Deep Dive: Solana DePIN - June 2024

Note: Below is the text-accessible version of this post for visually impaired readers.

Part I: Solana Compute, Data, & AI

Render recorded another healthy month of GPU operator growth. In June, Render added 344 node operators, bringing their cumulative count to 3,780. The number of frames rendered by the platform has also increased, sitting at almost 35M*.

Nosana recorded its second-highest month ever for inferences. While still in beta phase, Nosana cumulative inferences have also eclipsed 600k since launch.

UpRock showed strong organic activity following their airdrop. Uprock lets users monetize unused bandwidth while providing data intelligence. After an initial surge post-TGE, withdrawals spiked again on June 20th.

Consistent activity, with over 70k $UPT withdrawn daily by at least 260 users, indicates strong contributor engagement and reward distribution.

Notable June Developments:

DAIN: The waitlist for alpha testing is now open. Some users are already able to create automated trading strategies.

Nosana: Matrix One, Aurory, AlphaNeural AI, and Arbius AI all disclosed in an announcement that they will use Nosana GPU infrastructure.

Grass:

1. Users can link a Solana wallet to their profile.
2. Grass open-sourced a dataset called 'UpvoteWeb-24-600M,' which contains data from 600 million Reddit posts and comments from 2024.

Part II: Wireless

Helium Mobile has reached 100k cumulative subscribers. Cumulative subscribers have grown 4x since Helium Mobile's $20 phone plan announcement in December.

Helium has showcased slow but steady growth in new IoT and mobile hotspots. Cumulative IoT hotspots increased 3% in June. Similarly, cumulative Mobile hotspots increased 7% in June.

Demand for Helium Mobile Data Credits (DC) has increased rapidly since the December $20 mobile plan launch. The rise in Data Credits (DC) burned matches the increase in Helium Mobile subscribers, showing consistent network growth as each new user boosts DC consumption.

Passionate early adopters make up the bulk of Helium's subscriber base. Over 80% of active Helium Mobile prepayers first joined in Q1 '24, soon after the launch of Helium's $20 phone plan. Similarly, nearly 60% of active Helium Mobile Discovery Mapping rewards recipients first joined in Q1 '24.

Part III: Mapping & Projects to Watch

Demand for Hivemapper's map data posted its fourth-highest month ever. Hivemapper sells map data to both developers and enterprise customers, resulting in fluctuating monthly demand with large spikes driven by enterprise sales. In June, Hivemapper burned $16k worth in HONEY tokens by customers purchasing map data, one of their best months so far.

One-month Hivemapper retention set a new ATH at an impressive 78%. 78% of more than 8,000 new contributors for the month of May were retained in June, and on average, 49% of new contributors have been retained into the next month.

Hivemapper's individual contributor activity has stabilized. Average HONEY rewards per contributor and the average contribution per contributor have remained consistent over the past four months.

HONEY rewards and active contributors have decreased from recent highs but still remain well above initial launch levels. Active contributors decreased 26% in June while rewards given out decreased by 39% in HONEY terms.

Projects to Watch:

DeCharge: Decentralized EV Charging Network - Users can purchase a DeCharge unit, allowing others to use it and charge their electric vehicles for a fee.

Shaga: Distributed Compute Network For Cloud Gaming - Users can contribute their gaming PC and earn passive income for gamers to use these idle GPUs.

Proto: Mapping Your Experiences - Users can earn rewards by mapping visits to their daily locations, such as a trip to a coffee shop.

BlockMesh Network: Decentralized Data Network For Ethical Data Sharing - Users can share and monetize their excess bandwidth used for data scraping while maintaining a focus on privacy.

Dabba Network: Decentralized Connectivity in India - Users can deploy hotspots and earn money to help build a low-cost public data network in India.