Global Map Progress
A fair way to reward contributors around the world
Each week, HONEY rewards are minted for contributors to the Hivemapper Network as map progress is made from a blank slate to a complete and up-to-date map of the world. The exact amount of global rewards depends on the exact amount of progress.

All 4 billion HONEY tokens will be minted as Global Map Progress is made.
Global Map Progress is based on the map progress of each region in the Hivemapper Network. To achieve maximum progress, regions must be dependably well covered and active. These factors put the Hivemapper Network on a path towards building a continuously complete, fresh, and high-quality map.
This dynamic approach is designed to ensure rewards are never overly concentrated in a particular region, nor in any regions that are not adequately producing map progress.
HONEY is distributed to the contributors of each region based on their respective contributions towards a region's map progress.
The 4 billion HONEY excludes HONEY rewards redistributed to contributors through the Net Emissions Model.
Regions are defined geographical areas established by the Hivemapper Network. Regional boundaries are the responsibility of the Hivemapper Foundation and subject to change.
Not all region boundaries have been drawn yet. Major metropolitan areas were drawn first, but eventually all areas will become part of a defined region. By default, regions which haven't been defined yet fall into a catch-all region.
Maps are most critical in areas where high amounts of growth and change are occurring and there is current or expected commercial demand for map data. Accordingly, the Hivemapper Network uses a regional weighting system to focus mapping in areas where there is a high utility of the data collected. Each region is assigned a weighting which impacts the calculation of Global Map Progress Units as well as HONEY rewards earned for that region in a given period.
The weighting takes into account the number of roads, road density, and (to a lesser extent) GDP data. The Hivemapper Foundation may also determine a "priority" factor to further boost certain regions deemed important for the commercial viability of the map. Regional weightings are subject to recalibration as new regions are introduced or existing regions are redefined.
In the "Regions" section of the Explorer, the weighting is displayed as a percent of total. For example, San Francisco's weighting shows as 1.0491% and implies the region is weighted at this percent when calculating Global Map Progress and the related HONEY rewards (see below: Example Global MPU Calculation and Example Regional HONEY Calculation).
There are three primary factors that determine a region's map progress in a given time period: coverage, activity, and resilience.
- Coverage Progress is computed by a rolling 90-day average of weekly Coverage, the amount of unique surface coverage achieved relative to the estimated total road surface in the region. To receive 100% rewards, at least 10% coverage progress must be achieved. Rewards are scaled between 0% and 100% when coverage progress is below 10%. For example:
- 0% coverage progress = 0% rewards
- Between 0-10% coverage progress = between 0-100% rewards
- >=10% coverage progress = 100% rewards
- Activity is proportional to the number of contributors achieving a minimum activity level relative to the road density of a region and the total amount of roads. A greater number of active contributors are needed in higher density or larger scale regions.
- Resilience is a gradation of how well distributed activity is relative to coverage. Resilient regions are not overly reliant on any individual contributor and, as such, resilience should provide a measure of confidence to map data consumers the observed Coverage and Activity trends will continue.
Map progress can be measured with Map Progress Units (or "MPUs") at a regional (RMPU) or global (GMPU) level.
For any given reward period, a region produces between 0 and 1 MPUs based on its coverage, activity, and resilience (see above: Regional Map Progress). The MPU calculation cannot result in a number less than 0 or greater than 1.
The GMPU is equal to the weighted average of the RMPUs for a given period. The GMPU is then used to calculate the amount of HONEY minted for contributors in that period.
Visit this Colab notebook to view the math behind MPU minting:
For simplicity, let's assume the world only contains three regions. We calculate GMPU by summing the product of each region's weighting and regional progress.
- Region 1: Weighted at 60%, RMPU of 0.25
- Region 2: Weighted at 30%, RMPU of 0.16
- Region 3: Weighted at 10%, RMPU of 0.82
GMPU = (0.60 * 0.25) + (0.30 * 0.16) + (0.10 * 0.82) = 0.28
In order to create and sustain a robust network over time, the Hivemapper Network established a total number of Global MPUs that must be reached in order to mint the full amount (4 billion) of HONEY allocated to contributors.
HONEY will be minted as progress is made towards 520 GMPUs. Since no more than 1 MPU can be earned in a given weekly reward period, the minimum amount of time it will take to mint the full 4 billion tokens is 520 weeks or 10 years (= 520 total MPU / 1.00 MPU per week).

To further illustrate, let's take the GMPU of 0.28 from the above example and assume it remains constant over time. It would take ~1,857 weeks or ~36 years to mint the full amount of HONEY (= 520 total MPU / 0.28 MPU per week).
While both of these example scenarios are very unlikely, it's difficult to predict how fast actual Global Map Progress will be made. The GMPU calculation will continually approach 1 as every region of the Hivemapper becomes more covered, active, and resilient.
The amount of HONEY minted in a given week will be relative to the current period's GMPU calculation and the total amount of GMPUs calculated in prior periods. Generally, earlier progress is rewarded with more HONEY than later progress.

More HONEY is minted for earlier global map progress of X.
While GMPUs determine when the 4 billion HONEY designated for contributors will be minted, they do not limit or factor in HONEY earned by contributors through Map Consumption Rewards.
Once the total HONEY rewards have been calculated on a global level for a given period, the HONEY trickles down to each region's reward pool proportional to its regional weighting. This methodology does not apply to Map Consumption Rewards which are given directly to the contributors who helped supply the specific data consumed.
Let's assume the network has the same three regions from our prior example, the GMPU is 0.28, and 1,000,000 HONEY is minted for the current reward period.
- Region 1: Weighted at 60%, RMPU of 0.25
- (0.60 * 0.25) / GMPU of 0.280 * 1,000,000 = 536k HONEY
- Region 2: Weighted at 30%, RMPU = 0.16
- (0.30 * 0.16) / GMPU of 0.280 * 1,000,000 = 171k HONEY
- Region 3: Weighted at 10%, RMPU = 0.82
- (0.10 * 0.82) / Global MPU of 0.280 * 1,000,000 = 293k HONEY
The regional HONEY reward pool is split amongst the network members who made contributions to the region during the given rewards period. An individual's exact earnings depends on the relative amount of contributions they made to the region during the period and other individual reward factors.
Learn more about the Individual Reward Factors influencing the amount of HONEY a contributor can earn.
Last modified 1mo ago