OurNetwork #144

Oct 28, 2022

About the editor: Spencer Noon is Co-founder & General Partner at Variant Fund.

Network coverage:
Coverage on DIMO, Helium, and Pollen.

① DIMO

DIMO is a tokenized mobility network that enables consumers to monetize their vehicle data and allows enterprises to access the aggregated data. With over 3,500 vehicles connected to the network, DIMO is collecting thousands of daily streaming data from electric and conventional vehicles. As cars relay real-time data to the DIMO network, vehicle owners receive rewards in the form of DIMO tokens, which govern the DIMO network.

Of the cars connected to the DIMO network, 41% are Teslas. DIMO has a high percentage of Tesla owners because of Tesla’s internal vehicle software which allows Tesla owners to download the DIMO app today without any hardware, while other conventional car models must purchase and install DIMO hardware devices to connect and earn rewards. Still, the DIMO network has a wide variety of vehicles, with over 439 car models accounted for in the network.

DIMO aggregates and anonymizes data from connected vehicles around the world that can be used by various stakeholders including dealers, manufacturers, or service providers (e.g. car refinancers). However, compared to physical infra networks like Helium that focus primarily on enterprise applications, DIMO provides a consumer app that serves as a person’s wallet (e.g. ID and registration) and provides valuable car insights for owners like their car’s real time financial data (e.g. resale value) or battery health for electric vehicles.

The Helium Blockchain incentivizes the creation of public, decentralized wireless networks. Launched in 2019, Helium has become the largest IoT network in the US (and the fastest growing IoT network worldwide). To date, nearly 970k hotspots are live in 184 countries, with 6,500+ 5G radios live in the US. The rate of new hotspots joining the network peaked in November of 2021, and has fallen consistently since April of 2022, but 5G radios have seen consistent growth since launching in June of 2022.

HIP 51 passed in June 2022, enabling 5G, Cellular, and Wi-Fi support. Shortly after, Helium announced a partnership with T-Mobile to provide 5G service to Helium Mobile subscribers in places where the Helium network lacks coverage.

In response to Helium's meteoric growth (and HIP 51), the community passed HIP 70, a proposal to scale the Helium Network on Solana. The goal of HIP 70 is to achieve more reliable data transfer by moving the responsibility of PoC (Proof-of-Coverage) Activity and Data Transfer Accounting to oracles.

Pollen is a decentralized mobile network. It is owned and operated by the project’s users, which are grouped into Flowers, Bees, and Hummingbirds. Flowers are antennas to wirelessly transfer data between a user’s ISP and the network. Bees are small devices to validate network coverage. Hummingbirds are smartphones connecting to the network. Pollen is currently live with coverage in most major metro areas of the US.

The network has seen steady growth since launching in February of 2022. Pollen currently has 1,180 Flowers online and 2,021 Flowers in total. Bumblebees (portable devices) and honeybees (an app) have steadily increased, while hummingbirds (mobile users) have remained steady.

PCN Incentive Credits (PICs) create crypto-economic incentives, which translate to Solana-based PCN token rewards. All participants can earn tokens, but Flowers generally make considerably more given higher hardware requirements. At PCN’s current price and PIC levels, the network’s users are making ~$30 in total every day.