In a sentence, Hivemapper aims to be Google Maps but Decentralized and community grown. Its mission “Building a Better Map, Together” says it all. Hivemapper is an innovative, crypto-incentivized, community-grown mapping idea turned product. It is building a global map of our cities powered by blockchain technology and dash cams.

The project is called Hivemapper because it acts like a beehive. A beehive makes honey by having thousands of bees fly around and collect nectar from flowers. By working together, all the bees in the community get to enjoy some delicious honey — literally, as Hivemappers’s crypto token is called $HONEY. Hivemapper is built on the Solana blockchain that can handle trades quickly and cheaply, which is important for a busy beehive.

Most roads are driven every day. In the United States alone, humans drove 3.26 trillion miles in 2022, or 8.9 billion miles per day. High-quality maps are crucial to public and private enterprises like the transportation and logistics industry, sectors such as insurance, real estate, utilities, and government. Analysts estimate the mapping industry has a market size of $200B to $300B, including mapping apps and APIs, geospatial analytics, and data collection services.

So why aren’t our roads mapped and updated frequently? And how can we achieve this as a community?

To answer this question, we need to ask ourselves “what are the dimensions by which map data consumers value maps data?” The answer to this is map data is valued by dimensions of coverage, freshness, and quality. Coverage, to estimate the road network covered and mapped. Freshness, to indicate how updated the maps data is, and quality to highlight the other road mapping data captured. Hivemapper efficiently attacks each of these three dimensions.

The protocol creates a new way to update maps with much higher frequency and at much lower cost by outsourcing the mapping (rather, the driving to map) to individuals who already drive these streets. Hundreds of millions of people drive everyday. Imagine if just 1% of those people mapped the roads while they drove. The maps would include every new highway, off ramp, small business, neighborhood street, pothole, etc. within a matter of hours or days. And it was be updated frequently as driver contributors travel the roads.

In essence, it solves not just the problem of mapping but Scalable and Incentivized mapping. Community contributed maps existed, like OpenStreetMap, but lacked the incentive system to scale easily.

In a nutshell, Hivemapper is solving the problem of;

The Hivemapper Network takes a supply and demand approach to mapping. It uses a Drive, Map, Earn model. Contributors (drivers) are rewarded not only for collecting data with the dashcam, but also by reviewing others’ work, ensuring consistent quality standards of the data we produce. They can also play AI Trainer games to edit the map and improve machine learning models. It works in 3 simple steps;

Hivemapper makes maps of the world by having millions of people contribute a service as Ecosystem Participants/Contributors. One of the many ways of being a participant include;

When people contribute, or do things to help make the map better, they get Hivemapper’s token called HONEY. HONEY tokens are good to have because you can trade them for Hivemapper’s useful map data, in addition to trading/swapping in the short term, and hodling in the long term.

On December 8, 2023, Hivemapper announced reaching a significant milestone - mapping 6 million unique kilometers, or around 10% of our global roads. This feat was achieved in less than one year of Hivemapper’s launch. This is a major feat compared to the next best maps data, Google Maps, that took around 5 years to map 8% of the world.

The token economics of the Hivemapper Network are designed to ensure that HONEY will be available to fulfill demand for map data, but relatively scarce with a known maximum. At launch, the Hivemapper Network began minting and distributing 4 billion HONEY tokens to contributors as rewards.

10 Billion Tokens There is a fixed maximum supply of 10 billion HONEY tokens. Tokens were initially allocated in the following manner:

Hivemapper decided to use crypto rewards because they create incredibly powerful incentives that align the economic interests of contributors and the network. With the right incentives, everyone is on the same team building a product that will reach global scale and generate value.

The first HONEY was minted on November 1, 2022 as part of block 158569587. HONEY’s current price is $0.01129494, with a Current Supply of 6,144,778,039.69 HONEY tokens equating to a Market Cap of $69,404,899.27 across 18,584 Holders or HODLers. The contributory activities will be rewarded with 90% of the HONEY minted each week. The largest amount of HONEY will initially be allocated toward Map Coverage. As the map matures over time, token rewards are expected to shift toward quality assurance and map annotation.

The other 10% of HONEY minted each week is an “operational reward” for ensuring the ongoing operation of the Hivemapper Network. This reward compensates Hivemapper Inc. for the costs incurred to process and store millions of images, among other things.

HONEY tokens are used to create economic incentives across the Hivemapper Ecosystem, while balancing the needs of two groups within it’s network:

The amount of HONEY that contributors earn is calculated according to coverage, freshness, and quality ratings — the 3 primary ways consumers value maps. Specific weightings and functions (algo) can be adjusted by the Hivemapper Foundation to balance the economics of the network.

Hivemapper’s philosophy is for all contributors to earn a fair reward. Fairness is a combination of utility and access. Anyone located anywhere can contribute and be rewarded their share of HONEY for making quality contributions that can be used by the Hivemapper Network.

