Hivemapper Distributes Over $11M in Total Rewards Since September 2023 as Solana DePIN Thrives

Solana’s flourishing DePIN sector continues to deliver sustainable rewards to users across the globe. Leading the charge, Hivemapper has rewarded over 77,000 contributors for capturing street-level imagery using dashcam footage since last September.

Aiming to democratize geospatial data and disrupt an industry dominated by tech giants like Google, Hivemapper enables people all over the world to create and earn from decentralized mapping infrastructure.

Hivemapper Rewards Generating a Buzz

Boasting over 8,000 deployed devices, Hivemapper is one of the industry’s most widespread DePIN protocols. Through its native token, HONEY, Hivemapper rewards its users for collecting dashcam footage and training the platform’s map-building AI.

Since September 2023, the Hivemapper protocol has distributed over 193M HONEY tokens to contributors. Based on current market values, this represents over $11M in rewards. 

However, while the platform may have over 77,000 lifetime contributors, recent data indicates that the protocol typically rewards an average of 10,477 active users each week since June 2024, with last week’s median reward allocation sitting at 33 HONEY, valued at just over $5.

The week’s highest earner received 200,000 HONEY tokens, valued at over $12,000.

Japan, South Korea Witness Highest Coverage Rates

While Hivemapper is theoretically available worldwide, contributors are largely providing coverage in high-resource regions.

Approximately 25% of global roadways have been imaged by Hivemapper hardware, with East Asia, North America, and Europe leading the way. According to Hivemapper data, the protocol has mapped roughly 45% of East Asian roads, with Japan and South Korea hosting a high concentration of captured street-level imagery.

Meanwhile, significant parts of Africa and South America are still largely unmapped, suggesting that Hivemapper still has plenty of growth potential in these areas. Low adoption in these regions is potentially due to what could be considered comparatively high start-up costs, with Hivemapper hardware requiring a minimum upfront investment of $489.  

DePIN Sector Outperforms Wider Market

Considered one of the most promising sectors in the crypto industry, DePINs continue to show resilience in a sideways market. According to Artemis data, DePIN tokens outperformed all other areas of the crypto market by a significant margin.

While this cycle’s other hot narratives like RWA (Real-World Assets) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) have struggled in volatile market conditions, DePIN tokens have shown considerable strength.

Amidst turbulent market conditions, DePIN’s relative strength indicates that investors and traders are optimistic about the future of the sector. 

Looking ahead, Hivemapper is preparing for the rollout of updated and improved dashcam hardware. Playfully dubbed the ‘Bee’, Hivemapper’s new dashcam hardware leverages LTE connectivity for passive mapping and enhanced commercial fleet monitoring.

The new line of Bee hardware was originally scheduled to begin shipping in Q3. However, a recent post from the Hivemapper team suggests that the Bee is undergoing some final tests before being pushed to production and distributed to thousands of Hivemapper contributors around the world.

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