Last updated: 17 July 2026

Methodology: How We Score DePIN Projects

Every project in the PassivePin directory is graded on a fixed rubric. This page documents the rubric, the data sources, and the limits of our analysis.

The 6-factor rubric

Each project is scored 1-5 on six factors. The final directory ranking is the weighted average. The factors and their weights are:

Earnings & yield — 25%. Real, recent payout data. We weight verified on-chain payouts higher than team-published forecasts. A project that paid 0.3 GRASS per day for the last 90 days outranks one promising 5 GRASS per day with no history.
Security & track record — 20%. Time on mainnet, audit history, bug-bounty program, public team (or credible anon team with shipping history), and absence of major exploits.
Longevity & runway — 15%. Treasury size relative to monthly burn, runway in months at current spend, and whether the project has weathered at least one bear market. A project that has only existed during a bull market gets a 2/5 here.
Transparency — 15%. Public dashboards showing real network stats, regular team updates, on-chain treasury visibility, and willingness to disclose bad news alongside good.
Setup friction & support — 15%. Time to first earning, documentation quality, community responsiveness in Discord/Telegram, and whether the project responds to support tickets within 48 hours.
Tokenomics reasonableness — 10%. Allocation to insiders, vesting schedules, emissions curve, and whether the project's economics depend on ever-growing new buyers.

Data sources

We draw from the following primary sources, in order of preference:

On-chain data: project dashboards, Dune queries, block explorers.
Official project communications: blog, Discord, X account.
Third-party reviews: Messari research reports, CoinGecko verified stats, Token Terminal revenue figures.
Community reports: r/depin, the project's Discord, the project's Telegram.
Our own testing: when time and capital allow, we run the project ourselves to verify the claimed setup steps and earning rate.

Referral relationships and disclosure

When a project offers a referral program, we participate. The compensation we receive (commission, points, or token rewards) does not affect the score a project receives. A project that pays no referral is not ranked lower. A project that does pay is not ranked higher. The full list of which projects pay referrals and what we receive is available on each project card; an aggregate count appears at the bottom of the homepage.

Inclusion and removal

A project is added when (a) it is past testnet and on a public mainnet, (b) it has at least 1,000 active node operators or equivalent, and (c) it has paid out at least once to external operators. A project is removed when (a) it misses two consecutive monthly payout cycles without an explanation, (b) it is the subject of a credible exploit disclosure we cannot verify, or (c) the operating team goes silent for 30+ days. Removed projects stay in the comparisons page for 90 days as a tombstone so users researching past projects can still see our last review.

Update cadence

The directory is reviewed every Monday. Earning rates are refreshed when the underlying project publishes a material change. Token price is not factored into the score; we score earning rates in project units (e.g., "GRASS per day") and let the market price the token.

Limits of this analysis

No rubric captures every dimension. We may rate a project highly on every factor and still be wrong about whether it rugs. We may rate a project poorly because of a recent exploit that turns out to have been resolved cleanly. The DePIN space moves fast, our team is small, and our review cycle is weekly rather than daily. Where a project's score is uncertain, the project card shows a "soft" score (e.g., 3.5/5) and links to the most recent weekly note explaining the uncertainty.

How to challenge a score

If you run a listed project and believe the score is materially wrong, email hello@passivepin.xyz with the rubric factor, the data point you dispute , and the evidence. We respond within five business days. If a project team shows us a previously-unseen piece of data that changes the score, we update the card and note the change at the bottom of the homepage.