Hivemapper (HONEY) Price

HONEY is the utility token of the Hivemapper decentralized mapping network and is built on Solana. On one side, it incentivizes contributors who collect, edit, and validate map data; on the other, it is connected to token burns that occur when businesses and developers use the network's map data, thereby linking map supply with data consumption.

Contributors can earn HONEY by collecting high-quality map imagery with devices or by labeling and editing map data to train Map AI. The network also provides HONEY Bursts tied to customers' specific coverage needs, as well as Bounties or one-time Foundation Rewards issued by the Hivemapper Foundation; these are not all settled under the same reward-pool rules. Regular contributions such as map coverage, map editing, and quality assurance participate in the weekly reward pool. Data-consumption rewards, however, require a customer to have purchased map data that the contributor helped generate. Whether a contributor receives a reward, and how much, depends on the reward type and its corresponding conditions, rather than simply on holding or using HONEY.

When customers use Hivemapper map data, they typically purchase Map Credits pegged to the U.S. dollar. Map Credits are functional credits for consuming map data: more credits allow more data to be consumed and can also be used to prioritize future data collection. Customers do not use the service through a single exchange-like step of “buying HONEY to generate credits.” At the network settlement layer, HONEY must be burned in exchange for Map Credits and to consume data. Therefore, Map Credits are the unit customers use to obtain data services, while HONEY burning is the corresponding step for that usage in the token economy; a portion of that HONEY can subsequently be reminted as contributors' consumption rewards under the Burn & Mint rules.

HONEY has a maximum supply of 10 billion tokens. In the initial allocation, 40% is for rewards to contributors building the network, 20% is allocated to investors who provided initial funding, 20% is allocated to Hivemapper Inc. employees who build the technology and operational systems, 15% is allocated to Hivemapper Inc. for research, development, and operational support, and 5% is allocated to the Hivemapper Foundation. The maximum supply describes the total cap and is not the same as circulating supply at a given time. At network launch, 4 billion tokens were allocated to begin minting contributor rewards; the amount actually minted each week is determined by Global Map Progress.

The amount of HONEY received by each contributor is not fixed. The network first calculates the week's newly minted reward pool based on Global Map Progress, then allocates the map-coverage portion according to each region's Region Progress. As a result, both global and regional map-building progress affect the amount available for distribution. At the individual level, factors such as route freshness and submission quality affect a contributor's share in the relevant region; assessments of map coverage, usable imagery, and visual clarity are also related to contribution quality. In other words, rewards depend simultaneously on the size of the weekly reward pool, progress in the contributor's region, and the validity of the individual's submissions, rather than on mileage driven or number of submissions alone.

When map data is consumed, the network burns HONEY and remints a portion of it as map-consumption rewards under the Burn & Mint rules. After MIP-15 was completed in April 2024, 25% of burned HONEY can be reminted for contributors, while the remaining 75% is burned permanently. Reminting is not unlimited: no more than 500,000 HONEY can be issued as consumption rewards per week. These rewards go to contributors who helped generate map data that customers actually consume, so they differ from the regular weekly reward pool calculated based on Global Map Progress.

HONEY rewards should at least be distinguished by source. Of the weekly newly minted reward pool, Map Coverage accounts for 80.5%, Map Editing & QA for 10%, and Operational Reward for 9.5%; the first two relate to map-data creation and quality assurance, while operational rewards compensate for ongoing operating costs such as network processing and image storage. Map Consumption Reward and HONEY Burst follow the Burn & Mint path: the former goes directly to contributors who helped generate the data when a customer consumes the relevant map data, while the latter lets customers set HONEY that contributors can earn for coverage needs in designated areas. Bounty and Foundation Reward are incentives or one-time transfers from the Foundation Treasury, rather than part of the newly minted reward pool.