DePIN mining means earning tokens for contributing a verified real-world resource — wireless coverage, storage, GPU time, map data — rather than competing to compute hashes as in proof-of-work. As of 2026-07-16 no primary source publishes a current per-device reward rate, and Helium has approved (but not yet deployed) the retirement of Proof-of-Coverage on both its networks, so a payback period cannot honestly be calculated.
DePIN networks sort into Physical Resource Networks (location-bound: wireless, mapping, positioning, weather, vehicle data) and Digital Resource Networks (deliverable remotely: storage, compute, bandwidth). This directory covers only the 14 networks whose resource, chain, ticker and status were confirmed against primary documentation as of 16 July 2026.
Bottom line: AI and crypto are converging — decentralized compute, AI agents that pay in crypto, and tokenized data. It's one of 2026's most-watched narratives.