Original Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

DePIN, a decentralized physical infrastructure network, relies on token incentives for operation and maintenance. In fact, it is not a new story. Since 2017, various blockchain-based hardware infrastructures have emerged, but they have not been the focus of the narrative.

But why is it being mentioned again this year? We can also see Messari proposing that DePin is one of the most important areas for crypto investment in the next decade.

I think there are two reasons:

1) With the accumulation of technology, various infrastructures are more mature than in the early years, paving the way for DePin's technological advancement.

2) Despite the introduction of new traffic from BTC going mainstream, ordinary people still prefer to believe in things they can see with their own eyes. NFT is one, and DePin is another.

Recently, the DePIN project has experienced significant price fluctuations, especially Hivemapper in the Solana ecosystem, with a staggering 233.4% increase in the past seven days. Solana also attaches great importance to DePin. CoinEx's new analysis points out that the focus of the Solana ecosystem is mainly on DeFi, Memecoin, and DePIN.

Some established DePin projects are also moving closer to Solana. For example, Render Network, the largest GPU computing DePin project, has decided to expand from Polygon to the Solana blockchain through a vote. In addition, the wireless network Helium has successfully migrated to Solana and minted nearly 1 million NFTs in the process.

These signs indicate that more attention will be focused on DePIN on Solana.

Getting involved early often means more profit opportunities. Let's take a look at the native DePin projects on Solana.

1. Hivemapper

Hivemapper is a blockchain-based map network that collects data through Hivemapper's dashcams, with the collectors being called "map contributors." Due to its permissionless nature and token incentives, it is more efficient than current Web2 solutions. Currently, Hivemapper covers a total map area of nearly 90 million square kilometers.

Street view data captured by Hivemapper dashcams is uploaded to the project's database, screened by AI, and ultimately provided to map vendors, autonomous driving, and other data consumers, referred to as "map consumers."

The project was founded in 2015. Its most recent financing was a Series A round on April 5, 2022, with a funding amount of $18 million led by Multicoin Capital.

HONEY is the native token of Hivemapper, rewarding map contributors for continuously contributing fresh and updated information to its map network. This is the source of token generation. Map consumers are the destination of token consumption, as they need to burn HONEY tokens to access the API. The burned tokens will be reminted, increasing the number of tokens rewarded to contributors.

HONEY is a typical token in the Solana ecosystem, as seen from the disparity between its FDV and market value in the image below. Although the total supply of HONEY is 10 billion, due to the incentive mining mechanism, less than 2 billion have been mined, which is one of the reasons for the huge disparity between HONEY's FDV and market value.

In the future, the project can control the release pace of token mining, stabilizing and increasing the token's value.

2. Teleport

With decentralized maps, decentralized carpooling applications have emerged, and Teleport is one such solution, which is currently available on the Apple Store.

Teleport is a permissionless carpooling application owned and managed by its drivers, passengers, and developers. On October 27, 2022, Teleport completed a $9 million seed round of financing, jointly led by Foundation Capital and Road Capital.

Teleport founder Paul Bohm believes that the current carpooling giant Uber is "essentially a monopoly—it is very centralized," and in the shared mobility industry, the intermediary's commission rate can often exceed 40%, which does not flow to the drivers and passengers, but to multinational intermediaries like Uber.

Therefore, Teleport has built the Shared Mobility Protocol (TRIP), benefiting drivers, passengers, and the local economy, while being governed by participants. For example, centralized carpooling services typically do not allow fair market pricing to be set. Instead, they (Uber) set prices themselves and maximize the value they can extract. Redesigning carpooling as decentralized means participants can choose from various applications and servers provided by many different suppliers. More money goes to drivers, and passengers pay less for each ride, keeping more money in the local economy.

This protocol will first be applied to the Teleport platform. Those involved in operating and developing the network will receive TRIP rewards, automatically issued by the protocol. Some TRIP rewards may be presented in the form of NFTs, such as achieving the "City Loop" accomplishment.

These TRIP rewards also represent participation and voting rights in the network. General governance, including protocol upgrades, authorization process changes, and basic network parameter changes, all require voting.

Currently, the project has not released a token. Stay tuned to the official website's Twitter for the latest information.

3. Tekkon

Tekkon is a Japanese project where users can earn token rewards by taking photos of local infrastructure such as utility poles, manhole covers, or reporting damaged infrastructure to help improve the local area. As written in the image above, "Fix your city by earning money." Fans of Tekkon jokingly refer to this process as "Fix and Earn."

Tekkon was launched by the non-profit organization Whole Earth Foundation at the end of last year. The Japanese entrepreneur behind this, Takashi Kato, previously founded Fracta Inc., a startup that uses software to identify weak points in a city's water supply network, helping cities, utilities, and construction companies identify pipe decay before breaking ground.

Due to the token rewards, the app has been warmly welcomed in the Philippines, where locals have formed an organization to photograph damaged infrastructure, calling themselves "infrastructure hunters." According to previous data reported by Bloomberg, Tekkon has over 128,000 active users, with 90,000 from the Philippines. Approximately 30,000 photos are uploaded daily.

Whole Earth Coin (WEC) is the reward token for Tekkon, and in Japan, WEC can be exchanged for cash on Line Pay.

Its initial supply is 300 million, with no maximum limit. When the initial tokens are exhausted and user numbers continue to increase, the system will mint new tokens to reward users. Of the initial 300 million tokens, 20% is for ecosystem development, 20% for the in-app Fix and Earn, 25% for public sale, 15% for private placement, and the remaining 20% belongs to the team.

WEC also has a burning mechanism within the app, where operations such as upgrades and skipping cooldown times will result in the destruction of WEC. However, the lack of use cases is one of WEC's drawbacks. Relying solely on the game's burning mechanism may not keep up with token production, and the excessive initial token allocation has led to some selling pressure, reflected in the price chart.

Tekkon promises to give more functionality to the token, forming a complete ecosystem flywheel, such as public utility companies using WEC to purchase infrastructure photo data, token burning or further rewarding infrastructure hunters, attracting more public utility companies to participate. This indicates that Tekkon plans to establish a more complete and sustainable ecosystem.

4. Helium

Helium, as a decentralized wireless hotspot network, can be considered the OG of the DePIN sector, with its history dating back to 2013, previously operating as an L1.

On April 20, 2023, Helium announced its migration to the Solana network (HIP 70), with developers expressing a preference for the Solana network due to its extensive ecosystem, integration of numerous developers, applications, and teams, and its cost-effectiveness and speed compared to other chains.

Helium Network Token (HNT) is the native cryptocurrency of the Helium network, with no pre-mining and a maximum supply of 223 million. The only way to pay for data transmission fees in the Helium network is by using Data Credits (DC) obtained by burning HNT to pay for data transmission fees. The price of Data Credits is fixed at one cent (1 Data Credit = 0.00001 USD) and is non-transferable, only usable by its original owner.

Previously, deploying hotspot networks would earn HNT rewards, but after HIP-52, the native token HNT will no longer be mined by LoRaWAN or 5G hotspots, and will be replaced by IOT and MOBILE. IOT is the protocol token for the Helium IoT network, and MOBILE is the protocol token for the Helium Mobile network.

The multi-token model allows each wireless network to be separately governed, facilitating better decision-making by DAOs. Each sub-network can manage its own Proof-of-Coverage rules, data pricing, and hotspot mining reward allocation mechanisms.

When deploying or covering networks to obtain IOT and MOBILE network tokens, these network tokens can be exchanged for HNT. This architecture provides a floor value for network tokens.

Currently, Helium has a market value of approximately 420 million USD, making it the largest DePIN project in the Solana ecosystem.

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