This newsletter is packed with some updates and highlights from July. Looking ahead, we’ll be sharing some hardware and timeline updates over the next few weeks, hosting our 4th Discord AMA with our CEO & Co-Founder in August, and releasing new information-packed webpages.
35 Metro Regions in the Hivemapper Network Launch
We shared the 35 region boundaries in the Hivemapper Network Launch in our most recent blog article. We asked for community feedback on the proposed draft boundaries and received excellent suggestions from our community members. We implemented your feedback and updated the following nine metro regions: NYC, Madrid, Milan, Sydney, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, and Seoul.You can see the updated Hivemapper Network Beta region boundaries for yourself in this interactive map.
Hivemapper CTO answers your FAQs about building a crypto-incentivized map on Solana
Why did Hivemapper chose to build on Solana?
Solana a tremendously scalable infrastructure and deeply rich developer platformBy eliminating the transaction bottleneck, Solana lets us stop worrying about competing for platform availability, which means we can focus on supporting the network.After evaluating the L1 landscape, we believe the developer community, tooling, and technology are the most robust, well-documented, and secure.
In a nutshell, what are some technical challenges Hivemapper is solving?
Hivemapper is building a globally distributed sensor network in a cost-effective way where access to high quality data is made available to everybody fairly.On the device and application side, we need to make sure the collection process is efficient and frictionless.We do this by integrating state-of-the-art sensor and mobile app technology that is easy for anyone to use.From a data processing perspective, we need to handle massive amounts of data from a constantly growing network.There is an unbounded opportunity to extract novel insights and to continuously innovate.
Instead of using smartphones or existing dashcams, why did Hivemapper design and build its own hardware?
By standardizing the sensors, we maximize the utility of the map data collected by the network.We only support high quality lenses and imagers that are optimized for mapping.Removing the variability in different types of lenses and imagers is extremely valuable for machine learning and computer vision use-cases.To ensure the integrity of the network, we leverage security features directly at the hardware level including encryption and LoRa integration with the Helium Network.
We published a new website page on how you can deploy Hivemapper across your fleet of cars, vans, or trucks. It’s a great opportunity to earn HONEY crypto across your fleet while providing security to your drivers.
Here are a few questions and answers from the AMA:
If the demand on a specific country or region is significantly higher, will the token rewards be higher there too?
“The short answer: yes. There’s two types of rewards: the map coverage reward and the map consumption reward. We detail this out in our How the Hivemapper Network works page.”
Where do you see this project in a few years?
“We think about it as 1-1-10. One million contributors all over the world contributing primarily with a dashcam, other sensors, annotations, and beyond, serving one billion users who are interacting with the map everyday, enabling ten trillion dollars of economic activity on an annual basis.”
What would be the difference in image quality and token earnings between an internal vs external mount?
“In the vast majority of situations, assuming it’s not raining or hailing, an externally mounted dashcam will produce significantly higher quality imagery. How much it affects the token earnings is to be determined but an externally mounted dashcam will definitely return higher earnings.”
What people are saying about Hivemapper
This Company Will PAY YOU CRYPTO To DRIVE! || Hivemapper Crypto Miner
“According to company filings, Uber paid Google about $58 million for using Maps during 2016 to 2018. Google Maps is built into the ride-hailing company’s app for the use by its drivers and customers. How many of you use Waze? Think about it, you are editing their maps for free. Today’s video is all about a company that wants to reward you for mapping in crypto. It just takes three steps. Get a dashcam, map while driving, and earn free crypto.”
How much does it cost to keep Google Street View up to date?
Check out cryptonautclan’s TikTok video and watch him crunch some numbers.“This is the most conservative estimate I could find. It would cost Google $16+ million every year. And this is just to keep their Street View updated. So how can this make you money?“Hivemapper understands that people like you and me already drive all the roads that exist. And because this street view provides value, you get paid for capturing it. If it costs Google $16+ million to do this mapping, those rewards will instead be given to people like you and me.Pay people, not Google.”
Hivemapper
101 2nd Street #1200, San Francisco, CA 94105
The San Francisco-based company has raised $18 million in a funding round led that was by Multicoin Capital. Some big names from crypto and technology also invested, including Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, the founders of the Solana blockchain; Jaron Waldman, a former Apple Maps executive; and Amir Haleem, CEO of Helium, which is another blockchain.
Don’t miss CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022, the must-attend crypto & blockchain festival experience of the year in Austin, TX this June 9-12.
Crypto-enabled mapping startup Hivemapper is trying to give Google Maps a run for its money.
The San Francisco-based company has raised $18 million in a funding round led that was by Multicoin Capital. Some big names from crypto and technology also invested, including Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, the founders of the Solana blockchain; Jaron Waldman, a former Apple Maps executive; and Amir Haleem, CEO of Helium, which is another blockchain.
According to CEO Ariel Seidman, the funds will be used to support the mainnet launch of Hivemapper’s native HONEY token and to get more map contributors. In exchange for HONEY tokens, the map contributors install specially designed dashcams in their cars that share footage with Hivemapper, which is then used to create maps.
Seidman, who started Hivemapper as a non-crypto company in 2015, told CoinDesk he was inspired by the success and rapid growth of Helium, a crypto-incentivized network of wireless hotspots, which also began as a non-crypto company in 2013.
Seidman envisions Hivemapper’s primary customer – at least for the next two or three years – will be businesses looking for a cheaper and more up-to-date alternative to Google Maps.
“Google’s maps are high quality but also very, very expensive,” Seidman said. “The entire mapping pipeline is exceptional, but its Achilles heel is the fact that it’s so expensive. Your ability to refresh an area is, for places like Lagos, Nigeria, or Manila or other locations – it becomes cost-prohibitive over time.”
Because Hivemapper sells equipment to independent contributors who have their own vehicles, the company’s cost is much lower, Seidman explained.
“If you look in Palo Alto – Google Street View for University Avenue, which is in Google’s backyard – probably gets updated every 14 months,” Seidman said. “For the same price, we could probably do it once a week.”
HONEY token
Though the maps and data generated by Hivemapper contributors are open source and community owned, Seidman says Hivemapper will generate revenue by building tools that can then be licensed by companies.
Contributors will be rewarded with HONEY tokens which, like Helium’s native HNT token, could grow in value as the network takes off.
Seidman pointed out that many current contributors to map apps like Waze work for free, simply because they love the work.
“Even as wonderful as Waze was, there are now something like 25,000 Waze map editors. These are people sitting behind their computer screen editing maps … on behalf of what is effectively a multitrillion-dollar company,” Seidman said.
“And they don’t get paid, there’s nothing they get in return for that. They get, maybe, a Google T-shirt or a Waze hat, but that doesn’t sit right with me,” he added.
Hivemapper will also reward map editors – not just dashcam operators – with HONEY tokens.
The company’s first dashcam, which is being made in Pittsburgh, is expected to begin shipping in July.
Dale Calvert is a serial entreprenuer. He started his first business at age 14, a direct mail business out of his parents home. Dale has always believed that wealth is created in front of a trend. This business philosophy lead him into the cryptocurrency space in 2017, He made the decision in 2022, that the cryptocurrency space is where he will be spending the majority of his time.
This article is scheduled to be published on February 1, 2024. On November 1, 2023, three months ago, I invested the majoritiy of my investment captial into the crypto market.
On Novemeber 7th I...
