Accelerate with Mert Helium, Hivemapper, Multicoin: The Founding Fathers of DePIN | ACC 1.6
Oct 31, 2025
In this enlightening discussion, Amir Haleem, founder of Helium, shares the exciting 12-year journey of building decentralized wireless networks. Ariel Seidman, co-founder of Hivemapper, introduces a revolutionary dashcam device for creating a vision-first map. Tushar Jain from Multicoin Capital highlights the role of decentralized physical infrastructure networks in the crypto landscape. The trio navigates regulatory challenges, discusses market dynamics, and explores how their innovations could rival big tech giants in the telecom and mapping spaces.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Building A People-Owned Wireless Network
- Amir founded Helium to build a people-owned, people-operated wireless network that anyone can join and get paid for running hotspots.
- The network peaked at about one million user-operated hotspots and still has roughly 350,000 active hotspots today.
Mapping From Dashcam-Like Edge Devices
- Ariel described HiveMapper's dashcam-like device that builds a map on the device and uploads detailed road features.
- HiveMapper has mapped roughly 36% of the global road network and deploys devices with drivers worldwide.
Blockchains As Internet-Native Corporations
- Tushar saw blockchains as the internet-native evolution of corporations that aggregate capital and sell products.
- He believes token models enable new capital formation to build networked physical infrastructure businesses.