The hypothesis is that the storage, bandwidth, and compute needed for modern apps can be provided by ordinary people at the edge through peer-to-peer networks.
In an exclusive conversation with BeInCrypto, Erman Tjiputra, Founder and CEO of AIOZ Network, explains the idea, why it matters to regular users, and how AIOZ Network aims to be an application-first DePIN stack for AI, streaming, and storage.
The project is building the framework for a community-driven internet infrastructure for the AI era, uniting distributed storage, AI computing, and media streaming under one network.
“Call it what it is,” Chiputra tells BeInCrypto.
“Your neighbors can help run your internet. If you have your home Wi‑Fi, a gaming PC with a GPU, or a spare hard drive, you can donate your resources and unlock the potential for token rewards. It’s faster and fairer because there’s no single choke point and the service is closer to the user at the edge.”
Meaning of “human-powered internet”
Ciputra’s simplest example starts at home.
“Installing our lightweight app turns your home Wi‑Fi on-ramp. Gaming PCs can transcode videos, perform AI inference tasks, and pin files. SSDs/HDDs store shards of content. When someone nearby watches a stream or calls an AI model, the network routes peer-to-peer from the nearest poster. Unlock potential token rewards. Increase speed.”
AIOZ Network says the point is not to imitate tokenized data centers. This is because we make it convenient for users to participate from day one by allowing them to instantly stream, store, and run AI in an application-first design.
AIOZ Network positions itself as a blockchain-agnostic (Cosmos/EVM), AI + Media + Storage-only DePIN, leveraging a global contributor base where AIOZ Network already counts hundreds of thousands of devices.
AIOZ Network is an integrated stack of AI computing (AIOZ AI), storage (AIOZ Storage, S3 compatible), streaming (AIOZ Stream), and IPFS pinning (AIOZ Pin), all powered by DePIN. These services are exposed as composable primitives, allowing Web3 apps to take advantage of peer-to-peer infrastructure at the edge from day one.
This is why today’s Internet extends to the general public
Speaking to the creators, Chiputra said:
“Retain ownership and get transparent on-chain payments. You can sell subscriptions, pay-per-views, chips, or run ad-supported channels where revenue sharing happens on-chain.”
AIOZ Stream’s model explicitly supports SVOD, TVOD, AVOD, and tipping, and also has an optional Watch-to-Earn incentive that allows viewers to receive credit from ad auctions.
On the viewer side, he emphasized a frictionless experience, adding, “You can watch without a wallet, with great quality and privacy,” pointing to AIOZ Stream’s wallet-free onboarding for casual users while maintaining on-chain transparency behind the scenes.
And the sales pitch for builders is to have zero gatekeepers. “Opening SDKs and APIs across storage, streaming, and AI allows developers to ship quickly,” he says.
simple flywheel
Devices contribute resources → Contributors unlock the potential for token rewards → Creators publish and receive rewards → Viewers can watch and support directly → Developers deploy AI tools and apps → All usage fuels the network.
In fact, anyone can onboard their home PC or NAS to provide storage, bandwidth, or GPU cycles. The network measures uptime, proximity, and quality and allocates work accordingly, unlocking the potential for contributors to earn verified deliveries and token rewards associated with their compute.
These tokens come from real-world usage, such as SVOD/TVOD, AVOD with on-chain splits, hints, and developer spending on inference and datasets. As activity grows, more devices participate, lower latency, and lower costs attract more creators and apps, compounding the loop.
“This is one network where AI, streaming, and storage reinforce each other. Every viewer session, every model call, every file read and write powers the DePIN layer underneath,” Tjiputra said.
Not a Tokenized Data Center: The AIOZ Network Difference
In a space where many DePIN projects look like “tokenized data centers,” AIOZ Network claims to be people- and application-first.
“We built an app that makes participation convenient from day one,” says Tjiputra. “Creators can go live, viewers can click play, and builders can deploy models, all on a peer-to-peer edge provided by the users themselves.”
AIOZ’s Stream Vision Paper describes a decentralized content distribution stack that routes video/audio through the poster and pays everyone, the creator, the poster, and even the viewer (if enabled) via the same token rail, including ad auctions (AVOD), subscriptions (SVOD), and transactions (TVOD). UX principles emphasize speed and wallet-free onboarding for mainstream users.
“Let’s install a Mini-CDN in every home”
Ciputra’s long-term vision is straightforward.
“Putting a mini-CDN in every home. When millions of everyday devices silently power the internet, the internet becomes faster, cheaper, and more resilient for everyone,” he says. AIOZ Network wants to deliver a people cloud that services media, AI, and storage from the edge, owned by users and interoperable across chains that people already use.
Power your next ChatGPT from your living room
“As a contributor or consumer, you can power your next ChatGPT from home,” adds Tjiputra. “With a GPU, you can run your inference tasks on the box and get rewarded via DePIN. Because it’s an edge service rather than on the other side of the world, your neighbor calls your model with sub-second latency.”
AIOZ AI is described as a distributed computing and marketplace layer where models/datasets can be deployed, licensed, and monetized on-chain, bridging AI workloads and DePIN incentives.
DePIN Powers Web3
AIOZ Network positions participation as more than a perk for passive viewers. This is the path from a watch-and-earn economy to a true build-and-earn economy. “Monitoring and earning money is a tactic.
The bigger step is to build to earn,” Ciputra says.
“Host your DePIN app, moderate your channels, transcode your streams, pin your content, perform model inference, contribute useful work, and unlock the potential for token rewards. This is the broader participatory economy we’re seeking.”
Asked about the endgame, Ciputra went back to first principles.
“This is Web3’s internet infrastructure, the mainstream people cloud for media, AI, and storage. It’s peer-to-peer at the edge, open and verifiable, and owned by the users who use it.”
AIOZ Network aims to enable a merit-based contribution model across the multi-chain stack to power and interoperate the AI compute, storage, and streaming community.
The post AIOZ Network CEO Erman Tjiputra on People‑Powered DePIN’s Future of Web3 Infrastructure appeared first on BeInCrypto.