HONEY rewards are distributed each week. Each week, HONEY rewards are minted for contributors to the Hivemapper Network as map progress is made from a blank slate to a complete and up-to-date map of the world. The precise amount of global rewards depends on the precise amount of progress. Global Map Progress is based on the map progress of each region in the Hivemapper Network. To achieve maximum progress, regions must be dependably well covered and active. These factors put the Hivemapper Network on a path toward building a continuously complete, fresh, and high-quality map. HONEY rewards are distributed to the contributors of each region based on their respective contributions toward a region’s map progress.

Reward Period Rewards are distributed for each discrete week of contributions, from Monday through Sunday. About three days after a given period ends, the total contributions for each region are tallied and every contributor is awarded a piece of the reward pot relative to the utility of their contributions.

Investors and employees are subject to token restrictions. There are token restrictions in place for Hivemapper Inc. investors and team members.

Investors & Funding: Hivemapper has raised equity funding from some of the most prominent Venture Capital ("VC") firms in the world, including Spark Capital, Multicoin Capital, Founder Collective, GV, Shine Capital, Craft Ventures, Solana Ventures, and more.

Tokens allocated to investors are restricted for a two-year period, with transfer restrictions released from tokens in 12 equal tranches at the end of the 13th month until the end of the 24th month anniversary of the Initial Token Distribution Date, the day at which the token launches on mainnet.

Management, Team & Employees: Tokens allocated to employees of Hivemapper Inc. are restricted for a three-year period, with transfer restrictions released from tokens in 24 equal tranches at the end of the 13th month to the end of the 36th month anniversary of the Initial Token Distribution Date, the day at which the token launches on mainnet.

On August 31 2023, Hivemapper officially announced the launch of HONEY Bursts, it’s bounty feature for targeted mapping. HONEY Bursts is an exciting new feature now available in app version 6.7.8 that takes Hivemapper’s mapping efficiency and contributor incentives to the next level.

HONEY Bursts are designed to align the interests of active map customers and active contributors.

Customers highlight areas for prioritized coverage by offering a bounty. Contributors who drive through these targeted areas can earn bonus HONEY tokens on top of their regular rewards. It is double rewards. How, though, is bursts calculated?

Map customers often demand fresh data for certain locations, whether it's a neighborhood or an entire town. This feature gives them the ability to decide how much this coverage is worth to them and create incentives for the community to deliver.

Each week, based on customer demand and network coverage requirements, particular locations will be designated as HONEY Burst zones. These zones are prime areas where increased mapping activity is encouraged.

From Request to Reward: Hivemapper customers spend a set amount of map credits to specify locations that they want to see mapped and define a bounty for coverage. HONEY Bursts currently run for a week at a time, but customers will soon be able to choose a specific date and time range for a HONEY Burst.

Bursts in Action: Once live, the HONEY Burst appears prominently in the Hivemapper app. This notifies contributors of the zones where increased activity will receive bonus rewards.

Map and Earn: Contributors who drive through these zones will receive an extra burst of HONEY tokens. The precise amount they earn will depend on how many unique hex tiles they cover within the HONEY Burst relative to the efforts of others.

Billions of people may rely on the map infrastructure and data generated by the Hivemapper Network. These outputs should be public goods, owned and operated by its contributors. Although decentralized, an organized body with a clear mandate is required to govern and facilitate the network operations. By transferring many of the key governance responsibilities to a foundation and making the technology open source, the Hivemapper Network can serve far more people across the globe and endure for a long time.

The Hivemapper Foundation is a Cayman Foundation Company Limited by Guarantee formed in 2022 and based in the Cayman Islands. Over time, the foundation will take on many of the responsibilities currently held by Hivemapper Inc., such as maintaining the decentralized mapping network and underlying open mapping technologies. The Hivemapper Foundation will be responsible for the global proliferation of the Hivemapper Network and ongoing network tokenomics. No Hivemapper Inc. executives will hold positions in the Hivemapper Foundation.

The Hivemapper Network will use a mechanism of governance called Map Improvement Proposals (also known as MIPs). Similar to the idea of BIPs from the Bitcoin community, MIPs will be used to introduce and approve or deny major changes to the Hivemapper Network. Changes introduced through MIPs may pertain to the network structure, governance, or tokenomics of HONEY.

The MIP process will be formally announced at a later date. In the meantime, it’s best to propose and vet ideas with the Hivemapper community via Discord. This is a good way to see if there is initial support for the idea or if it’s been discussed before.

Please note that this pictures are obsolete and is only inserted here to give an idea of how much of each location has been mapped via the network contributors.

As always, I hope the value of crypto-incentive systems and blockchain technology is clear, as evidenced by the Hivemapper protocol. I remain your web3 products educatoor, distilling the innovative web3 projects out there. Till next time, peace be onto you!