DePIN Passive Income: Five Ideas That Really Work
I am using a Silencio device to measure sound levels and get paid for contributing that data to a decentralized network. On my kitchen counter, I have a MeinCoffee miner that makes me crypto while warming my tea. And in the living room, Solo Mining Co.'s wax melter is mining Bitcoin while filling the air with a warm, cozy scent.
These are not futuristic gadgets.
They are part of a movement called DePIN, short for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks. DePIN turns everyday devices and assets into income-generating resources.
All over the world, people are earning from things they already own. In fact, CoinMarketCap says that as of May 2025, DePIN projects had a total market capitalization of around $17.9 billion, demonstrating explosive growth—over 1,400% year-over-year—in just under two years.
Here are five real-world ways you can personally use DePIN to earn potential passive income.
1. Earn crypto just for going about your day with XYO's COIN DePIN app
Imagine walking your dog or heading to the grocery store and making money while you do it. That is what XYO's COIN app offers. XYO is a blockchain-powered DePIN network that rewards users for sharing location data, creating a decentralized system for trusted geospatial intelligence.
You download the COIN app, let it run in the background, and earn rewards just by sharing location data from your phone. This process is called geomining, and it works while you walk, ride, or drive. The app even has bonus rewards for playing mini-games or inviting friends.
In a chat with Marcus Levin, Co-Founder of XYO, he explained, "DePIN makes it possible for anyone to turn everyday actions into digital value. With XYO and COIN, we've shown how simple it can be to earn while you move through the world."
How to get started: Visit XYO's COIN page and download the app. Turn on geomining, go about your usual routine, and watch rewards add up in crypto like XYO, Bitcoin, or Ethereum, or choose gift cards and gadgets instead.
2. Let Your Garden or Farm Earn For You With DePin Apps
Farmsent presents an innovative approach to earning passive income by bridging the gap between technological agricultural needs and user accessibility. Farmers require a variety of sensors to gather crucial data on soil, micro-weather, and environmental conditions, which informs their decisions on irrigation, nutrients, and pest control. However, the current DePIN model often necessitates users to deploy and manage hardware, a process that can be challenging for non-technical individuals.
Farmsent addresses this by introducing "managed deployment," where the platform handles the deployment of sensors in farming fields on behalf of users. The data collected from these sensors is not only consumed by farmers but also trains an AI engine for future crop prediction. This valuable data generates passive income for sensor owners as long as their sensor data is being utilized. This model allows individuals to earn income effortlessly while contributing to vital areas like food security and supporting the agricultural community. Farmsent runs on peaq. peaq is a blockchain platform built for connecting machines and physical assets to decentralized networks.
In a discussion with Yog Shrusti, Co-founder and CEO of Farmsent, he shared his insights. 'What's the most important thing on a modern farm? It's not the tractor, it's the data. The vast network of IoT devices collecting data on soil, environment, and micro weather creates a machine economy that brings with it a new opportunity for passive income.'
How to get started: Explore peaq's docs to see how its ecosystem works and how developers are applications. If you are not a developer, keep an eye out for apps in your city that are powered by peaq like Farmsent.
3. Make Money While Your Computer With DePIN Does The Work With HiVello
If you have a computer sitting idle, Hivello makes it simple to turn that unused power into passive income. Hivello connects your machine to Web3 DePIN projects, letting you earn without needing any blockchain experience. Think of it as an easy on-ramp to the decentralized physical infrastructure network, where your device does the work and you collect the rewards. For businesses, this means a low-friction way to monetize underutilized computing resources while gaining exposure to the fast-growing DePIN economy.
For the average person, using Hivello is as easy as downloading the app, connecting your computer, and letting it run in the background. Hivello does the hard part of linking your device to different projects, and you start earning automatically. It's like Airbnb for your computer — instead of renting out a spare room, you're renting out spare computing power, and turning something that normally sits unused into a steady stream of rewards.
How to get started:
Download the Hivello app for Windows, MacOS, or Linux. Install it on your desktop and you will be running in about five minutes. Once active, your computer begins contributing to different Web3 projects, and you earn tokens directly from those protocols.
4. Earn From Your Home Assets Like Washers, Solar Panels, Or EV Chargers With DePin
DePIN is starting to move into household life. Imagine your washer and dryer earning income when neighbors use their compute power, your rooftop solar panels selling extra energy automatically, or your home EV charger becoming a neighborhood charging station.
WeCharge and Share&Charge connect physical EV chargers to a blockchain-based marketplace. Owners share access, and payments flow through decentralized or tokenized rails. That's a textbook DePIN pattern that monetizes underused infrastructure via blockchain coordination
Sun Exchange lets you sell unused solar power to people and businesses, even across borders. Appliance-sharing projects are still emerging, but blockchain-based marketplaces are already doing this for other home equipment.
How to get started: For EV charging, check Share&Charge or WeCharge. For solar, explore Sun Exchange.
5. Help AI Work Smarter And Get Paid For Real-World Data Through DePIN
AI needs real-world, verifiable data to make accurate decisions, and DePIN projects are paying people to supply it. By contributing information like environmental readings, weather reports, or verified locations, you can help make AI systems more reliable while earning income.
Real examples include PlanetWatch which pays people to install and operate air quality sensors in homes and offices. This data is used by environmental researchers and AI systems.
WeatherXM rewards you for running a weather station that feeds hyperlocal weather data to the network. AI platforms and forecasting models use this to improve accuracy.
XYO Provenance Network verifies the origin of real-world data like package locations or environmental measurements, rewarding contributors for their role in validating truth.
How to get started: Join PlanetWatch to contribute environmental data. Check WeatherXM for running a weather station. Or install XYO's COIN app to start contributing verified location data immediately.
The DePIN Specturm
There is a Spectrum of DePIN Maturity, showing how decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) range from strong, protocol-level infrastructure to lighter, consumer-facing applications.
On the Strong/Core DePIN side, projects like XYO, Helium, peaq, Farmsent, and HiVello represent networks where decentralized infrastructure is essential to the functioning of the blockchain protocol itself—whether through location verification, wireless connectivity, machine economy platforms, agricultural IoT data, or spare compute power.
On the Lighter/Adjacent DePIN side, platforms such as Share&Charge and Sun Exchange focus more on blockchain-enabled marketplaces where the blockchain layer primarily handles payments, access control, or fractional ownership, rather than being central to protocol operation.
The continuum of decentralization and application maturity(shown in the blue gradient arrow) conveys the continuum of decentralization and application maturity, bridging infrastructure-driven systems on the left with consumer-driven marketplaces on the right.
DePIN does matter on all sides of the specturm and can have impact not just for individuals but countries as well.
The DePIN Passive Income Takeaway
DePIN is changing the way people think about income. Instead of tech giants owning all the infrastructure and taking the profits, it lets you turn everyday assets into money-makers. Your phone, your car, your computer, your home appliances, and even the data you generate every day can quietly bring in income while you live your life.
By tapping into DePIN projects, you can join the growing wave of people earning from what they already have. The technology runs quietly in the background, and the potential is only growing as more real-world networks connect to blockchain using DePIN.
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