In this episode, Dr. Jemma Green talks with Tom Trowbridge, co-founder of Fluence Labs and former co-founder of Hedera Hashgraph. Tom shares his journey from traditional finance at Goldman Sachs to building decentralized infrastructure networks. The conversation covers the evolution of decentralized compute, the importance of token economics grounded in real fundamentals, and how DePIN projects can scale by focusing on specific customer segments. Tom also discusses his work building the Deep In ecosystem through events and podcasts.
Guest:
Tom Trowbridge: Co-founder of Fluence Labs (decentralized compute platform), co-founder of Hedera Hashgraph (top 20 Layer 1 blockchain), host of Deep In podcast, organiser of Deep In Day events. Former Goldman Sachs and venture capital investor.
Connect with Tom Trowbridge:
- Twitter: @TomTrowbridge
- Website: fluence.network
- Deep In Space: deepinspace.co
Key Topics Discussed:
- Tom's transition from traditional finance to Web3 and co-founding Hedera Hashgraph in 2017
- How Fluence Labs aggregates enterprise-grade compute from top-tier data centres at up to 70% lower costs
- The difference between decentralized compute, storage, and bandwidth in the DePIN space
- Why institutional investors will demand real fundamentals and transparent metrics in DePIN projects
- Fluence's token staking model that creates direct economic alignment between network growth and token demand
- The strategic focus on third-party node providers as the first customer segment
- How decentralized networks enable price discovery and eliminate vendor lock-in
- The Deep In Space ecosystem: 13 events across nine cities and 70+ podcast episodes
- Tom's DePIN Token Economics paper analyzing 30+ projects
- Why buy-and-burn mechanisms provide verifiable revenue proof superior to traditional audits
- The debate between buy-and-burn versus staking rewards for token holders
- Challenges of privacy and security in decentralized compute using trusted execution environments
- Lessons from cloud computing adoption and why decentralized compute is the next evolution
- How Fluence abstracts crypto complexity for both providers and customers
- The importance of SLAs (service level agreements) for enterprise adoption
- Why 2026 will be a significant year for DePIN revenue across the sector
Notable Quotes:
"DePIN is not a meme."
"If you have a project that's generating revenue and there's zero buy-burn, I can't think of a reason to hold the token."
"We're offering similar, if not the same machines, same kind of reliability in top-tier data centres. You don't have the brand name."
"The idea is you're on it for that feature [price discovery] more than you're on it because it is decentralized."
"Every evolution in technology happens faster than the previous."
"Institutional investors are gonna demand very different things than what retail has demanded."
UnBlock'd podcast with Dr. Jemma Green
For more information on Dr. Jemma Green
Visit: https://www.powerledger.io/
Or connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen/
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Produced by: Podcasts Done For You
View this episode on YouTube @PodcastsDoneForYou_clients
