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Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
DePIN Passive Income: 5 Ideas That Really Work
Right now I have DePIN in my own home. 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.
Forbes
09-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
AI, Blockchain, And Drones Unite In The AgriTech Revolution
Drones, combined with blockchain and AI, are changing AgriTech. What if drones, AI, and blockchain could reshape the way we feed the world—starting in Malaysia? That vision is becoming reality through a AgriTech initiative that integrates drones, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain technology. In an effort to support sustainable farming and technological innovation, Farmsent, DroneDash, and SkyX have announced a partnership to launch an advanced smart AgriTech network spanning over 490,000 acres of palm plantations in Malaysia. This collaboration creates a blueprint for modern agriculture that is efficient, sustainable, and globally participatory. Imagine autonomous drones mapping vast plantations, deploying agrochemicals with pinpoint precision—all guided by real-time AI and blockchain-verified data. Farmsent is introducing blockchain-tokenized soil sensors that continuously monitor critical soil nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These sensors provide real-time data, enabling precise and timely fertilization strategies, ensuring optimal nutrient application at the exact locations required. Through tokenization, these sensors become assets within the global Web3 community, allowing global participants to invest and contribute actively to sustainable agricultural practices. These sensors employ predictive AI modeling to anticipate nutrient requirements, enabling highly optimized fertilization strategies and significantly boosting sustainability. DroneDash plays a pivotal role, streamlining the deployment of drone technology for targeted agrochemical applications, thus enhancing the efficiency of pesticide and fertilizer use. This not only optimizes resource usage but also minimizes environmental impact, protecting ecosystems surrounding agricultural areas. DroneDash's AgriTech Drone DroneDash's drone fleet isn't just high-tech—it's cost-cutting, reducing chemical usage and maximizing efficiency. Complementing this technology, SkyX introduces advanced hyperlocal weather stations. These stations capture detailed, hyper-accurate climate data, measuring variables such as temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind direction, wind speed, and air pressure. This granular level of detail provides invaluable insights that allow farmers to make proactive, data-driven decisions, improving crop yields and resilience against climatic uncertainties. Additionally, each technological component deployed—including sensors and weather stations—is assigned a unique blockchain identity via the peaq blockchain platform. This strategic integration of blockchain technology creates decentralized opportunities for global participation, enabling individuals around the world to directly invest and engage in agricultural innovations through tokenization. Yog Shrusti, co-founder of Farmsent, commented to me that "this isn't just about integrating technology; it's about fundamentally reshaping how we approach agriculture in Southeast Asia. By empowering farmers with unprecedented data-driven insights and fostering a global community around sustainable practices through tokenization, we're not just optimizing yields – we're building a more resilient and equitable food system for generations to come.' Yog Shrusti, co-founder of Farmsent More than 25% of the world's population and more than 40% of the global agricultural production heavily rely upon unsustainable groundwater extraction. Traditional agricultural methods often result in significant inefficiencies and environmental challenges, necessitating innovative solutions to sustainably meet growing food demands. The agricultural drone market alone is projected to reach USD 7.6 billion by 2028 according to Markets and Markets. By integrating drone technology into everyday farming operations, Farmsent, DroneDash, and SkyX are leading the charge towards substantial reductions in the use of critical resources, potentially cutting water, pesticide, and fertilizer consumption by up to 50%. Paul Yam, CEO of DroneDash explained to me that 'this is not just a technical integration — it's proof that decentralized technologies can solve real problems, create real value, and drive real profit for communities and investors alike." Paul Yam, CEO of DroneDash The practical impact of these innovations is immediate and tangible. Farmers equipped with real-time analytics and precise climate insights can significantly enhance productivity and efficiency, while drastically reducing environmental footprints. This combination positions Malaysia at the forefront of global AgriTech innovation, serving as a benchmark for other nations facing similar agricultural and environmental challenges. AI is the intelligence engine behind this transformation—turning raw data into real-time, predictive insights that farmers can act on. AI-driven analytics integrate real-time sensor data, historical environmental information, and drone-collected imagery, providing farmers with actionable insights into current and future agricultural conditions. These predictive analytics enable farmers to anticipate crop health issues, optimize resource allocation, and implement proactive measures rather than merely reactive ones. With each season, the system gets smarter—boosting yields, trimming costs, and future-proofing farms. This continual improvement means that the accuracy and effectiveness of interventions steadily increase, optimizing agricultural outputs and enhancing resource efficiency. The integration of AI ensures that data-driven insights are accessible, practical, and tailored to local conditions. Farmers can receive personalized recommendations, allowing for more effective responses to specific agricultural challenges and ensuring a direct positive impact on crop yield and sustainability. Blockchain isn't just for transparency—it's unlocking new markets. Every drone, sensor, and station becomes a verifiable, investable digital asset. Each drone, soil sensor, and weather station is assigned a unique digital identity through the peaq blockchain, creating an immutable and transparent record of operations, maintenance, and data output. That means farm operations are no longer black boxes. Investors, regulators, and farmers can track input-to-output performance in real time. With transparent tracking, stakeholders—from local farmers to international investors—can verify the authenticity and accuracy of the data generated by each device. Overall benefits from this new Drone, AI and Blockchain Platform Frank Fang, the co-founder of SkyX, explained it well when he said, 'While the agriculture industry has long relied on generalized weather forecasting, we're witnessing a fundamental shift toward hyperlocal precision that can make the difference between a profitable harvest and significant losses. Our blockchain-powered weather stations don't just collect data—they create a new economic model where accurate environmental intelligence becomes a trade-able asset." SkyX isn't just forecasting the weather—they're tokenizing it, letting anyone invest in climate intelligence infrastructure. Blockchain also facilitates decentralized governance models, where stakeholders collectively make decisions, aligning incentives and promoting collaborative management of shared resources. Such participatory governance ensures equitable distribution of benefits and risks, encouraging sustained investment and involvement from global communities. This isn't a regional pilot—it's a scalable model. With the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicting a 70% increase in global food demand by 2050, adopting advanced technologies like drones, sensors, and blockchain is not just beneficial—it's essential. For consumers worldwide, these technologies promise enhanced sustainability and potentially lower food prices by increasing agricultural efficiency and reducing waste. More sustainable practices contribute directly to healthier environments and ecosystems, addressing pressing global environmental concerns. Investors and participants in the global economy stand to benefit substantially through blockchain tokenization, which opens up new avenues for direct investment into the booming AgriTech sector. By democratizing access to agricultural advancements, individuals globally can actively participate in and benefit financially from sustainable farming innovations. Summary of the benefits This partnership exemplifies the power of technology to address critical global challenges, driving forward a vision of agriculture that is not only productive but also equitable, resilient, and sustainable. Did you enjoy this story about Blockchain, AI and Drones impacting AgriTech? Don't miss my next one: Use the blue follow button at the top of the article near my byline to follow more of my work.
