Hivemapper has just reached a remarkable milestone, surpassing 1 million km of distinct street view imagery that has been mapped across the globe. This is quite a feat for a project that only took 3 months to achieve this milestone. It takes Google Maps about 5x longer to achieve the same coverage with their street view cars. Hivemapper is made up of thousands of contributors with dashcams in their vehicles that upload map imagery. This imagery is then rewarded weekly with HONEY token payouts based on the quality and location of where the images were produced. Since Hivemapper is built on the Solana blockchain, allowing for fast and low-cost transactions, users are automatically rewarded weekly for their contributions.

If you would like to order a dashcam and support this article, please consider using my link and code to save you an extra 10% (Code: JACKARMSTRONG)

The Dashcam

Currently it is on sale now for only $299 (normally $549), you can snag the original dashcam, and start earning crypto for driving. For an additional 10% off, use my code: JACKARMSTRONG. Dashcam imagery can also be used for your benefit should there be an accident while driving, for example. Simply plug in a USB-C drive, and you can access the footage on your computer for personal use.

The dashcam itself is fairly plug and play. Setup is easy and only takes a few minutes to mount the dashcam behind your rearview mirror. In order to not capture too much hood of your car, the dashcam needs to be tilted up slightly and can be checked in the Hivemapper app. The dashcam now has a new software update called "Dashcam OS 2.0". It can store and record 8–10 hours of drive time without needing to be connected to the app. This process is how you will easily upload imagery to the app to earn HONEY token rewards.

Fleet drivers find the Hivemapper dashcam particularly useful, especially considering many fleets already use dashcams for safety and driving records. Having both of these features built in to a camera which also earns crypto for driving is a huge plus. To earn rewards, it's not necessary to drive a lot in certain markets. However, the most important factors that determine earnings are the quality and originality of the content. Therefore, make sure the camera is properly mounted in your vehicle and drive new routes that need weekly coverage to increase your earnings.

Honey Route App

Honey Route, a Hivemapper app, is a simple web app that uses the Hivemapper Explorer API. It helps determine the best route between two locations that require map imagery.If you drive this route and provide the coverage, you will be optimizing your route for maximum HONEY token earnings.

Map AI

No car or dashcam is needed to contribute to Hivemapper.

Hivemapper uses artificial intelligence to manage all the imagery that is uploaded to the platform. AI Trainers are important for training AI systems on street signs, traffic lights, stop signs, and speed limit signs.

By helping to train the artificial intelligence to better recognize signs and imagery on the road, will earn you HONEY rewards as well. For those who don't have a car or money to buy a dashcam upfront, this is an excellent opportunity to join and contribute to the growing Hivemapper ecosystem.

Tokenomics of Hivemapper

The transparency of the documentation of the backend systems that power this type of decentralized map platform is extremely important to expand not only the contributors who help build the map, but also the companies that purchase map credits will have a better understanding if they desire to learn about the benefits a blockchain map has. The biggest benefit, as explained in my introduction, is the freshness of the map and how that imagery can be achieved at scale for a low cost, from the network of Hivemapper dashcam contributors.

Right now the token is roughly worth $0.02 per HONEY, and I am earning roughly 600 HONEY every week. At current spring 2023 valuations, and driving only in Los Angeles, it took me just about 6 months to earn back the cost of the dashcam hardware. However, I believe this project has massive growth potential (maybe 100–200x in a couple of years), it is still extremely early, and 6 months ROI for a return on the hardware alone isn’t bad, plus I get the added bonus of having a dashcam should there ever be a car accident.