trump’s? As a Democrat, she’s likely to be more focused on consumer protection than Trump, who would likely focus his efforts on creating more business-friendly policies. She would also likely favor stricter regulation, while Trump’s regulatory stance could be comparatively light.

But if the regulatory framework Harris proposes creates more clarity, this could ultimately be a better outcome for the crypto ecosystem. And there is certainly a chance that she will be more supportive of the Web3 space due to her connections to Silicon Valley when she was Senator of California. She has rubbed shoulders with many crypto executives and likely understands the industry better than most politicians, but only time will tell whether this translates to a more supportive approach to innovation.

More than just crypto

For DePIN, however, it’s not just blockchain regulation that matters. DePINs are active across a diverse set of industries, trying to achieve different goals and objectives. So while Chirp is a decentralized telecommunications network, others are building decentralized agriculture projects (like Farmsent), or focusing on robotics (EXMAQUINA), or mobility (Soarchain), or thousands of other specific use cases. So it’s not just crypto legislation that will affect the future of DePIN – it’s the wider political stance on a vast plethora of issues.

For example, for telecom DePINs like ours, a particularly meaningful regulation in the US is net neutrality, which was recently brought back. This law ensures that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) treat all Internet data equally. It means they can’t discriminate against specific users, websites or types of content – they have to offer a uniform service for everyone, everywhere. They can’t, for example, degrade your connection to a streaming service like Netflix, only to promote their own competing service.

Clearly, this benefits consumers. Yet during his tenure as President, Trump repealed net neutrality rules – which were put in place by the Obama administration – arguing that they stifle innovation. This has been incredibly damaging for consumers but, arguably, may have contributed to the emergence of alternative telecom DePINs that place the end user’s interests first. So if Trump were to win the election and repeal the rules again, would this be positive for DePIN? It could certainly provide decentralized networks with an additional competitive edge. Equally, though, we would prefer a business environment where traditional and decentralized players can work together to build a better, interconnected future.

Political posturing

However, all of the above is just speculation based on Trump’s rhetoric during his campaigns and his previous presidency, and Harris’s tech-savvy background. In reality, we’ll have to wait until after the election battle has been fought and won to find out what’s in store for the blockchain industry. Because in reality, the promises politicians make during their election campaigns are often largely empty. It’s after they win that they show their true colors.

What’s clear is that crypto is firmly on the agenda for this presidential campaign, for the first time in history. And the closer we get to the big day, the more lofty the promises are likely to get. But, while the election result will undoubtedly have an impact on the future of crypto in the US, it may not be as profound as the Web3 community hopes. So basing one’s voting decision on this issue alone would be very shortsighted. There’s a lot more at stake than just the price of Bitcoin, after all.