XYO’s Markus Levin on DePIN Growth and AI Data Provenance

XYO co-founder Markus Levin envisions decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) as the backbone for AI's data provenance needs. During a CryptoSlate SlateCast, Levin highlighted XYO's Layer-1 blockchain, purpose-built to handle real-world data demands. "First, I think XYO is gonna have eight billion nodes," he said, framing it as an ambitious but plausible target given the sector's trajectory.

DePIN's potential extends beyond niche experiments, with the World Economic Forum projecting the sector could grow from tens of billions to trillions by 2028. Levin emphasized that XYO's network already boasts over 10 million nodes, shifting the conversation from hypotheticals to scalability challenges.

Addressing AI's trust crisis, Levin argued that data provenance—not just compute power—is the critical bottleneck. "Whereas DePIN, what you can do is you can prove where data comes from," he said, positioning decentralized networks as a solution to deepfakes and media distrust.