San Francisco-based dashcam maker and decentralized mapping service provider Hivemapper issued cryptocurrency tokens HONEY to reward dashcam users for contributing driving data and road imagery on Friday Hong Kong time, according to a press release shared with Forkast.
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Fast facts
- Motorists can earn crypto by uploading road images recorded by a specialized dashcam provided by Hivemapper. In April, Hivemapper raised US$18 million in a funding round led by Multicoin Capital to launch its blockchain network.
- Each camera costs US$549, and the company has so far sold over 5,500 dashcams across 66 countries. The crypto rewards are non-fixed and will be adjusted according to market demand, said Hivemapper’s white paper.
- Hivemapper’s blockchain network explorer shows the map started with its first contributor on Nov. 1, and it has 15 contributors as of Friday 10 a.m. Hong Kong time.
- Hivemapper, which hopes to rival Google Street View with lower-cost images, updates street view maps 24 times as frequently as Google Street View, according to Hivemapper.
- The company sells the road images, each kilometer of road image costs US$1 to obtain, the company’s pricing page shows.
- “Maps are a critical aspect of today’s global economy and technology infrastructure, yet only a handful of the largest technology companies control the US$300 billion market,” said Ariel Seidman, CEO and cofounder of Hivemapper.
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