Token design makes or breaks DePIN. Emissions attract hardware, but without demand-side burns or fees, supply floods and prices collapse — the classic boom-bust hardware loop. Strong projects map how tokens move at each lifecycle stage and what real usage is supposed to replace subsidies.
Helium's Data Credits model prices wireless usage in a unit pegged to work performed, decoupling some service cost from HNT volatility. Compute networks experiment with job escrow, provider bonds, and dual-token systems separating governance from payments.
Red flags include uncapped early miner rewards, no clear demand sink, and reward curves that ignore geography (paying the same in saturated and empty markets). Good design uses dynamic multipliers — higher rewards where coverage is scarce, lower where redundant.