category.depin_networks.label

category.depin_networks.promise

Starting path

Every payback claim is priced in a token that no longer trades there

DePIN networks evaluated across verified dollar demand, payback at today's token price, reward integrity and liquidity, and operator disclosure quality.

category.depin_networks.promise Reviewed on revenue a customer actually paid, payback at today's token price, whether the reward token can be sold at all, and how much the operator itself discloses.

Start with the smart category assistant or jump straight into quick questions. Both paths narrow to the same recommendation standard.

How we review

Recommendation first, comparison only if needed.

Reviewed and rechecked on the current cycle.

Commercial relationships disclosed before clickout.

Audit

Infrastructure

Methodology

2026.04.0

published 2026-04-27

Providers tracked

570+

across 62 categories

Last verified

2026-08-05

editorial freshness

Editorial board

4

audit-log live

Decision guide

What matters most before choosing in this category

The best DePIN network depends on whether you are buying the hardware or buying its output — but almost every payback figure circulating online is computed at a token price that no longer exists. A buyer spends dollars today and is repaid in a token priced today, so payback is always recomputed at the current price. The criterion that separates a network from a giveaway is revenue a customer actually paid: a network funding supply with emissions and booking no customer revenue is a subsidy, and when the subsidy stops the hardware stops earning.

Key question

Are you buying hardware to earn, or buying the network's data as a customer?

Key question

What is the hardware cost, and could you sell the rewards it earns?

Key question

Would the network still pay if token emissions stopped tomorrow?

Current editor lead

GEODNET

RTK GNSS base stations; $7.4M trailing-year on-chain fees, revenue rising

Data checked Aug 2026

RTK GNSS base stations; $7.4M trailing-year on-chain fees, revenue rising. Strongest on verified dollar demand (9/10): DefiLlama fees API (fetched 2026-08-05): total24h $27,661, total30d $909,283, total1y $7,430,411, totalAllTime $10,902,715. Because trailing-year revenue is 68% of all-time revenue, demand is accelerating rather than decaying — the only network in this set where that is true. Methodology: "GEODNET receives fees for… Weakest on operator disclosure quality (6/10): Exact halving table published in official docs, and the store lists a precise $695.00. Marked down for three things: docs.geodnet.com/tokenomics returns 404 (only /geod-token/tokenomics.md resolves), the tokenomics page documents no burn percentage even though DefiLlama describes an 80% revenue buyback, and the… Published price: MobileCM Triple-Band GNSS Base Station: "$695.00" — listed "currently out of stock". Includes "Complete installation kit included — triple-band roof antenna, 9 m antenna cable, Wi-Fi antenna, USB-C power cable, mounting pole (0.3 m) and brackets." Official…

Best for

Verified dollar demand — 9/10Payback at today's token price — 7/10

Main tradeoff

The 6 GEOD/day figure is the documented base rate for a triple-band station, not a guaranteed yield — actual rewards are diluted by how many stations share your region, and GEODNET publishes no location-adjusted earnings estimate. Also note the entire investment case rests on one number: GEODNET's revenue lead evaporates if RTK customers churn, and with the flagship hardware out of stock at $695 you will likely transact with a reseller whose price and support are not GEODNET's responsibility.

Verify before signup

MobileCM Triple-Band GNSS Base Station: "$695.00" — listed "currently out of stock". Includes "Complete installation kit included — triple-band roof antenna, 9 m antenna cable, Wi-Fi antenna, USB-C power cable, mounting pole (0.3 m) and brackets." Official tokenomics: "Base rewards halve annually on June 30th", triple-band base stations 96 GEOD/day (2022-23) → 48 → 24 → 12 → "07/01/2026: 6 GEOD/day".

Weighted criteria

Verified dollar demand35%

Payback at today's token price25%

Reward integrity and liquidity20%

Operator disclosure quality20%

Leading options

Shared shortlist for this category

These providers are pulled from the same category comparison catalog used in validation, so the category page, comparison page, and provider reviews stay aligned.

