In reviewing the rest of the videos from Multicoin’s summit, I came across a discussion between Jain, Helium co-founder Amir Haleem, and a third guest: Ariel Seidman, co-founder of Hivemapper. 

Hivemapper is creating a decentralized global map that rewards contributors. The company incentivizes location data collection through a network of independent drivers. By installing Hivemapper’s dash cams, drivers can begin earning a native token, HONEY. This makes contributors owners of the network and rewards them for being early contributors – as Hivemapper grows more valuable, the price of HONEY should increase. If Helium is any indication, early adopters could be rewarded handsomely. 

Like Google Maps, Hivemapper makes money by offering its mapping API to developers. Critically though, Hivemapper does so in a much more cost-effective way. In his talk, Seidman notes that the cars Google uses for mapping cost around $500,000 – while Hivemapper needs only to deliver comparatively low-cost cameras. 

In sum, Hivemapper is a classic response to Jain’s question: while one person recording their daily drive might not mean a lot, millions could create humanity’s most accurate map.