Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) networks are built from real activity rather than centrally owned assets. Contributors deploy devices, move across cities, or collect environmental data, creating a shared infrastructure that organizations and machines can use.
Within DePIN, a growing category focuses on real-world intelligence, data that helps systems operate outside controlled environments. These projects do not all solve the same problem. Some provide accessibility, others provide metrics, and some aim to provide the context that makes the infrastructure usable.
Here’s how five leading DePIN projects compare.
1. Helium: Decentralized wireless coverage
Helium is one of the most established DePIN networks, enabling communities to deploy wireless infrastructure such as LoRaWAN and 5G. Contributors earn tokens by providing coverage that institutions can use.
Its success lies in proving that decentralized contributors can build true communications infrastructure at scale. However, Helium focuses on access, not insight. It shows where the connection exists, but provides limited insight into how reliable that connection is in real-world conditions.
Helium is best viewed as core infrastructure rather than a decision layer for machines.
2. Hivemapper: Crowdsourced physical maps
Hivemapper rewards contributors for collecting street-level images via Dashcam cameras, keeping the actual maps up to date through community engagement.
The model has a clear use case and a strong data ownership narrative. But the data is largely visible and static. It describes how the world looks, not how it behaves in real time.
For hardware, the new images help with navigation, but they don’t show whether conditions will support reliable operation.
3. NATIX Network: Vision-based navigation intelligence
NATIX uses computer vision data from dashcams to generate insights about traffic, parking and road use.
The network provides timely mobility signals that are useful for urban analytics and smart city applications. Its limit is scope. Vision-based sensing captures only part of the environment and does not take into account digital or communication conditions that often determine whether systems can operate reliably.
NATIX provides useful cues, but not complete situational context.
4. WeatherXM: Decentralized Environmental Data
WeatherXM is building a community-supported network of weather stations that provide local, real-time weather data.
The value is easy to understand, and the enterprise demand is clear. Local measurements often outperform central predictions, especially for local climate. Meanwhile, weather is one input. Although important in some scenarios, it rarely determines routing or operating decisions on its own.
WeatherXM provides essential context, but as one piece of a bigger picture.
5. The Roaming Network: The mobility layer for the age of physical AI
Roaming network It takes a different approach by transforming everyday movement into live information about connectivity, mobility and digital conditions. Instead of focusing on a single signal, it creates a user-owned navigation tool that is constantly updated and used by devices and organizations to plan, direct and operate.
The network captures multimedia data, including movement patterns, signal quality and connection stability across phones, vehicles, drones and future devices. It was designed specifically for machines that need to know not only where things are, but also where they can communicate and compute reliably.
Where other DePIN networks provide input, Roam provides decision-level context. It helps systems understand where processes are likely to succeed before they act, rather than reacting after something fails.
Contributors gain from the actions they actually make, organizations gain insight that cannot be measured alone, and machines gain the awareness required to operate safely in real-world environments.
If Helium is the network and Hivemapper is the map, then Roam is the layer devices it consults before moving, computing, or communicating.
Final comparison summary
At a high level:
- Helium Resolves access
- Cell folders Solves visual mapping
- Natix Resolves traffic sensor
- WeatherXM Solves environmental conditions
- wandering It links these signals to usable intelligence
Why does context trump raw infrastructure?
As machines move into the real world, raw infrastructure is no longer sufficient. Coverage without reliability, maps without digital conditions, and data without context all break down on a massive scale.
DePIN networks with the strongest long-term value are those that help machines understand where things will work, not just where they are. By focusing on real-world context rather than individual inputs, Roam Network positions itself as the infrastructure that devices will increasingly depend on.
Disclaimer: This is a paid post and should not be treated as news/advice.