GEODNET

RTK GNSS base stations; $7.4M trailing-year on-chain fees, revenue rising

Editor lead

Best for: Verified dollar demand — 9/10

DIMO

Vehicle data dongle; contributor pays $8.99 monthly to earn tokens

Vehicle data dongle; contributor pays $8.99 monthly to earn tokens. Strongest on reward integrity and liquidity (3/10): DIMO is down 99.23% from its $0.785628 all-time high and 89.88% over the trailing year, with 24-hour volume of $5,620 (CoinGecko, 2026-08-05; CoinPaprika corroborates -99.27% from ATH). The reward schedule that does exist — 1,105,000 DIMO weekly declining 15% per year over 40 years — front-loads emissions to early… Weakest on payback at today's token price (1/10): DIMO inverts the DePIN proposition: after the free first month the contributor pays "$8.99/mo" for DIMO Pro, or $107.88 per year, on top of $99.99 for the device. Against network-wide baseline issuance worth roughly $348K annually spread across the whole fleet, the recurring fee is a structural negative carry — the… Published price: DIMO LTE R1: "$99.99" single, "$179.98" Family 2 Pack (10% off). "Includes a free one-month subscription to DIMO Pro, then renewal is $8.99/mo." Page states drivers "get rewards deposited into their account every Monday, no strings attached" with no earning…

Best for: Reward integrity and liquidity — 3/10

Helium

IoT and 5G hotspots; measurable on-chain revenue zero since January 2026

IoT and 5G hotspots; measurable on-chain revenue zero since January 2026. Strongest on verified dollar demand (3/10): DefiLlama fees API (2026-08-05): total24h $0, total30d $0, total1y $2,296,688. The adapter states buybacks were paused on 2026-01-02, so measurable revenue has been zero for roughly seven months and the entire trailing-year figure predates January. Against that, official docs target 7,500,000 HNT of issuance in Year 7… Weakest on operator disclosure quality (2/10): DefiLlama attaches an explicit alert banner to Helium that no other network in this set carries: Data Credits burned for usage are excluded from revenue because "they are valued at the $0.50/GB peg (HIP-149) while carriers actually pay ~$0.10/GB, and the burned HNT is sourced from centralized-exchange wallets rather… Published price: helium.com publishes no hardware price, hotspot count, subscriber count, revenue figure or carrier name. Official emission schedule: "Year 7 | Aug 1, 2025 | 210,000,000 | 7,500,000" and "Year 8 | Aug 1, 2026 | 217,500,000 | 7,500,000" target annual emission…

Best for: Verified dollar demand — 3/10

Browse this network

Methodology

How this category is reviewed

Reviewed on revenue a customer actually paid, payback at today's token price, whether the reward token can be sold at all, and how much the operator itself discloses.

Reviewed on: Verified dollar demand, Payback at today's token price, Reward integrity and liquidity, Operator disclosure quality.

This page is a maintained category surface, not a static marketing block. Review freshness, provider positioning, and recommendation logic should stay consistent with quiz and provider pages.

Frequently asked

Questions people ask before choosing depin

Why is the advertised payback period never scored?

Because it is almost always computed at a token price from the period when the calculator was written. One network in this pool is retiring its own reward token in favour of USDC, which retroactively invalidates every payback figure used to sell its hardware since 2023. What is scored is payback at the price you would receive today.

What does "verified dollar demand" actually mean here?

Revenue paid by customers, measurable independently of the network's own marketing. It is scored at 35% because it is the only criterion that separates a business from a subsidy. Where a third party refuses to count a network's headline revenue and publishes its reason — as one does here, describing usage credits valued at a peg five times what carriers actually pay, funded from exchange wallets rather than an open-market buy — that refusal is the evidence.

Can small rewards still be worth collecting?

Only if the token can be sold. One network here trades roughly forty dollars across all venues in a day while its stations cost between $239 and $810 — the rewards are not merely small, they are unsellable, and recovering one station would require being substantially the entire global market for several consecutive days. Liquidity is scored beside the reward rate for exactly this reason.

REVIEWEDApr 2026METHOD4 criteriaCATEGORYdepin_networks

Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research

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